CHAPTER XIX. 



Routes from Choongtam to Tibet frontier — Choice of that by the Lachen river — 

 Arrival of Supplies — Departure — Features of the valley — Eatable Polygo- 

 num — Tumlong — Cross Taktooug river — Pines, larches, and other trees — 

 Chateng pool — Water-plants and insects — Tukcham mountain — Lamteng 

 village — Inhabitants — Alpine monkey — Botany of temperate Himalaya — 

 European and American fauna — Japanese and Malayan genera — Superstitious 

 objections to shooting — Customs of people — Rain — Run short of provisions — 

 Altered position of Tibet frontier — Zemu Samdoug — Imposition — Vegetation 

 — Uses of pines — Ascent to Thlonok river — Balanophora wood for making 

 cups — Snow-beds — Eatable mushrooms and Smilacina — Asarabacca — View of 

 Kinchinjunga — Arum roots, preparation of for food — Liklo mountain — Beha- 

 viour of my party — Bridge constructed over Zemu — Cross river — Alarm of 

 my party — Camp on Zemu river. 



From this place there were two routes to Tibet, each of 

 about six days' journey. One lay to the north-west up the 

 Lachen valley to the Kongra Lama pass, the other to the 

 east up the Lachoong to the Donkia pass. The latter river 

 has its source in small lakes in Sikkim, south of the Donkia 

 mountain, a shoulder of which the pass crosses, commanding 

 a magnificent view into Tibet. The Lachen, on the other 

 hand (the principal source of the Teesta), rises beyond 

 Sikkim in the Cholamoo lakes. The frontier at Kongra 

 Lama was described to me as being a political, and not a 

 natural boundary, marked out by cairns, standing on a 

 plain, and crossing the Lachen river. To both Donkia 

 and Kongra Lama I had every right to go, and was deter- 

 mined, if possible, to reach them, in spite of Meepo's 

 ignorance, our guide's endeavours to frighten my party 



