Appendix E. BOUNDARIES OF SIKKIM. 387 



of the Teesta. Between these two latter rivers is a second spur 

 from Kinchinjunga, terminating in Tendon g. 



The eastern boundary of Sikkim, separating it from Bhotan, is 

 formed for the greater part by the Chola range, which stretches 

 south from the immense mountain of Donkia, 23,176 feet high, situated 

 fifty miles E.N.E. of Kinchinjunga : where the frontier approaches 

 the plains of India, the boundary line follows the course of the 

 Teesta, and of the Binkpo, one of its feeders, flowing from the 

 Chola range. This range is much more lofty than that of Singa- 

 lelah, and the drainage from its eastern flank is into the Machoo river, 

 the upper part of whose course is in Tibet, and the lower in 

 Bhotan. 



The Donkia mountain, though 4000 feet lower than Kinchin, 

 is the culminant point of a much more extensive and elevated 

 mountain mass. It throws off an immense spur from its north- 

 west face, which runs west, and then south-west, to Kinchin, 

 forming the watershed of all the remote sources of the Teesta. This 

 spur has a mean elevation of 18,000 to 19,000 feet, and several of 

 its peaks (of which Chomiomo is one) rise much higher. The northern 

 boundary of Sikkim is not drawn along this, but runs due w^est from 

 Donkia, following a shorter, but stupendous spur, called Kinchinjhow; 

 whence it crosses the Teesta to Chomiomo, and is continued onwards 

 to Kinchinjunga. 



Though the great spur connecting Donkia with Kinchin is in 

 Tibet, and bounds the waters that flow directly south into the 

 Teesta, it is far from the true Himalayan axis, for the rivers that 

 rise on its northern slope do not run into the valley of the Tsampu, 

 or Tibetan Burrampooter, but into the Arun of Nepal, which rises 

 to the north of Donkia, and flows south-west for many miles in 

 Tibet, before entering Nepal and flowing south to the Ganges. 



Sikkim, thus circumscribed, consists of a mass of mountainous 

 spins, forest-clad up to 12,000 feet ; there are no flat valleys or 

 plains in the wmole country, no lakes or precipices of any consequence 

 below that elevation, and few or no bare slopes, though the latter 

 are uniformly steep. The aspect of Sikkim can only be understood 

 by a reference to its climate and vegetation, and I shall therefore 

 take these together, and endeavour, by connecting these phenomena, 



c c 2 



