146 CHOONGTAM. Chap. XXIII. 



10 p.m., having been marching rapidly for twelve honrs. 

 My bed and tent came up two hours later, and not before 

 the leeches and mosquitos had taxed me severely. On the 

 4th of October I heard the nightingale for the first time 

 this season. 



Expecting Dr. Campbell on the following morning, I 

 proceeded clown the river to meet him : the whole valley 

 was buried under a torrent or debacle of mud, shingle, and 

 bonlders, and for half a mile the stream was dammed up 

 into a deep lake. Amongst the gneiss and granite boulders 

 brought down by this debacle, I collected some actinolites ; 

 but all minerals are extremely rare in Sikkim and I never 

 heard of a gem or crystal of any size or beauty, or of an 

 ore of any consequence, being found in this country. 



I met my friend on the other side of the mud torrent, 

 and I was truly rejoiced to see him, though he was looking 

 much the worse for his trying journey through the hot 

 valleys at this season ; in fact, I know no greater trial of 

 the constitution than the exposure and hard exercise that 

 is necessary in traversing these valleys, below 5000 feet, in 

 the rainy season : delay is dangerous, and the heat, anxiety, 

 and bodily suffering from fatigue, insects, and bruises, 

 banish sleep, and urge the restless traveller onward to 

 higher and more healthy regions. Dr. Campbell had, I 

 found, in addition to the ordinary dangers of such a journey, 

 met with an accident which might have proved serious ; 

 his pony having been dashed to pieces by falling over a 

 precipice, a fate he barely escaped himself, by adroitly 

 slipping from the saddle when he felt the animal's foot 

 giving way. 



On our way back to Choongtam, he detailed to me the 

 motives that had led to his obtaining the authority of the 

 Deputy-Governor of Bengal (Lord Dalhousie being absent) 



