122 MOMAY. Chap. XXII. 



selves ; and next morning they set off with all their effects 

 packed upon the yaks. The ground was marshy, and 

 covered with cowslips, Ranunculus, grasses and sedges, 

 Cyananthus, blue asters, gentians, &c. The spot appearing 

 highly favourable for observations, I determined to remain 

 here during the equinoctial month, and put my people on 

 "two-thirds allowance," i.e., four pounds of rice daily for 

 three men, allowing them to send down the valley to cater for 

 what more they could get. The SingtamSoubah was intensely 

 disgusted with my determination: he accompanied me next 

 day to the pass, and having exhausted his persuasions, 

 threats, and warnings about snow, wind, robbers, starvation, 

 and Cheen sepoys, departed on the 12th for Yeumtong, 

 leaving me truly happy for the first time since quitting 

 Dorjiling. I had now a prospect of uninterruptedly 

 following up my pursuits at an elevation little below that 

 of the summit of Mont Blanc, surrounded by the loftiest 

 mountains, and perhaps the vastest glaciers on the globe j 

 my instruments were in perfect order, and I saw around 

 me a curious and varied flora. 



The morning of the 9th of September promised fair, 

 though billowy clouds were rapidly ascending the valley. 

 To the eastward my attention was directed to a double 

 rainbow ; the upper was an arch of the usual form, and the 

 lower was the curved illuminated edge of a bank of cumulus, 

 with the orange hues below. We took the path to the 

 Donkia pass, fording the river, and ascending in a north- 

 east direction, along the foot of stony hills that rise at a 

 gradual slope of 12° to broad unsnowed ridges, 18,000 to 

 19,000 feet high. Shallow valleys, glacier-bound at their 

 upper extremities, descend from the still loftier rearward 

 mountains; and in these occur lakes. About rive miles up, a 

 broad opening on the west leads to Toino Chanio, as the 



