Sept. 1849. WEATHER AT MOMAY. LAMAS, &c. 143 



tea-churn, bellows, stools, books, and sacred implements, 

 usually hung rattling on all sides of his holiness, and a 

 sumpter yak carried the tents and mats for sleeping. On 

 several occasions large parties of traders, with thirty or 

 forty yaks * laden with planks, passed, and occasionally a 

 shepherd with Tibet sheep, goats, and ponies. I questioned 

 many of these travellers about the courses of the Tibetan 

 rivers ; they all agreed f in stating the Kambajong or 

 Chomachoo river, north of the Lachen, to be the Arun of 

 Nepal, and that it rose near the Ramchoo lake (of Turner's 

 route). The lake itself discharges either into the Arun, 

 or into the Painomchoo (flowing to the Yaru) ; but this 

 point I could never satisfactorily ascertain. 



The weather at Momay, during September, was gene- 

 rally bad after 11 a.m.: little snow or rain fell, but 

 thin mists and drizzle prevailed ; less than one inch 

 and a half of rain was collected, though upwards of 

 eleven fell at Calcutta, and rather more at Dorjiling. 

 The mornings were sometimes fine, cold, and sunny, with 

 a north wind which had blown down the valley all night, 

 and till 9 a.m., when the south-east wind, with fog, came 

 on. Throughout the day a north current blew above the 

 southern ; and when the mist was thin, the air sparkled 

 with spicuke of snow, caused by the cold dry upper current 

 condensing the vapours of the lower. This southern 

 current passes over the tops of the loftiest mountains, 

 ascending to 24,000 feet, and discharging frequent showers 



* About 600 loaded yaks are said to cross the Donkia pass annually. 

 + One lad only, declared that the Kambajong river flowed north-west to Dobtah 

 and Sarrh, and thence turned north to the Yaru ; but all Campbell's itineraries, as 

 well as mine, make the Dobtah lake drain into the Chomachoo, north of Wallan- 

 choon ; which latter river the Nepalese also affirm flows into Nepal, as the 

 Arun. The Lachen and Lachoong Phipuns both insisted on this, naming to me 

 the principal towns on the way south-west from Kambajong along the river to 

 Tingri Maid an, via Tashirukpa Chait, which is north of Wallanchoon pass. 



