July, 1849. NATURAL HISTORY OF PALUNG. 91 



boulder, benumbed with eold. I bad fortunately brought 

 a small phial of brandy, which, with hot water from the 

 )oiling-apparatus kettle, refreshed us wonderfully. 



The spur that divides these plains from the Lachen 

 river, rises close to Kinchinjhow, as a lofty cliff of quartzy 

 gneiss, dipping north-east 30° : this I had noticed from the 

 Konora Lama side. On this side the dip was also to the 

 northward, and the whole cliff was crossed by cleavage 

 planes, dipping south, and apparently cutting those of the 

 foliation at an angle of about 60° : it is the only decided 

 instance of the kind I met with in Sikkim. I regretted not 

 being able to examine it carefully, but I was prevented by 

 the avalauches of stones and snow which were continually 

 being detached from its surface.* 



The plants found close to the snow were minute primroses, 

 Parnassia, Draba, tufted wormwoods {Artemisia), saxi- 

 frages, gentian, small Compositce, grasses, and sedges. 

 Our ponies unconcernedly scraped away the snow with 

 their hoofs, and nibbled the scanty herbage. When I 

 mounted mine, he took the bit between his teeth, and 



* I extremely regret not having been at this time acquainted with Mr. D. Sharpe's 

 able essays on the foliation, cleavage, &c, of slaty rocks, gneiss, &c, in the 

 Geological Society's Journal (ii. p. 74, and v. p. Ill), and still more so with his 

 subsequent papers in the Philosophical Transactions : as I cannot doubt that 

 many of his observations, and in particular those which refer to the great 

 arches in which the folia (commonly called strata) are disposed, would receive 

 ample illustration from a study of the Himalaya. At vol. i. p. 309, I have dis- 

 tantly alluded to such an arrangement of the gneiss, &c, into arches, in Sikkim, 

 to which my attention was naturally drawn by the writings of Professor Sedg- 

 wick (" Geolog. Soc. Trans.") and Mr. Darwin (" Geological Observations in South 

 America") on these obscure subjects. I may add that wherever I met with the 

 gneiss, mica, schists, and slates, in Sikkim, very near one another, I invariably 

 found that their cleavage and foliation were conformable. This, for example, 

 may be seen in the bed of the great Rungeet, below Dorjiling, where the slates 

 overlie mica schists, and where the latter contain beds of conglomerate. In these 

 volumes I have often used the more familiar term of stratification, for foliation. 

 This arises from my own ideas of the subject not having been clear when the 

 notes were taken. 



