n« 



LACHOONG VALLEY. Chap. XXII. 



flank. Enormous masses of rock were continually precipi- 

 tated from the west side, close to the shed in which I had 

 taken up my quarters, keeping my people in constant 

 alarm, and causing a great commotion among the yaks, 

 dogs, and ponies. On the opposite side of the river is 

 a deep gorge; in which an immense glacier descends 

 lower than any I have seen in Sikkim. I made several 

 attempts to reach it by the gully of its discharging stream, 

 but was always foiled by the rocks and dense jungle of 

 pines, rhododendron, and dwarf holly. 



The snow-banks on the face of the dome-shaped moun- 

 tain appearing favourable for ascertaining the position of 

 the level of perpetual snow, I ascended to them on the 6th 

 of September, and found the mean elevation along an even, 

 continuous, and gradual slope, with a full south-west 

 exposure, to be 15,985 feet by barometer, and 15,816 

 feet by boiling-point. These beds of snow, however 

 broad and convex, cannot nevertheless be distinguished 

 from glaciers : they occupy, it is true, mountain slopes, 

 and do not fill hollows (like glaciers commonly so called), 

 but they display the ribboned structure of ice, and being 

 viscous fluids, descend at a rate and to a distance 

 depending on the slope, and on the amount of annual 

 accumulation behind. Their termination must therefore 

 be far below that point at which all the snow that falls 

 melts, which is the theoretical line of perpetual snow. 

 Before returning I attempted to proceed northwards to 

 the great glacier, hoping to descend by its lateral moraine, 

 but a heavy snow-storm drove me down to Yeumtong. 



Some hot-springs burst from the bank of the Lachen a 

 mile or so below the village : they are used as baths, the 

 patient remaining three days at a time in them, only retiring 

 to eat in a little shed close by. The discharge amounts to 



