74 LACHEN VALLEY. Chap. XX. 



broken in two : it may have been detached from a cliff, or 

 have been transported thither as part of an ancient moraine 

 which extends from the mouth of the Tungu-choo valley 

 across that of the Lachen. The appearance and position 

 of this great block, and of the smaller piece lying beside 

 it, rather suggest the idea of the whole mass having fallen 

 perpendicularly from a great height through a crevasse in 

 a glacier, than of its having been hurled from so considerable 

 a distance as from the cliffs on the flanks of the valley : it 

 is faithfully represented in the accompanying woodcut. A 

 few wooden houses were collected near this rock, and 

 several black tents were scattered about. I encamped at 

 an elevation of 12,750 feet, and was waited on by the 

 Lachen Phipun with presents of milk, butter, yak-flesh, and 

 curds ; and we were not long before we drowned old enmity 

 in buttered and salted tea. 



On my arrival I found the villagers in a meadow, all 

 squatted cross-legged in a circle, smoking their brass and 

 iron pipes, drinking tea, and listening to a letter from the 

 Rajah, concerning their treatment of me. Whilst my men 

 were pitching my tent, I gathered forty plants new to me, 

 all of Tartarian types.* Wheat or barley I was assured 

 had been cultivated at Tungu when it was possessed by 

 Tibetans, and inhabited by a frontier guard, but I saw 

 no appearance of any cultivation. The fact is an important 

 one, as barley requires a mean summer temperature of 48° 

 to come to maturity. According to my observations, the 



* More Siberian plants appeared, as Astragali, Chenopodium, Artemisia, some 

 grasses, new kinds of Pedicularis, Delphinium, and some small Orchids. Three 

 species of Parnassia and six primroses made the turf gay, mixed with saxifrages, 

 A ndrosace and Campanula. By the cottages was abundance of shepherd's-purse, 

 Lepidium, and balsams, with dock, Galeopsis, and Cuscuta. Several low dwarf 

 species of honeysuckle formed stunted bushes like heather; and Anisodus, a 

 curious plant allied to Hyoscyamus, whose leaves are greedily eaten by yaks, was 

 very common. 



