380 W. T. Bianford — Journey through Si/dim. [No. 4, 



We entered an open grassy valley with rounded down-like hills 

 on each side, and no high mountains in sight. Patches of fir and 

 rhododendron forest were scattered about, and down the centre, 

 marshy in places, a stream ran over pebbles and rounded blocks 

 of rock. The scenery was more like the mountainous parts of 

 Europe than anything familiar to dwellers in India. It looked a 

 paradise for a sportsman, but unfortunately there were no deer in 

 the forest, nor trout in the river. At a halting-place called Grna- 

 tong, where was the usual wooden shed, we pitched our tent, 

 after clearing away a space amongst the flags and shrubs which 

 covered the marshy ground, but it was so swampy that we were 

 compelled to make a maclian to sleep upon. 



The Kaji told us that the pass was one march ahead from this, 

 and that from the foot of it a path led along the Sikkim side of the 

 range to Chumanako close to the Chola pass, also that he had just 

 received orders from Chumbi to accompany us along the range, on 

 the Sikkim side however. 



23rd. We resolved to go ourselves to the Jelep pass, as if to 

 visit it, and to see if there was a guard or not, taking our camp 

 only to the foot, or Lagyep. We accordingly started early and 

 walked up a long gentle ascent and over some grassy hills, and 

 then descended through rhododendron scrub to the banks of a 

 pretty little lake, 1 J to 2 miles long, called Bidan-Tso. This lay 

 in a valley between the hills we had just crossed and the steep, high 

 and craggy dividing ridge between Sikkim and Cluimbi in Tibet. 

 A line of watershed crossed the valley just where our road traversed 

 it, the lake discharging its waters to the south-east, whilst a 

 stream, coming down from the frontier range just above the head 

 of the lake, runs to the north-west down the valley. Our road 

 led to the north-east up the valley of this stream. Hitherto we 

 had not ascended much since starting in the morning ; at any rate 

 the descents had very nearly equalled the ascents, but from this 

 spot we began gradually to rise. The lateral valley we had entered 

 was much more craggy than those left behind, its southern or 



have myself seen them decidedly higher than in the rains. During the mon- 

 soon I think they keep below 5000, and that Arhoricola rufigularis does the 

 game, whilst Ceriomis rarely descends below 9000. 



