PREFACE. w 



alarm ; and the results of my researches in the Hima- 

 laya had proved of more interest and advantage than 

 had been anticipated. It was hence thought expedient 

 to cancel the Borneo appointment, and to prolong my 

 services for a third year in India ; for which purpose a 

 grant of £300 (originally intended for defraying the 

 expense of collecting only, in Borneo) was transferred 

 as salary for the additional year to be spent in the 

 Himalaya. 



The portion of the Himalaya best worth exploring, 

 was selected for me both by Lord Auckland and Dr. 

 Falconer, who independently recommended Sikkim, as 

 being ground untrodden by traveller or naturalist. Its 

 ruler was, moreover, all but a dependant of the British 

 government, and it was supposed, would therefore be glad 

 to facilitate my researches. 



No part of the snowy Himalaya eastward of the north- 

 west extremity of the British possessions had been 

 visited since Turner's embassy to Tibet in 1789 ; and 

 hence it was highly important to explore scientifically 

 a part of the chain which, from its central position, 

 might be presumed to be typical of the whole range. 

 The possibility of visiting Tibet, and of ascertaining 

 particulars respecting the great mountain Chumulari,* 

 w T hich was only known from Turner's account, were addi- 

 tional inducements to a student of physical geography ; 



* My earliest recollections in reading are of " Turner's Travels in Tibet," and of 

 " Cook's Voyages." The account of Lama worship and of Chumulari in the one, 

 and of Kerguelen's Land in the other, always took a strong hold on my fancy. 

 It is, therefore, singular that Kerguelen's Land should have been the first strange 



