200 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol IX. 



is abundant. Its fragrant leaves are largely collected and burned as incense 

 in Buddhist temples. Small trees are represented by the species of Rhodo- 

 dendron formerly enumerated, by Pyrus foliolosa, Prunus rafa, and the bushy 

 variety of Juniperus recurva, -which forms excessively close thickets. Spircea 

 bella and Pyrus rhamnioides grow in open situations. Clematis montana with 

 large white flowers climbs over bushes and at once arrests attention. A suc- 

 cession of steep ascents and descents, where we first saw plants of 3Ieconopsis 

 simplicifolia in flower nestling under Berberry bushes, was followed by a 

 comparatively level path running over the rocks of a glacial deposit, at the end 

 of which lay the large and grassy fiat of Megu, the elevation of which by 

 B. P. thermometer was 12,767 feet. Its bright green surface was interspersed 

 with many plants of white primroses and yellow Calathodes, a refreshing sight 

 after travelling through such a long waste of Rhododendron. A colony of 

 marmots lived in the rocks above the camping ground. I always understood 

 that they avoid the damp climate of the Sikkim mountains and live only in 

 the dry regions beyond the snows. The tailless rat, another denizen of the 

 same dry climate, was represented by numerous individuals scampering 

 amongst the Rhododendrons. A great extent of land beyond the camping 

 ground is swampy and covered with Rhododendron campanulatum. The step- 

 ping stones across the wettest parts are formed of slabs of a slate-like gneiss 

 which are resonant when struck. Various species of Sedum of the section 

 Rhodiol and the golden Chrysospleniurn alternifolium are common in the clefts 

 of stones, partly submerged in the water. The ridge above is steep, and its 

 black barren crags of foliated gneiss present a most forbidding appearance. 



The following day we marched to G-ambothan. Since we left Phalut our 

 marches had been along the crest of the Singalelah, excepting when we rarely 

 descended to and traversed the Nepalese side : but here the path, after 

 running through the swamp at Megu, ascends steeply and passes to the Sikkim 

 side through a narrow depression guarded on each side by weather-worn cliffs. 

 Grass covers this ascent, and the bright blue flowers of Primula put-ilia, 

 P. glabra, and Delphinium alpinum give an unique character to the place by 

 their plentiful presence. In the clefts of a rock we found a small simply 

 pinnate Polypodium and a species of Pellaza. 



The tract into which we emerged wore a different aspect to that we had 

 just left. Above us towered enormous walls and pinnacles of bare rock, inter- 

 sected by equally stony valleys, all tending towards the broad and terraced 

 slope over which we marched without difficulty. Rhododendron Anthopogon 

 and R. setosum were the only woody plants. On the sides of the rocks along 

 the terraces, Saxifraga imbricata and S. Jacquemontiana grew in dense moss-like 

 cushions spangled with white and yellow flower. The soil is covered with 

 a thick turf of grass and sedges, amongst which are innumerable plants of 

 Primula Stuartii and a species of Anemone. Beyond this first terrace the 

 route led over alternate flats and ravines, and passed four lakes. At first the 

 rocks near the path are scattered singly over the ground ; further on the 



