420 W. T. Blanford — Journey through Si/dim. [No. 4, 



The heat in the valleys was no longer great, except in the middle 

 of the day. 



15th to 20th. On the 15th, we parted from Kechu Lama who 

 returned to Chumbi from Tamlung. By him we sent a letter 

 to the Raja thanking him for the assistance his people had afford- 

 ed us. I have omitted to mention that when we were in the 

 Lachiing valley, we on several occasions received presents of goats, 

 sheep or flour from Chumbi, and once a yak was brought to us 

 from the Raja. 



We made a longish march from Tamlung to Selingtam, crossing 

 the Ryot valley, and ascending the opposite side. Here we came 

 on traces of the military road made to Tamlung in 1863, and the 

 less steep portions of which are still in good order. On the 1 6th 

 we crossed the Tista by a very long cane bridge in a poor state 

 of repair, and, after ascending the slope a little way, camped at 

 Lingmo. On the 17th we marched down the Tista valley to 

 Tarco on the northern flank of Mount Tendong, a village standing 

 amongst orange groves, now loaded with fruit, and on the follow- 

 ing day we crossed Tendong by a road which goes over the top of 

 the mountain and descended to Namchi, opposite Darjiling, 



The change in the fauna in coming southwards is very marked, 

 the number of forms increases, and there is a far greater prevalence 

 of Malay types on the outer hills as compared with the upper Tista 

 valley. The weather was now generally bright and clear, and the 

 roads in good order. Finally, on the 19th, we walked down to the 

 Rungit, and, mounted on horses a friend had sent down for us, 

 rode back into Darjiling and the nineteenth century. 



Although we had been disappointed in our attempts to enter 

 Tibet, we had been able to add something to the known geogra- 

 phy of Eastern Sikkim. We had explored one pass, and ascer- 

 tained the position of a second, never previously visited by Euro- 

 peans nor laid down in any map. We had met with 3 lakes of 

 considerable size, all equally unmapped, and apparently larger than ' 

 any previously known to exist in Sikkim, and we had obtained a 

 considerable number of birds not before recorded from this part 

 of the Himalayas. 



