276 TO DAEJILING : FIEST HIMALAYAN JOUENEY 



for in the higher valleys the snow began to fall in October, 

 and by the beginning of December, when Hooker approached 

 the Wallanchoon pass, the snow lay deep on the last four miles 

 of the track above the 15,000 foot level. Nevertheless he 

 succeeded in reaching the divide, and from the col, more than 

 1000 feet higher than Mont Blanc, looked down into the for- 

 bidden land of Tibet. The still loftier sister pass of Kang- 

 lachem to the east, however, was more heavily snowed up, and 

 there the party did not ascend beyond 16,000 feet. 



The next part of his plan was to return almost to the 

 fork of the Tambur, and strike east, still through Nepal, towards 

 the Kinchin group and eventually Sikkim. This involved 

 crossing the huge ridges and profound valleys that successively 

 stretch south-west and south from the Himalayan crest. But 

 the pass over the third of these ridges, the Kanglanamo, was 

 closed, and the inhabitants of the village at its foot had with- 

 drawn lower down the valley. Thus he had to turn south 

 forty or fifty miles till the alpine regions were left, and a snow- 

 less pass eastward into Sikkim presented itself, whence he 

 could turn north again to the extreme flank of Kinchinjunga. 



At this middle point of the journey, before turning north 

 again, his solitude was most agreeably interrupted. Dr. 

 Campbell, putting the final touch to his long-drawn diplomatic 

 negotiations, was on his way to a personal interview with the 

 Sikkim Eajah. x\fter the complicated falsehoods that had 

 been concocted to impede Dr. Campbell's progress, the friends 

 were greatly tickled by the droll conduct of the Eajah and 

 his court, who had found themselves compelled, after all, 

 to go forth to meet him on the river, as the sole means of 

 preventing his finally reaching the capital of Sikkim. On 

 December 23 Hooker joined him at Bhomsong, on the banks 

 of the Teesta, and shared in the formal interviews both mth 

 the crafty Dewan and finally, despite the Dewan's many sub- 

 terfuges to delay or prevent this, with the Eajah himself, a 

 faineant devotee, half obHvious of mundane matters. Arrange- 

 ments were made for Hooker's trip through Sikkim the following 

 summer. The Dewan, indeed, as will appear later, organised 

 secret obstruction to this ; but the chief immediate result of 



