96 LACHEN VALLEY. Chap. XXI. 



elevations ; the tide amounting to 0*060 inch, between 

 950 a.m. and 4 p.m. 



I left Tungu on the 30th of July, and spent that night 

 at Tallinn, where a large party of men had just arrived, 

 with loads of madder, rice, canes, bamboos, planks, &c, 

 to be conveyed to Tibet on yaks and ponies.* On the 

 following day I descended to Lamteng, gathering a 

 profusion of fine plants by the way. 



The flat on which I had encamped at this place in 

 May and June, being now a marsh, I took up my 

 abode for two days in one of the houses, and paid the 

 usual penalty of communication with these filthy people ; 

 for which my only effectual remedy was boiling all my 

 garments and bedding. Yet the house was high, airy, 

 and light ; the walls composed of bamboo, lath, and 

 plaster. 



Tropical Cicadas ascend to the pine-woods above Lam- 

 teng in this month, and chirp shrilly in the heat of the 

 day ; and glow-worms fly about at night. The common 

 Bengal and Java toad, Bufo scadra, abounded in the 

 marshes, a remarkable instance of wide geographical dis- 

 tribution, for a Batrachian which is common at the level 

 of the sea under the tropics. 



On the 3rd of August I descended to Choongtam, which 

 I reached on the 5th. The lakes on the Chateng flat 

 (alt. 8,750 feet) were very full, and contained many English 

 water-plants :f the temperature of the water was 92° near 



* About 300 loads of timber, each of six plauks, are said to be taken across 

 the Kougra Lama pass annually ; and about 250 of rice, besides canes, madder, 

 bamboos, cottons, cloths, and Symplocos leaves for dyeing. This is, no doubt, a 

 considerably exaggerated statement, and may refer to both the Kongra Lama and 

 Donkia passes. 



t Sparganium ramosum, Eleocharis •palustris, Sdvpus triquctcr, and Callitriche 

 verna ? Some very tropical genera ascend thus high ; as Paspalum amongst 

 grasses, and Scleria, a kind of sedge. 



