38(3 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SIKKIM. Appendix E. 



luminous arch ; the beams were all but gone, a few fragments 

 appearing in the N.E. A southerly wind sprang up, and a diffused 

 light extended along the horizon. 



At midnight, I saw two faint beams to the north-east, and two 

 well defined parallel ones in the south-west. 



E. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA, EAST NEPAL, 

 AND ADJACENT PROVINCES OP TIBET. 



Sikkim is included in a section of the Himalaya, about sixty miles 

 broad from east to west, where it is bounded respectively by the 

 mountain states of Bhotan and Nepal. Its southern limits are easily 

 defined, for the mountains rise abruptly from the plains of Bengal, 

 as spurs of 6000 to 10,000 feet high, densely clothed with forest 

 to their summits. The northern and north-eastern frontier of 

 Sikkim is beyond the region of much rain, and is not a natural, but 

 a political line, drawn between that country and Tibet. Sikkim lies 

 nearly due north of Calcutta, and only four hundred miles from the 

 Bay of Bengal ; its latitude being 26° 40' to 28° N., and longitude 

 88° to 89° E. 



The main features of Sikkim are Kinchinjunga, the loftiest 

 hitherto measured mountain, which lies to its north-west, and rises 

 28,178 feet above the level of the sea ; and the Teesta river, which 

 flows throughout the length of the country, and has a course of 

 upwards of ninety miles in a straight line. Almost all the sources 

 of the Teesta are included in Sikkim ; and except some comparatively 

 insignificant streams draining the outermost ranges, there are no 

 rivers in this country but itself and its feeders, which occupy the 

 largest of the Himalayan valleys between the Tambur in East Nepal, 

 and the Machoo in Western Bhotan. 



An immense spur, sixty miles long, stretches south from Kinchin 

 to the plains of India ; it is called Singalelah, and separates Sikkim 

 from East Nepal ; the waters from its west flank flow into the 

 Tambur, and those from the east into the Great Eungeet, a feeder 



