WA SHAN AND ITS FLORA 249 



flowers defies description. They were there in thousands 

 and hundreds of thousands. Bushes of all sizes, many fully 

 30 feet tall and more in diameter, all clad with a wealth of 

 blossoms that almost hid the foliage. Some flowers were 

 crimson, some bright red, some flesh-coloured, some silvery- 

 pink, some yellow, and others pure white. The huge rugged 

 stems, gnarled and twisted into every conceivable shape, are 

 draped with pendant Mosses and Lichens, prominent among 

 the latter being Usnea longissima. How the Rhododendrons 

 find roothold on these wild crags and cliffs is a marvel. Many 

 grow on the fallen trunks of the Silver Fir and some are 

 epiphytic. Beneath them Sphagnum moss luxuriates and 

 makes a pretty but treacherous carpet. On bare exposed 

 cliffs I gathered two diminutive species of Rhododendron, 

 each only a few inches tall, one with deep purple and the 

 other with pale yellow flowers. 



Dense mists obscured our view, though about ten o'clock 

 the sun broke through and made a temporary rift in the clouds 

 of mist, disclosing a scene which made us hunger for more. 

 In one place we leant over a precipice and could hear the roar 

 of a torrent some 2000 or 3000 feet below. Near the summit 

 three precipices, each 40 or 50 feet in height, have to be 

 ascended by means of wooden ladders. Up these I carried 

 my dog, never thinking of the descent. On returning he got 

 frightened, and though we blindfolded him, he struggled 

 hard, and on one occasion his struggles all but upset my 

 balance. I was heartily thankful when safe ground was 

 reached. It requires all one's nerve to mount a ladder with 

 no balustrade, fixed to a vertical cliff 40 feet high, and on either 

 side a yawning abyss lost in the clouds. It is at 10,700 feet — 

 a narrow ridge not 8 feet broad — that the first ladder is en- 

 countered. From here to within a few feet of the summit 

 the path is terribly steep, difficult, and dangerous. On clearing 

 the topmost ladder and the remains of another, we unexpectedly 

 reached the summit by the easiest path imaginable — for all 

 the world like a woodland path at home. 



The summit is a slightly undulating plateau, many acres 

 in extent, with thickets of tall Rliododendrons festooned with 

 Clematis montana, var. Wilsonii, and clumps of Silver Fir, 



