June, 1849. CAMP ON NORTH BANK. 53 



stretched on the ground in the sun, or crouched in the 

 sleet and snow beneath some sheltering rock ; each with 

 his little polished wooden cup of tea, watching my notes 

 and instruments with curious wonder, asking, " How high 

 are we ? ' " How cold is it? ' and comparing the results 

 with those of other stations, with much interest and intel- 

 ligence. 



On the 11th June, my active people completed a most 

 ingenious bridge of branches of trees, bound by withes of 

 willow ; by which I crossed to the north bank, where I 

 camped on an immense flat terrace at the junction of the 

 rivers, and about fifty feet above their bed. The first 

 step or ascent from the river is about five feet high, 

 and formed of water-worn boulders, pebbles, and sand, 

 scarcely stratified: the second, fully 1000 yards broad, is 

 ten feet high, and swampy. The uppermost is fifteen 

 feet above the second, and is covered with gigantic 

 boulders, and vast rotting trunks of fallen pines, buried 

 in an impenetrable jungle of dwarf small-leaved holly 

 and rhododendrons. The surface was composed of a rich 

 vegetable mould, which, where clear of forest, supported a 

 rank herbage, six to eight feet high.* 



Our first discovery, after crossing, was of a good bridge 

 across the Zemu, above its junction, and of a path leading 



* This consisted of grasses, sedges, Buplewum, rhubarb, Ranunculus, Conval- 

 laria, Smilacina, nettles, thistles, Arum, balsams, and the superb yellow 

 Meconopsis Nepalensis, whose racemes of golden poppy-like flowers were as broad 

 as the palm of the hand ; it grows three and even six feet high, and resembles a 

 small hollyhock ; whilst a stately Heracleum, ten feet high, towered over all. 

 Forests of silver fir, with junipers and larch, girdled these flats, and on their 

 edges grew rhododendrons, scarlet Spircea, several honeysuckles, white Clematis, 

 and Viburnum. Ferns are much scarcer in the pine-woods than elsewhere in 

 the forest regions of the Himalaya. In this valley (alt. 10,850 feet), I found 

 only ten kinds ; Hymenophyllum, Lomaria, Cystopteris, Davallia, two Polypodia, 

 and several Aspidia and Asplenia. Selaginella ascends to Zemu Samdong (9000 

 feet). The Pteris aguilina (brake) does not ascend above 10,000 feet. 



