24 CHOONGTAM. Chap. XVIII. 



addressed to me, and I refused to receive it as an official 

 communication ; following up my refusal by telling Meepo 

 that if he thought his orders required it, he had better 

 leave me and return to the Rajah, as I should not stir 

 without directions from Dr. Campbell, except forwards. He 

 remained, however, and said he had written to the Rajah, 

 urging him to issue stringent orders for my party being 

 provisioned. 



We were reduced to a very short allowance before the 

 long-expected supplies came, by which time our neces- 

 sities had almost conquered my resolution not to take by 

 force of the abundance I might see around, however 

 well I might afterwards pay. It is but fair to state that 

 the improvident villagers throughout Sikkim are extremely 

 poor in vegetable food at this season, when the winter store 

 is consumed, and the crops are still green. They are 

 consequently obliged to purchase rice from the lower 

 valleys, which, owing to the difficulties of transport, is very 

 dear ; and to obtain it they barter wool, blankets, musk, 

 and Tibetan produce of all kinds. Still they had cattle, 

 which they would willingly have sold to me, but for the 

 Dewan's orders. 



There is a great difference between the vegetation of 

 Dorjiling and that of similar elevations near Choongtam 

 situated far within the Himalaya : this is owing to the 

 steepness and dryness of the latter locality, where there is an 

 absence of dense forest, which is replaced by a number of 

 social grasses clothing the mountain sides, many new and 

 beautiful kinds of rhododendrons, and a variety of European 

 genera,* which (as I have elsewhere noticed) are either 



* Dautzia, Saxifraga ci/iata, Thalictruni, Euphorbia, yellow violet, Labiates, 

 Androsace, Leguminosce, Coriaria, Delphinium, currant, Umbelliferce, primrose, 

 Anemone. Convctllaria, Roscoea, Mitella, Her minium, Drosera. 



