210/0 URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



I could not ascertain how many yak-loads of merchandise are carried annually 

 over the Donkia Pass, but every day during my stay in this part I saw herds 

 of at least 10 or 12 yaks, and often many more either going or returning. 

 Looking northwards from Yeumtong, the slope of the valley to an elevation 

 of 13,000 feet is easy and is black with pine forests. Above, the land is red 

 and sterile. On the west a tributary stream flows from behind Changokhang 

 along the base of a long declivity of sand. The view higher up is cut off 

 by jutting spurs below Momay Samdong. 



The following morning we marched to Momay Samdong, elevation 15,300 

 feet. The first and the last two miles of the path are easy, but the intervening 

 portion is steep. A forest of Silver Fir, Maple, Birch, Pyrus, Ehododendron 

 and other trees extends to 13,000 feet ; for a few hundred feet further some 

 scattered black Juniper trees occur ; an equal distance is occupied by 

 Rhododendrons and Willows, and passing the spurs which terminated the view 

 from Yeumtong, the valley is broad with enormous rocks on its surface, and the 

 surrounding hills are rocky. I have nothing to add to the excellent descrip- 

 tion of this spot . by Sir J. D. Hooker, but a place with more inhospitable 

 surroundings can scarcely be imagined. A few yaks were grazing, the sole 

 survivors of large herds almost annihilated by an epidemic of rinderpest 

 which raged during the previous year. 



This great calamity had impoverished the inhabitants of the valley, as for 

 the greater part of the year they depend for sustenance on the curds and 

 cheese made from the milk yielded by their flocks. 



As the morning of 10th August was bright and sunny, holding out hopes of a 

 fine day, a promise unfortunately not fulfilled, I set out for the Donkia Pass, 

 seven miles from Momay, and the most northerly point I could reach in Sikkim. 

 The tracks lead through a waste of stupendous rocks, and the stream becomes 

 divided into many channels. The hills rising around it are masses of 

 rock and rubble, forming a most forbidding landscape in the aggregate. 

 The shallow waters support an abundance of reddish Sedum and Rheum 

 nobile. Myriads of the blue Gentians unfolded in the brief glimpse of sunshine 

 we enjoyed, and Allardia glabra grew in low, dense tufts, bearing large sessile 

 flowers with yellow disks and purple rays. The musk-scented DelpMnum 

 glaciale ascends to 17,500 feet accompanied by Aconitum Napellus reduced in 

 size to a small plant with two or three leaves bearing but one short pedi- 

 celled flower. Other plants were Ranunculus Icztus, Cyananthus, of two species, 

 the Edelweiss {Leontopidium alpinum), Erigeron, Cremanthodium reniforme, 

 Lactuca Dubycea, Crepis glomerata, Saussurea, and the curious lichen-like 

 Antennaria muscoides. Rhododendron nivale and Ephedra vulgaris were the 

 only woody plants. The feature of the vegetation from 17,000 feet upwards 

 is the prevalence of plants growing in dense, hard hemispheric tufts such as 

 Arenaria, Saxifraga, Saussurea, Astragalus, and Myosotis HooJceri. The last 

 steep ascent to the pass, 18,100 feet elevation, is devoid of vegetation. The 

 view across Oholamoo to the Kambajong Mountains was clear, and we were able 



