66 ZEMU KIVER. Chap. XX. 



very common, and had the usual propensity of its congeners 

 for blood ; lamellicorns were also abundant. 



On the 11th of July five coolies arrived with rice : they 

 had been twenty days on the road, and had been obliged 

 to make great detours, the valley being in many places 

 impassable. They brought me a parcel of English letters ; 

 and I started up the Lachen on the following day, with 

 renewed spirits and high hopes. The road first crossed 

 the Zemu and the spur beyond, and then ascended the west 

 bank of the Lachen, a furious torrent for five or six miles, 

 during which it descends 1000 feet, in a chasm from which 

 rise lofty black pine- clad crags, topped by snowy mountains, 

 14,000 to 16,000 feet high. One remarkable mass of rock, 

 on the east bank, is called " Sakya-zong ' ' (or the abode of 

 Sakya, often pronounced Thakya, one of the Boodhist 

 Trinity) ; at its base a fine cascade falls into the river. 



Above 11,000 feet the valley expands remarkably, 

 the mountains recede, become less wooded, and more 

 grassy, while the stream is suddenly less rapid, meandering 

 in a broader bed, and bordered by marshes, covered with 

 Carew, Blgsmus, dwarf Tamarisk, and many kinds of yellow 

 and red Pedicularis, both tall and beautiful. There are 

 far fewer rhododendrons here than in the damper Zemu 

 valley at equal elevations, and more Siberian, or dry 

 country types of vegetation, as Astragali of several kinds, 

 Habenaria, Ujiipactis, dandelion, and a caraway, whose 

 stems (called in Tibet " Gzira ") are much sought for as a 

 condiment.* The Singtam Soubah and Lachen Phipun 



* Umbelliferce abound here; with sage, Ranunculus, Anemone, Aconites, Halenia, 

 Gentians, Panax, Euphrasia, speedwell, Prunella vulgaris, thistles, bistort, Parnassia, 

 purple orchis, Prenanthes, and Lactuca. The woody plants of this region are 

 willows, birch, Cotoneaster, maple, three species of Viburnum, three of Spircea, 

 Vaccinium, A ralia, Deutzia, Philadelphus, rhododendrons, two junipers, silver fir, 

 larch, three honeysuckles, Neillia, and a Pieris, who^e white blossoms are so full 

 of honey as to be sweet and palatable. 



