300 THE SECOND HIMALAYAN JOUENEY 



peaks of Chomiomo and Kinchinjhow, so named from its 

 ' beard ' of icicles, and between them the funnel-mouthed head 

 of the valley up which they had come. 



Here [he exclaims], after three months of obstacles, I 

 was at last at the back of the whole Himalaya range at its 

 most northern trend in the central Himalaya, for this is far 

 North of Kinchin-junga and Chumalari or the Nepal Passes 

 I visited last winter, and opens on to the Thibetan Plateau 

 without crossing a snowy ridge to be followed by other 

 and other snowed spurs, as Kanglachem and Wallanchoon 

 do. Here too I solved another great problem. There was 

 not a particle of snow anywhere en route, right or left, or 

 on the great mountains for 1500 feet above my position. 

 The snow line in Sikkim lies on the Indian face of the 

 Himalaya range at below 15,000 feet, on the Thibetan at 

 above 16,000. I felt very pleased and made a rude panorama 

 sketch on four folio sheets, very rude you may suppose, for 

 the keen wind blew a gale and we were quite wet ; above 

 15,000 feet too, I am a ' gone coon,' my head rings with 

 acute headache and feels as if bound in a vice, my temples 

 throb at every step and I retch with sea-sickness. 



An hour and a half was spent on the Tibetan side, making 

 observations. The letter tells how, in spite of the fire they 

 made, * my shivering Lepchas were numb and I gave them 

 my cloak, going always w^ell clad myself.' 



Much as Hooker w^ould have liked to stay for some time 

 in the high alpine region of Tungu, the question of supphes 

 forbade. The post took twenty days from Darjihng. Still, 

 he stayed the rest of the week, exploring the high yak pastures 

 and the glaciers, before setting out on the week's march back 

 to Choongtam and plenty, 7000 feet lower, a weary march 

 over roads in a terrible state with floods, landslips, jungle, 

 and impassable places, and warmth attended with tropical 

 discomforts. 



I think leeches are the worst ; my legs are, I assure you, 

 daily clotted with blood, and I pull my stockings off quite 

 full of leeches ; they get into the hair and all over the body. 

 I cannot walk ten yards without having dozens on my legs ; 



