1871.] W. T. Blanford— Journey through Silchim. 415 



and that the powers of the imagination are still vivid at elevations 

 of 14000 to 18000 feet above the sea. 



Whilst we were conversing a post arrived with some orders 

 for the Suba. He said they related to an officer who had come 

 from Pekin to visit the frontiers. This led to a conversation about 

 communication with China and we learned that it takes a year to 

 reach Pekin from Jigatzi. We suggested that a very much shorter 

 time would suffice for communication through India. It appears 

 that the direct road to China is not used in consequence of orders 

 from the Chinese government, which is, I imagine, a Chinese mode 

 of expressing the fact that the road is in the hands of insurgents, 

 and that the only available route is one to the northward, perhaps 

 that by which M. M. Hue and Gabet penetrated to Lhassa. Our 

 statement that British and French troops had once held Pekin was 

 treated as a joke, and the Suba suggested that perhaps our Govern- 

 ment had proclaimed the event, but that nothing of the kind had 

 ever taken place. 



About the trade on the frontier we could learn but little : a small 

 quantity of hardware, and small objects, such as spectacles, small 

 looking glasses and similar articles are brought into the country by 

 pedlars. The import of tea is prohibited ; this, which we had 

 learned on the Chola range, was confirmed at the northern passes. 

 It is greatly to be regretted, because a tea-drinking nation like 

 the Tibetans might be much better and more cheaply supplied 

 from Sikkim than from China. 



Of the wild animals, both Ovis amnion and Oris nahura are 

 pretty common in the country north of Sikkim. The Goa Ante- 

 lope, Gazella picticauda, is less so. The Suba expressed his surprise 

 at Hooker having seen Chiru (Jiemas Hodgsoni) at Cholamu lake, 

 and said he had never heard of any in that neighbourhood. The 

 wild yak is not found in this part of Tibet. The Siiba had an 

 overcoat lined with the fur of an ounce (Felis uncia, the snow leo- 

 pard of the Western Himalayas), but he said the animal was not 

 common. 



October 5th. The night was bitterly cold, and in the morning the 

 ground was covered with hoar frost, and all the little marshes fro- 

 zen, whilst a keen north wind was blowing. We visited the chait 



