Sept. 1849. GRASSES, LAKES, &e. 123 



eastern summit of Kinchinjhow is called.* Above this the 

 valley expands very much, and is stony and desert: stupen- 

 dous mountains, upwards of 21,000 feet high, rear them- 

 selves on all sides, and the desolation and grandeur of the 

 scene are unequalled in my experience. The path again 

 crosses the river (which is split into many channels), and 

 proceeds northwards, over gravelly terraces and rocks with 

 patches of Scotch alpine grasses {Festuca ovina and Poa 

 laccci), sedges, Stipa, dandelion, AUardia, gentians, Saus- 

 surea, and Astragalus, varied with hard hemispherical 

 mounds of the alsineous plant mentioned at p. 89. 



I passed several shallow lakes at 17,500 feet; their banks 

 were green and marshy, and supported thirty or forty kinds 

 of plants. At the head of the valley a steep rocky crest, 

 500 feet high, rises between two precipitous snow r y peaks, 

 and a very fatiguing ascent (at this elevation) leads to the 

 sharp rocky summit of the Donkia pass, 18,466 feet above 

 the sea by barometer, and 17,866 by boiling-point. The 

 view on this occasion was obscured by clouds and fogs, except 

 towards Tibet, in which direction it was magnificent ; but 

 as I afterwards twice ascended this pass, and also crossed 

 it, I shall here bring together all the particulars I noted. 



The Tibetan view, from its novelty, extent, and singularity, 



* On one occasion I ascended this valley, which is very broad, flat, and full of 

 lakes at different elevations; one, at about 17,000 feet elevation is three-quarters 

 of a mile long, but not deep : no water-plants grew in it, but there were plenty 

 of others round its margin. I collected, in the dry bed of a stream near it, 

 a curious white substance like thick felt, formed of felspathic silt (no doubt the 

 product of glacial streams) and the siliceous cells of infusoria). It much re- 

 sembles the fossil or meteoric paper of Germany, which is also formed of the 

 lowest tribes of fre^h-water plants, though considered by Ehrenberg as of animal 

 origin. A vein of granite in the bo'ttom of the valley had completely altered 

 the character of the gneiss, which contained veins of jasper and masses of 

 amorphous garnet. Much olivine is found in the fissures of the gneiss : this 

 mineral is very rare in Sikkim, but I have also seen it in the fissures of the 

 white gueissy granite of the surrounding heights. 



