214 DR, HOOKER’S MISSION TO INDIA. 
about twenty minutes to construct a table and two bedsteads under the 
tent: each was made of four forked sticks, stuck in the ground, sup- 
porting as many side-pieces, across which flat split pieces of bamboo 
were laid, and all bound tight together, by strips of Calamus stem. 
The beds were afterwards softened by many layers of bamboo leaf; 
and if not very downy, they were dry, and as firm as if put together 
with serews and joints. 
This spur rises out of the bottom of a deep valley, quite surrounded 
. by lofty mountains: it is narrow and steep on both sides, formed of 
very hard slate-rocks, with abundance of quartz. North, it looks down 
into a gulley, at the bottom of which the Ruugeet's foamy stream 
winds amongst a deep forest. In the opposite direction, the Rungmo 
comes tearing down from the top of Sinchul, 7,000 feet above; and though 
its roar is heard aloud, and its course is visible throughout its length, 
the stream itself is nowhere seen, so deep does it cut its channel. 
Except on this, and a few similarly hard rocky hills around, the vege- 
tation is a mass of jungle and wood. At this spot it is rather scanty 
and dry, with abundance of the Pinus longifolia and Sal, Phyllanthus 
Emblica, Grislea, Lagerstromia, and such plants as I had met with 
on the dry hills of the Soane. A small Phenix, too, was very abund- 
. ant: the stem is spherical, and about as large as a good turnep: with 
the leaves the natives disguise themselves when hunting, but do not 
= or otherwise use it. 
. Following a narrow path up the river for a mile or two, we found 
the hill-side extremely steep, hard, and dry, with more Bamboo than was 
: good for botany: its being in process of burning rendered walking very 
disagreeable. The descent to the river was exceedingly steep, the banks 
. presenting an impenetrable jungle of Lygodium (my old enemy in New 
.. Zealand travelling), prickly Panaz, Vitis, Cissus and Leea,numerous Ferns, 
T. i &e. The Pines on the arid crests of the hills around, formed a remarkable 
. feature: they grow like the Scotch Fir, the tall red trunks and a bushy 
top springing out of the steepest and driest slopes of broken quartz 
. rock. But little resin exudes from the trunk, which, like that of most 
Pines, is singularly free from Lichens and Mosses. The wood of the 
young branches is so imbued with turpentine, that, when peeled, it looks 
.. semitransparent, exactly like greased bone, and the slender boughs 
make beautiful torches ; but the Lepchas derive no further service from 
_ the tree. Being confined to dry soil, this Pine is rather local, and the 
