84 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



A large number of herbs, cruciferse, compositae, ranunculaceae, 

 grasses, sedges, grow and bloom beyond the limits of the shrubs, 

 frequently forming luxuriant pastures, on which numerous herds 

 of yacks or grunting-oxen, graze during the summer. Many 

 plants are even exclusively confined to these enormous heights ; 

 such as the Ehododendron nivale, the most Alpine of woody 

 plants, which Dr. Hooker found at 17,000 feet elevation, the Del- 

 phinium glaciale, and the Arenaria rupifraga, a curious species 

 forming great hemispherical balls, and altogether resembling in 

 habit the curious balsam-bog of the Falkland Islands, which 

 thrives in similar scenes. While on the summits of the Swiss 

 Alps, lichens but sparely cover the rocks, wherever they are 

 denuded of snow, the wanderer in Sikkim enjoys the sight of 

 many a gay-coloured flower in regions 3,000 or 4,000 feet 

 higher than the summit of Mont Blanc. 



While thus in Sikkim a wonderful variety of vegetation rises 



in successive zones from the foot 

 of the mountains to heights un- 

 paralleled in any other part of the 

 world, animal life abounds only in 

 its lower classes ; for the higher 

 orders appear only in few species, 

 and in very scanty numbers. On 

 ascending from the foot of the 

 Himalaya, one is astonished at the 

 silence of the woods, broken at in- 

 tervals only by the voice of a bird, or 

 the chirping of a cicada. The solitude increases on penetrating 

 into the interior of Sikkim, and is but rarely enlivened by a 

 few monkeys in the valleys, some musk deer on the spare grass 

 of the mountains, in heights of from 8,000 to 13,000 feet, or a 

 few larks, sparrows, finches, pigeons, swallows, falcons, and other 

 birds, some of which ascend to a surprising height. 



The insects, however, and other invertebrata, make up, by 

 their numbers, for the scarcity of warm-blooded animals, and are 

 often insupportable plagues to the wanderer. Beautiful butter- 

 flies sometimes ascend to heights of 10,000 feet, along with the 

 less agreeable mosquitoes and ticks, and in all the streams up to 

 an elevation of 7,000 feet, hill leeches infest the waters in such 

 multitudes that bathing is almost impossible. 



MUSK-DEER. 



