Sept. 1849. TIBET. CHOLAMOO. ARUN VALLEY. 125 



enormous elevation, and its colours and contrast to the black, 

 rugged, and snowy Himalaya of Sikkim. All the mountains 

 between Donkia pass and the Aran were comparatively gently 

 sloped, and of a yellow reel colour, rising and falling in long 

 undulations like dimes, 2000 to 3000 feet above the mean 

 level of the Aran valley, and perfectly bare of perpetual snow 

 or glaciers. Rocks everywhere broke out on their flanks, 

 and often along their tops, but the general contour of that 

 immense area was very open and undulating, like the 

 great ranges of Central Asia, described by MM. Hue and 

 Gabet. Beyond this again, the mountains were rugged, 

 often rising into peaks which, from the angles I took here, 

 and subsequently at Bhomtso, cannot be below 24,000 

 feet, and are probably much higher. The most lofty moun- 

 tains were on the range north of Nepal, not less than 120 

 miles distant, and which, though heavily snowed, were 

 below the horizon of Donkia pass. 



Cholamoo lake lay in a broad, scantily grassed, sandy 

 and stony valley ; snow-becls, rocks, and glaciers dipped 

 abruptly towards its head, but on its west bank a lofty 

 brick -red spur sloped upwards from it, conspicuously cut 

 into terraces for several hundred feet above its waters. 



Kambajong, the chief Tibetan village near this, after 

 Phari and Giantchi, is situated on the Aran (called in Tibet 

 " Chomachoo "), on the road from Sikkim to Jigatzi * and 



* I have adopted the simplest mode of spelling this name that I could find, 

 and omitted the zong or jong, which means fort, and generally terminates it. 

 I think it would not be difficult to enumerate fully a dozen ways of spelling the 

 word, of which Skigatzi, Digarchi, and Djigatzi are the most common. 

 The Tibetans tell me that they cross two passes after leaving Donkia, or 

 Kongra Lama, en route for Jigatzi, on both of which they suffer from head- 

 aches and difficulty of breathing; one is over the Kambajong range; the other, 

 much loftier, is over that of Kiang-lah : as they do not complain of Bhomtso, 

 which is also crossed, and is 18,500 feet, the others may be very lofty 

 indeed. The distance from Donkia pass to Jigatzi is said to be ten days' 

 journey for loaded yaks. Now, according to Turner's observations (evidently 



