390 W. T. Blanford— Journey through Sikhim. [No. 4, 



successful. Bather to my surprise, both dishes were excellent, as 

 well flavoured as if prepared by a good European cook, with none 

 of the excess .in grease and spice which renders most Indian 

 cookery so unpalatable to the European taste. After the meal 

 a large present of blankets, carpets, silk, vegetables, dried meat, 

 eggs, butter, honey, arrack and 6 sheep was brought for us. We 

 had already apologized for having no present with us for the Raja, 

 for, not having any expectation of meeting him, we had left a vase 

 and some glass ornaments intended for him at Darjiling, to be 

 forwarded to Tamlung, so as to meet us there on our return 

 journey. 



Later in the day the Raja's brother came to see us at our tents. 

 We shewed him guns, books, &c, and, like all the people in Sik- 

 kim, he especially admired the plates in " Hooker's Himalayan 

 Journals," probably because he could understand them. Finally 

 he took his leave, having deputed a fat round-faced little Lama 

 named Keclui to accompany us to the Lachdng and Lachen vallies. 



29th. We started down the valley on the following morning. 

 For 5 or 6 miles the path leads through one of the loveliest 

 valleys I have ever seen, the abundance of rhododendrons recalling 

 an English shrubbery. It was here that Hooker collected in two 

 days seeds of 24 different species. A pika {Lagomys Roylei), 

 abounded in the underwood, and birds became very numerous as 

 we descended. I shot Collocalia fuciphaga, Ianthia rufilata, Cheli- 

 dorhynx hypoxantha, Siphia strophiata, Zophophanes Beavani and Z. 

 dichrous. The day before, Elwes had secured the Cashmere dipper 

 Cinclus Gashmiriensis at Chumanako, and the two water redstarts, 

 Chimarrhornis leucocephala and Ruticilla fidiginosa, were common 

 on the banks of the stream. 



We breakfasted at Barfonchen and then walked on to Lagyep. 

 The path soon leaves the valley, and, after a long ascent of 1500 

 feet, we climbed down a steep spur to our halting-place, a small 

 open space in an excessively swampy condition. It had poured 

 all the afternoon and continued to do so all night, 



30th. It was raining in the morning and only ceased to do so 

 about 9 o'clock, by which time we had descended rapidly by a 

 steep road from the rhododendrons to the oaks and chesnuts, and 



