48 ZKMU VALLEY. Chap. XT X. 



which also forms a favourite article of food. Another pot- 

 herb (to which I was afterwards more indebted than any) 

 was a beautiful Smilacina, which grows from two to five feet 

 high, and has plaited leaves and crowded panicles of white 

 bell-shaped flowers, like those of its ally the lily of the valley, 

 which it also resembles in its mucilaginous properties. It is 

 called " Chokli-bi," * and its young flower-heads, sheathed 

 in tender green leaves, form an excellent vegetable. Nor must 

 I forget to include amongst the eatable plants of this hungry 

 country, young shoots of the mountain-bamboo, which are 

 good either raw or boiled, and may be obtained up to 

 12,000 feet in this valley. A species of Asarum (Asarabacca) 

 grows in the pine-woods ; a genus not previously known 

 to be Himalayan. The root, like its English medicinal con- 

 gener, has a strong and peculiar smell. At 10,000 feet 

 Abies Webbiana commences, with a close undergrowth of a 

 small twiggy holly. This, and the dense thicket of rhodo- 

 dendron f on the banks of the river and edges of the 

 wood, rendered the march very fatiguing, and swarms of 

 midges kept up a tormenting irritation. 



The Zemu continued an impetuous muddy torrent, whose 

 hoarse voice, mingled with the deep grumbling noise \ of 



described it from my specimens and drawings. It is also called " Yungla tchamo" 

 by the Tibetans, the latter word signifying a toadstool. Mr. Berkeley informs me 

 that the whole vast genus Cortinarius scarcely possesses a single other edible species ; 

 he adds that C. violaceus and violaceo-cinereus are eaten in Austria and Italy, but not 

 always with safety. 



* It is also found on the top of Sinchul, near Dorjiling. 



f Of which I had already gathered thirteen kinds in this valley. 



% The dull rumbling noise thus produced is one of the most singular pheno- 

 mena in these mountains, and cannot fail to strike the observer. At night, 

 especially, the sound seems increased, the reason of which is not apparent, for 

 in these regions, so wanting in animal life, the night is no stiller than the day, and 

 the melting of snow being less, the volume of waters must be somewhat, though 

 not conspicuously, diminished. The interference of sound by heated currents of 

 different density is the most obvious cause of the diminished reverberation during 

 the day, to which Humboldt adds the increased tension of vapour, and possibly an 

 echo from its particles. 



