CHAPTER XXII. 



Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass — Moraines and their vegetation — Pines of great 

 dimensions — Wild currants — Glaciers — Summit of pass — Elevation — Views — 

 Plants — Winds — Choombi district — Lacheepia rock — Extreme cold — Kin- 

 chinjunga — Himalayan grouse — Meteorological observations — Return to 

 Lachoong — Oaks — Ascent to Yeumtong — Flats and debacles — Buried pine- 

 trunks — Perpetual snow — Hot springs — Behaviour of Singtam Soubah — Leave 



for Momay Samdong — Upper limit of trees Distribution of plants — 



Glacial terraces, &c. — Forked Donkia — Moutonneed rocks — Ascent to 

 Donkia pass — Vegetation — Scenery — Lakes — Tibet — Bhomtso — Arun river 

 — Kiang-lah mountains — Yaru-Tsampu river— Appearance of Tibet— Kamba- 

 jong — Jigatzi — Kinchinjhow, and Kinchinjunga — Chola range — Deceptive 

 appearance of distant landscape — Perpetual snow — Granite — Temperatures 

 — Pulses — Plants — Tripe de roche — Return to Momay — Dogs and yaks — Birds 

 — Insects — Quadrupeds — -Hot springs — Marmots — Kinchinjhow glacier. 



The Singtam Soubah being again laid up here from the 

 consequences of leech-bites, I took the opportunity of 

 visiting the Tunkra-lah pass, represented as the most 

 snowy in Sikkim ; which I found to be the case. The 

 route lay over the moraines on the north flank of the 

 Tunkrachoo, which are divided by narrow dry gullies,* and 

 composed of enormous blocks disintegrating into a dee]) 

 layer of clay. All are clothed with luxuriant herbage 

 and flowering shrubs, f besides small larches and pines, 



* These ridges of the moraine, separated by gullies, indicate the progressive 

 retirement of the ancient glacier, after periods of rest. The same phenomena 

 may be seen, on a diminutive scale, in the Swiss Alps, by any one who carefully 

 examines the lateral and often the terminal moraines of any retiring or dimin- 

 ishing glacier, at whose base or flanks are concentric ridges, which are successive 

 deposits. 



t Ranunculus, Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Aconitum variegatum of Europe, 



