Oct. 1819. J1GATZI. YA11U RIVER, ETC. 171 



peas. Other legumes, cabbages, &c., are cultivated in the 

 sheltered valleys of the Yarn feeders, where great heat is re- 

 flected from the rocks ; and there also stunted trees grow, as 

 willows, walnuts, poplars, and perhaps ashes ; all of which, 

 however, are said to be planted and scarce. Even at Teshoo 

 Loombo and Jigatzi * buckwheat is a rare crop, and only a 

 prostrate very hardy kind is grown. Clay teapots and pipkins 

 are the most valuable exports to Sikkim from the latter 

 city, after salt and soda. Jewels and woollen cloaks are 

 also exported, the latter especially from Giantchi, which is 

 famous for its woollen fabrics and mart of ponies. 



Of the Yaru river at Jigatzi, which all. affirm becomes 

 the Burrampooter in Assam, I have little information to 

 add to Turner's description : it is sixty miles north of 

 Bhomtso, and I assume its elevation to be 13 — 14,000 

 feet;f it takes an immense bend to the northward after 



* Digarchi, Jigatzi, or Shigatzi jong (the fort of Shigatzi) is the capital of the 

 " Tsang " province, and Teshoo Loombo is the neighbouring city of temples and 

 monasteries, the ecclesiastical capital of Tibet, and the abode of the grand (Teshoo) 

 Lama, or ever-living Boodh. Whether we estimate this man by the number of 

 his devotees, or the perfect sincerity of their worship, he is without exception one 

 of the most honoured beings living in the world. I have assumed the elevation of 

 Jigatzi to be 13 — 14,000 feet, using as data Turner's October mean temperature 

 of Teshoo Loombo, and the decrement for elevation of 400 feet to 1° Fahr. ; which 

 my own observations indicate as an approximation to the truth. Humboldt 

 (" Asie Centrale," iii., p. 223) uses a much smaller multiplier, and infers the eleva- 

 tion of Teshoo Loombo to be between 9,500 and 10,000 feet. Our data are far 

 too imperfect to warrant any satisfactory conclusions on this interesting subject ; 

 but the accounts I have received of the vegetation of the Yaru valley at Jigatzi 

 seem to indicate an elevation of at least 13,000 feet for the bed of that river. Of 

 the elevation of Lhassa itself we have no idea : if MM. Hue and Gabet's state- 

 ment of the rivers not being frozen there in March be correct, the climate must be 

 very different from what we suppose. 



t The Yaru, which approaches the Nepal frontier west of Tingri, and beyond 

 the great mountain described at vol. i. p. 265, makes a sweep to the northward, and 

 turns south to Jigatzi, whence it makes another and greater bend to the north, 

 and again turning south flows west of Lhassa, receiving the Kechoo river from that 

 holy city. From Jigatzi it is said to be navigable to near Lhassa by skin and 

 plank-built boats. Thence it flows south-east to the Assam frontier, and while 

 still in Tibet, is said to enter a warm climate, where tea, silk, cotton, and rice, are 

 grown. Of its course after entering the Assam Himalaya little is known, and in 



