M S. E. Vea\—Notrs of a trip up the BiUncf. [No. 1, 



it soon caught and roared and crackled till it gradually burnt out, leaving 

 the view along the upper Dihing towards Khomong pretty clear, and I 

 could get the telescope to work. The crests of the Phungan bearing 120" 

 whereon snow lay in several large patches, and many small ones, appeared 

 to have the hard rocky outline seen on " Wathong," indicating frost and 

 an utter absence of vegetation. We were here much nearer this latter, and 

 the peaks to the east at sixteen miles were well seen even with the binocu- 

 lars. The deep purple-grey of the bare rock contrasting beautifully in the 

 evening sunlight, with the light and shadows, on the snow. We were at 

 probably 1,500 feet elevation, and the air remarkably clear and steady, so 

 that the distance seemed really less than half what it was. The ridges 

 bearing 120° were on the contrary, only about twenty-eight miles (if 

 *' Phungan Bum"), yet appeared fully twice that distance. Several times 

 I was tempted to look on them as much nearer the Mli kha than Wilcox 

 put them. 



After all had eaten, I put on a power of 200 and shewed them all the 

 new moon. The old Kamti, who usually carried the telescope and legs, 

 was particularly taken and sat out in the cold for a good half hour, after 

 the others had had enough. 



I may mention that the carriage of a fairly large telescope would be 

 no easy matter if taken as it usually stands, with long brass tube and 

 heavy tripod legs five feet long or so. To enable me to have the advantage 

 without the difficulties of carriage, I made a light sassie wood square tube 

 weighing 3Ibs. and 4'6" long in which the cell of the 0. G. 3"'5 fitted, the 

 other end so made as to have the eye-piece tube and rack motion, easily 

 attached, the tripod of a strong magnetic compass, served to mount it, and 

 the whole when complete, only weighed about 8fcs. Having the ability to 

 put on a high power at times, as when camped at Dapha Pani, it enabled 

 me, often when lying at my ease in the tent, to take long excursions all 

 over the Dapha Bum, and very fairly among the snows, " without turning 

 a hair," so to speak. It was particularly interesting at times when the 

 sun was behind, to take up the lower part of some of the great seams or 

 gullies on the face of such a hill as " Bum rong" in front of the Dapha, 

 and to trace it up higher and higher. Lower down, as a deep shady chasm 

 filled with tree ferns, plantains and fallen rocks, water dashing over and 

 among them, the sunlight almost shut out in parts, where a straight piece 

 gave quite a vista in. Again, great bare slippery rocks on all sides with 

 the stream as a snow white streak, obliquely coming down the face of one 

 at back (evidently a waterfall in the rains). Higher up, a long chasm, filled 

 with shingle and tree stems, and still higher, where great shoots of stone 

 have piled in the bed, and shew the clear surface of the bedded rocks. 

 Above again numbers of feeders fall in on all sides, and not a trace of vege- 



