CHAPTER V. 



View from Mr. Hodgson's of range of snowy mountains — Their extent and eleva- 

 tion — Delusive appearance of elevation — Sinchul, view from and vegetation 

 of — Chumulari — Magnolias, white and purple — Rhododendron Dalhousise, 

 arboreum and argenteum — Natives of Dorjiling — Lepchas, origin, tradition 

 of flood, morals, dress, arms, ornaments, diet — cups, origin and value — 

 Marriages — Diseases — Burial — Worship and religion — Bijooas — KanipaRong, 

 or Arratt — Limboos, origin, habits, language, &c. — Moormis — Magras — Mechis 

 — Comparison of customs with those of the natives of Assam, Khasia, &c. 



The summer, or rainy season of 1848, was passed at or 

 near Dorjiling, during Avhich period I chiefly occupied 

 myself in forming collections, and in taking meteorological 

 observations. I resided at Mr Hodgson's for the greater 

 part of the time, in consequence of his having given me a 

 hospitable invitation to consider his house my home. The 

 view from his windows is one quite unparalleled for the 

 scenery it embraces, commanding confessedly the grandest 

 known landscape of snowy mountains in the Himalaya, 

 and hence in the world.* Kinchinjunga (forty-five miles 

 distant) is the prominent object, rising 21,000 feet above the 

 level of the observer out of a sea of intervening wooded 

 hills ; whilst, on a line with its snows, the eye descends 

 below the horizon, to a narrow gulf 7000 feet deep in the 

 mountains, where the Great Rungeet, white with foam, 

 threads a tropical forest with a silver line. 



* For an account of the geography of these regions, and the relation of the 

 Sikkim Himalaya to Tibet, &c, see Appendix. 



