1871.] W. T. Blanford— Journey through Sikkirh. 419 



torrents to which it gives rise. Such a great glacier, after turn- 

 ing round the steep lofty flank of Kinchinjhao, must have been 

 far higher than the low hills which separate Phalung from the 

 present Lachen valley and a branch of the glacier descending 

 into the Chachu valley may easily have filled it with a mass of 

 debris which the little Chachu glacier was unable to sweep away.* 



I had hoped to find some of the Himalayan snow cocks Tetraogal- 

 lus Tibetanus, which Captain Chamer shot at Phalung, but there 

 were none at this season. The natives, who know them well, say 

 that the birds keep at a higher elevation in the summer and 

 autumn. I found short-toed larks abundant, and I came across 

 one flock of the small Mont 'if ring ilia killed at Kongra Lama, and 

 Accentor rubeculoides. At the Chachu, to my surprise, not a duck 

 nor wader was to be seen ; although the valley looked peculiarly 

 fitted for them, being a series of small marshes with deepish 

 serpentine streams running through it. 



The view of Kinchinjhao was partly concealed by mist till just 

 as I was leaving, when a snow storm came on, preceded by a little 

 lightning : as the storm cleared away, all the peaks came out grand- 

 ly. The panorama around Phalung well deserves Hooker's 

 praise. In the afternoon I rode down to Tallain Samdong. 



October 8th to 14th. We started the next morning from Tallam 

 Samdong. The morning was superb, the hog-backed white sum- 

 mit of Chomiomo, closing the view up the Lachen valley, was as 

 distinct as if only a mile distant. Our return march demands but 

 brief description. We reached Lamteng on the 8th, a spot in the 

 bed of the river below Latong, on the 9th, and the monastery at 

 Chungtam, on the 10th. Thence 4 days' march brought us back to 

 Tamlung. The weather had become fine, with the exception of a 

 few occasional showers, and the leeches were fewer in number 

 than when we inarched up the Tista valley. In fact we had 

 arrived at the best season for entering Sikkim instead of leaving it. 



* Mr. Jamieson has suggested, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1863, Vol. XIX, 

 p. 258, the formation of somewhat similar deposits in lakes dammed up by 

 glaciers. Dr. Hooker, at an earlier period, Him. Journ. Vol. II., p. 119, refer- 

 red the terraces at Momay to the same cause. Both the accumulations at 

 Phalung, however, and those at Momay appeared to me too irregular to 

 have been deposited in water. At Phalung there is certainly no trace of 

 terrace formation. 



