398 W. T. Blanford — Journey through Siklcim. [No. 4, 



still the climb over the great moraine just above the fork in the 

 valley was a severe one. All this country has been so admirably de- 

 scribed by Hooker that anything I could add from my much shorter 

 visit would be mere recapitulation so far as the scenery and 

 general features are concerned. 



After passing the great moraine, the road was much better and 

 more level ; patches of the winter's snow were still lying in places 

 in the ravines to the west of the valley, although there was 

 scarcely any on the peaks that were visible. I first noticed larch 

 at about 10,000 feet. My shikari shot a woodpecker, Picus hypery- 

 thrus, which is very rare in Sikkim, although common in the north- 

 west Himalayas. "Wagtails appeared, perhaps coming from beyond 

 the passes, but more probably residents in the Himalayas ; I saw one 

 or two Motacillcd which had not quite lost their summer plumage, 

 and at Yeomatong I found a flock of short-toed larks, Galandrella 

 hrachydactyla. 



Yeomatong is a very pretty place at nearly 12000 feet elevation, 

 with some grand peaks visible when there is not too much mist, 

 but the noble mass which Hooker calls Chang-o-Khang* 1 was rarely 

 clear whilst I was there. The valley is very straight just here, 

 glaciers descend to within a very short distance, and the whole 

 combination of the deep alpine valley with the crags around, the 

 bluish glacier ice, and the dark pine woods, forms a very striking 

 scene. On the whole I should be inclined to give the preference 

 to this place for beauty, even over Lachung. There is nothing equal 

 to it in the Lachen valley. 



I put up in a good sized house built of fir planks, but it was 

 pervious to the rain from above and the cold winds from the side, 

 and therefore I had the tent pitched as a sleeping apartment on 

 the close velvety turf, which was not swampy here as on the Chola 

 range. Yeomadong is only inhabited in the spring, summer and 

 autumn ; in the winter all the people go down to Lachung, or, in 

 severe winters, even farther, taking their yaks with them. 



* This name is used by the Lachen people, and, as so frequently happens 

 in mountain regions, it is not that by which the mountain is known on the 

 opposite side in the Lachung valley. Indeed I could get no definite name for 

 the mountain on this side. 



