Ji'i^ 1849. TIBETAN CAMr ON PALUNG TLAINS. 85 



Tunguchoo. The course of the Chachoo, where it turns 

 south, is most curious : it meanders in sickle-shaped curves 

 along the marshy bottom of an old lake-bed, with steep 

 shelving sides, 500 to GOO feet deep, and covered with 

 juniper bushes.* It is fed by the glaciers of Kinchinjhow, 

 and some little lakes to the east. 



The mean height of Palung plains is 16,000 feet: they 

 are covered with transported blocks, and I have no doubt 

 their surface has been much modified by glacial action. 

 I was forcibly reminded of them by the slopes of the 

 Wengern Alp, but those of Palung are far more level. 

 Kinchinjhow rises before the spectator, just as the Jungfrau, 

 Monch, and Eigher Alps do from that magnificent point of 

 view. 



On ascending a low hill, we came in sight of the Tibet 

 camp at the distance of a mile, when the great mastiffs that 

 guarded it immediately bayed ; and our ponies starting off 

 at full gallop, we soon reached an enclosure of stone dykes, 

 within which the black tents were pitched. The dogs 

 were of immense size, and ragged, like the yaks, from their 

 winter coat hanging to their flanks in great masses ; each 

 was chained near a large stone, on and off which he leapt 

 as he gave tongue; they are very savage, but great 

 cowards, and not remarkable for intelligence. 



The people were natives of Gearee and Kambajong, in 

 the adjacent province of Dingcham, which is the loftiest, 

 coldest, most windy and arid in Eastern Tibet, and in which 

 are the sources of ail the streams that flow to Nepal, Sikkim, 

 and Bhotan on the one side, and into the Yaru-tsampu on 

 the other. These families repair yearly to Palung, with 

 their flocks, herds, and tents, paying tribute to the Sikkim 



: These, which grow ou an eastern exposure, exist at a higher elevation than 

 any other bushes I have met with. 



