102 LACHOONG VALLEY. Chap. XXI. 



is equal to parts of Dorjiling, where these plants do 

 not ripen. 



The river above Keadom is again crossed, by a plank 

 bridge, at a place where the contracted streams flow 

 between banks forty feet high, composed of obscurely 

 stratified gravel, sand, and water-worn boulders. Above 

 this the path ascends lofty flat-topped spurs, which 

 overhang the river, and command some of the most 

 beautiful scenery in Sikkim. The south-east slopes are 

 clothed with Abies Brunoniana at 8000 feet elevation, and 

 cleft by a deep ravine, from which projects what appears 

 to be an old moraine, fully 1500 or perhaps 2000 feet 

 high. Extensive landslips on its steep flank expose 

 (through the telescope) a mass of gravel and angular 

 blocks, while streams cut deep channels in it. 



This valley is far more open and grassy than that of the 

 Lachen, and the vegetation also differs much.* In the after- 

 noon we reached Lachoong, which is by far the most pictu- 

 resque village in the temperate region of Sikkim. Grassy 

 flats of different levels, sprinkled with brushwood and scat- 

 tered clumps of pine and maple, occupy the valley ; whose 

 west flanks rise in steep, rocky, and scantily wooded grassy 

 slopes. About five miles to the north the valley forks; two 

 conspicuous domes of snow rising from the intermediate 

 mountains. The eastern valley leads to lofty snowed 

 regions, and is said to be impracticable; the Lachoong flows 

 down the western, which appeared rugged, and covered with 

 pine woods. On the east, Tunkra mountain f rises in a 



* Umbelliferce and Compositce abound, and were then flowering ; and an orchis 

 {Satyrium Nepalense), scented like our English Gymnadenia, covered the ground in 

 some places, with tall green Habenarke and a yellow Spathoglottis, a genus with 

 pseudo-bulbs. Of shrubs, Xanthoxylon, Rhus, Prinsepia, Cotoneaster, Pyrus, poplar 

 and oak, formed thickets along the path ; while there were as many as eight and 

 nine kinds of balsams, some eight feet high. 



t This mountain is seen from Doi'jiling ; its elevation is about 18,700 feet. 



