256 TO DARJILING : FIRST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 



' a very favourite and interesting trip ' by way of the cane 

 bridge over the Great Rungeet, eleven miles away, into a 

 deep, steamy valley admirably illustrating the successive 

 zones of vegetation from temperate to tropical, that clothed 

 the steep hillsides. The bridge itself was the British boundary ; 

 beyond lay Sikkim proper, where the Rajah somewhat ineffec- 

 tively threatened punishment to any who guided a European, 

 and where later Hooker's collectors going alone were maltreated 

 by the Dewan's orders. But the inhabitants and even the 

 Lamas, whose hostility had been represented as certain, were 

 in reality most friendly. Indeed, on his second trip seven 

 months later, the people brought supplies in embarrassing 

 superabundance. 



In this direction Hooker went as far as the junction of the 

 Rungeet with the Teesta, and saw the mountains of Bhotan 

 towering up over against him. 



The journey was, though not distant, a very difficult one, 

 from the impracticable nature of the country, and had been 

 accomplished by but one individual before ; which is, how- 

 ever, mainly owing to the laziness and want of curiosity of 

 the people, and the fact of the Rajah of Sikkim forbidding all 

 crossing the narrow bounds of Darjiling. [Among his spoils 

 were] three Bhododendrons, one scarlet, one white with superb 

 foliage, and one, the most lovely thing you can imagine ; a 

 parasite on gigantic trees, three yards high, with whorls of 

 branches, and 3-6 immense white, deliciously sweet-scented 

 flowers, at the apex of each branch. It is the most splendid 

 thing of the kind I have ever seen, and more delicate than 

 the others. 



... I draw as many things as I possibly can, and send 

 them to Falconer for transmission to you : the three first 

 Magnolias, he tells me, are all new : two others I have not 

 sent down : the 3 Rhododendrons are all drawn, and about 

 40 other plants, somewhat rudely ; but they may give you 

 some idea of the plants. 



As to his various collectors : 



The Lepchas or mountaineers of Sikkim I like extremely. 

 I have two men who collect fairly and climb trees a merveille, 



