TO TONGLO 257 



and to-day have added two boys of 8 and 14 or thereabouts ; 

 one a very fine little fellow. Falconer has sent me up every- 

 thing I asked for, including 3 Bengal collectors, regular Hay- 

 makers. I dislike the Bengalees very much ; and these are 

 lazy dogs, as all are. I shall astonish them to-morrow, when 

 they will have to travel some 15 miles through these woods. 

 One actually objected to carry the vasculum 6 miles, whilst a 

 Lepcha carries 80-100 Ibs. 16 miles on a stretch, and laughs 

 all day long. 



In the same month, May 19, he went further afield with his 

 friend Mr. Barnes on what he considered the most interesting 

 trip to be made from Darjiling. This was to Tonglo, a mountain 

 10,000 feet high, in the long subsidiary range dividing Sikkim 

 from Nepaul, that runs south from Kinchin junga, the then 

 loftiest known peak in the world. Tonglo fronts Darjiling 

 on the west, a dozen miles away as the crow flies, thirty by 

 the path. The district was full of botanical treasures, the 

 extra 1000 feet ascended presenting a total change in the Mora, 

 but in the valley of the Little Kungeet the glories of the scarlet 

 vaccinium parasitic on the trees, of the great white rhododendron 

 named later after Lady Dalhousie, and of the tall magnolia 

 with shining foliage that was to bear Hodgson's name, were 

 sadly .dimmed by the swarms of the large tick from the bamboos 

 ' a more hateful insect I have never encountered ' and 

 the persistent leeches such as had already been met with 

 on the way up. 



Unfortunately the bulkier things collected had to be left 

 behind. Owing to the ceaseless torrents of rain, five of his 

 fifteen men fell sick. Even the hardy Lepchas could not stand 

 wet and cold together, especially on their poor fare of fern- 

 tops, maize, rice, and whatever else they could get, from leaves 

 of Solanum and nettles to fungi, * which would give Klotzsch 

 or Berkeley * the stomach-ache ' : in fact ' a vegetable must 

 be very bad to be acknowledged poisonous by .these people, 

 who may come under Sambo's definition of the genus Homo, 

 " an omnivorous tripod who [devours] all he can get." * 



Still, what remained was ' a glorious collection,' making 



1 These were both distinguished mycologists. 



