Letters, Notes, Extracts, fyc. 215 



Sirs, — Col. Godwin-Austen's notice of my old friend, 

 William Blanford, in the last number of 'The Ibis' leaves 

 little to be desired, but I think that a few lines on our 

 journey together in Sikkim may be of interest, as it has 

 considerable bearing on our present knowledge of the 

 district *. 



Probably no one, alive or dead, has ever had such a wide 

 personal knowledge of the physical, geological, and zoological 

 features of British India as Blanford, and no man has written 

 on these subjects with a clearer and sounder perception of 

 the geographical distribution of the birds, mammals, reptiles, 

 and land-shells. Though apparently not a man of robust 

 constitution, he had passed twenty-five years of his life in 

 the most unhealthy parts of India, and, as I can personally 

 testify, was a very hard man to tire. I first met him in 

 Sikkim in 1870, when he joined me in an expedition which 

 1 had planned to the Tibetan frontier. This district had 

 not been visited since Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr. Campbell 

 had been made prisoners by the Sikkim Rajah twenty-two 

 \ears before. The whole of this journey was done on foot, 

 and we calculated that during the course of ten weeks we 

 had ascended about 115,000 feet at elevations of from 1000 

 to 19,000 feet. But though we discovered the Jelap La 

 Pass, which, until the late military expedition to Lhasa, was 

 the chief trade-route between Sikkim and Tibet, we failed, 

 owing to native opposition, to get beyond the sources of the 

 Tista River, or to reach the home of the great Tibetan 

 stag. I consider that it was largely owing to B Ian ford's 

 knowledge of the native character and language, and his tact 

 in dealing with the Tibetans, that we were able to do what 

 we did without serious results ; for more than once our 

 anxiety to cross the frontier led to friction with the guards 

 that might easily have ended in violence if they had not 

 been impressed by the great firmness of his character. For 

 though Blanford was no blusterer, he had a great deal of 



* [This letter was originally received in the form of an obituarial 

 notice, but, as that of Col. Godwin-Austen had been previously accepted, 

 JNJ r. Elwes has kindly made the necessary alterations. — Ei>d.] 



