92 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



given place to almost bare hills, with birch and Pinus 

 excelsa and juniper on the lower slopes. There were 

 meadows, and even oats in fields, and the stream was 

 winding ov^er flats with gravel beds and the usual wild 

 flowers found in Swiss valleys. The sultry heat of the 

 previous marches gave place to cold and clear air, with 

 the bracing feeling of northern climates, which strikes 

 one as homelike and delightful after the plains of India. 



Our tents were pitched near the village of Garbyang, 

 the principal one in Bians, of which the pudhan, or head- 

 man, came at once with offerings of sweets and fruits to 

 our camp. Here also we met Colonel Smyth, Inspector 

 of Schools, who had been visiting all the village schools, 

 and was much pleased with the proficiency of the scholars. 

 Colonel Smyth was an experienced traveller and explorer, 

 and had made many trips across the frontier into Tibet, 

 and been over most of the passes, and was also a great 

 shikari and mountain climber. He was joining our party 

 for the purpose of getting as far into Tibet as possible 

 at this most easterly point of the British Himalayas, 

 which hitherto had been little explored. He had tried 

 several times to get beyond Taklakhar, and had always 

 been turned back, but was of opinion that so large a 

 party as ours would find much less difficulty than a single 

 sahib. He had fitted out an expedition to go to Lhasa, 

 but after many delays in trying to procure passports 

 through the Governor-General and the Ambassador to 

 China, he had been obliged by the orders of the former 

 to abandon the proposed journey, as the Government of 

 India would not give it their sanction. He had selected, 

 however, some very intelligent young men out of the 

 Bhotia schools, who were being trained at the Roorkee 

 engineering college under Colonel Montgomerie, chief of 

 the Survey of India, to make surveys with the best instru- 



