2i8 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



Ami it came at length to one so deserving ; but the manager 

 had wandered to a much greater distance than he thought. 

 After wading all the forenoon up a torrent which had not 

 yet lost its highland chill, Forstermann reached a glade, 

 encircled by rocks steep as a wall — so steep that he had to 

 fashion rakes of bamboo wherewith to drag down the masses 

 of orchid which clung to them. It was Cypripedium 

 Spicerianum ! 



Then arose the difficulty of getting his plunder away. 

 After much journeying to and fro, Forstermann engaged 

 thirty-two Bhutias, half of them to carry rice for the others 

 along those mountain tracks, where 25 lbs. is a heavy load. 

 So they travelled until, one day, after halting at a village, 

 the men refused to advance. The road ahead was occupied 

 by a tiger — I should mention that such alarms had been 

 incessant ; in no country are tigers so common or so danger- 

 ous as in Bhutan. Forstermann drove them along ; at the 

 next bit of jungle eight threw down their loads and vanished. 

 He found himself obliged to return, but eight more were 

 missing when he reached the village. There was no other 

 road. Gradually the poor fellow perceived that he must 

 abandon his enterprise or clear the path. At sunset, they 

 told him, the brute would be watching — probably in a tree, 

 described with precision. Forstermann spent the time in 

 writing farewell letters — making his will, perhaps. Towards 

 sunset, he took a rifle and a gun and sallied forth. 



The Bhutias assured him that there was no danger — from 

 this enemy, at least — until he reached the neighbourhood of 

 the tree ; but we may imagine the terrors of that lonely 

 walk, which must be repeated in darkness, if he lived, or if 

 the tiger did not show. But luck did not desert a man so 

 worthy of favour. He recognised the tree, an old dead 

 stump overhanging the path, clothed in ferns and creepers. 

 Surveying it as steadily as the tumult of his spirits would 



