1862.] Journal of a trip in tlie Sikkim Himalaya. 467 



Jongli is the name given to an extensive tract of yak pasture land, 

 situated at the foot of Gubroo, on the southernmost spur of that 

 mountain, including all the land to the south of Gubroo, contained 

 between the Eatong and Chuckchurong rivers, of which Mon Lepcha 

 is an integral part. The elevation of the pasture land averages 

 from 12,000 to 16,000 feet, the latter being the greatest height 

 at which yaks are grazed during the summer months. The spur is 

 broad and undulating like a swelling table-land devoid of forest. It 

 is richly covered with good grass, intermixed with a low and scrubby 

 rhododendron and the dwarf and an aromatic kind. It is the graz- 

 ing ground of about eighty yaks belonging to parties in Nepal and 

 Sikkim, and is capable of affording pasturage to many hundreds 

 more. The yak herdsmen have erected three substantial huts of 

 stone with shingle roofs. They reside at Jongli during the summer 

 and rains, but when the cold sets in in November, they descend to 

 winter quarters in lower and warmer elevations. The entire pasture 

 ground is well watered by numerous perennial streams, most of which 

 were frozen up at night during our stay at Jongli. It is situated 

 above the region of tree rhododendrons and firs. During our as- 

 cent we passed through all the flora met with at Sinchul and Tonglo. 

 At 12,000 feet we lost the ferns. Having passed through firs, birch, 

 rhododendrons, junipers and a kind of heather, dwarf and aromatic 

 rhododendrons, barberry, primrose, &c., we entered the undulating 

 and grassy flats of Jongli. On the road, not far from our last halt- 

 ing place, we met a wild looking man of the woods, whom our ser- 

 vants introduced to us as the Llama of Jongli. He stated himself 

 to be eighty years of age. He looked more like a Gorilla than a human 

 being. A more comical weather-beaten and hale old gentleman I have 

 never seen. He had a very hoarse voice and a large goitre to boot. 

 He had just left Jongli for his winter quarters, which he had taken 

 up under an over-hanging piece of gneiss rock in a fir forest. 



After "tiffin at 2.30 p. m., MacPherson and I set off for the 

 summit of what we considered to be the highest of the Jongli moun- 

 tains. After two hours of very fatiguing climbing and suffering from 

 shortness of breath, headache and . nausea, we reached the top and 

 found it to be 15,120 feet.* Thick clouds setting in, we were disap- 



* This hill affords capital pasture for the yaks, being covered with good grase 

 and juniper bushes. The latter all assume the same inclination as the slope 



3 p 2 



