DARJEELING TO TONGLO. 17 
Excursion from Darjeeling to Tonglo, a Mountain on the Frontier of 
Nepal. May 1848. 
On this trip I had the pleasure of my friend Mr. Charles Barnes’ 
company, who, by kindly taking charge of our camp and little com- 
missariat, left me wholly unimpeded and free to collect and observe. We 
had a kind loan of Major Crommelin’s small tent; and our party consisted 
of about twenty men, laden with provisions, instruments, papers for my 
plants, blankets, and cooking utensils. These people were principally 
Lepchas: each carried about 100 to 150 lbs. weight, in large conical 
baskets, shaped like gigantic strawberry pottles, only truncated at the 
base. A slip of bamboo passing across the forehead, aided by two 
shoulder-straps, supports the weight ; in the hand they have always a 
bamboo staff, with which, when resting, to prop the basket, and relieve 
the neck and forehead from the great strain.* It is almost incredible 
how far and how steadily these men will thus transport enormous loads. 
Our tent, when wet, weighed nearly 200 lbs. ; and yet one man carried 
it down a steep descent of 5,000 feet, across two spurs of upwards of 
1,000 each, forded five rocky streams, and ascended 2,000 feet to our 
camping-ground, all within twelve hours! Such articles as will not go 
in the baskets are lashed up with bamboo or cane slips, in a piece of 
double bamboo wicker-work, enclosing many layers of leaves (generally 
of Scitaminee), which is waterproof: similar plaited work forms a shed 
for the head and the baskets, so that these people carry, snail-like, a rude 
house on their backs. The Lepcha umbrella is a hood of this kind, 
open in front, fitting over the head, and reaching to the hips. To 
see a party of natives coursing along in the rain under these apparently 
awkward, but, save for their weight, most convenient sheds, is suffi- —— 
ciently comical. All the limbs are free. 
Tonglo is a mountain about 10,000 feet high, due west from Dar- 
jeeling, and it rises from a ridge dividing Nepal from Sikkim. A broad — — 
valley, cut up by numerous spurs from the mountains N. and E., and 
* I have remarked gottre to be peculiarly common amongst the people who carry — — 
the baskets by the head-strap ; and in certain Bhothea villages, where the girls support —— 
the rice-baskets by the head-strap alone, the disease is universal. Amongst those 
Bhotheas, too, who convey salt from the Thibetan Passes to the Nepalese villages, 
it is most prevalent. I cannot but think that congestion of the in the neck 
may be a very predisposing cause of goitre, frequently as it is seen amongst mountain- - 
tribes, where carrying on the head prevails. I am, however, aware that this practice - 
will not aecount for the affection in many districts. SOME. 
YOL. II. D 
