May, 1848. RUNGEET VALLEY, VEGETATION. 145 



guard-house, and a sepoy or two at it ; here we halted. It 

 took the Lepchas about twenty minutes to construct a table 

 and two bedsteads within our tent ; each was made of four 

 forked sticks, stuck in the ground, supporting as many 

 side-pieces, across which were laid flat split pieces of 

 bamboo, bound tightly together by strips of rattan palm- 

 stem. The beds were afterwards softened by many layers 

 of bamboo-leaf, and if not very downy, they were dry, and 

 as firm as if put together with screws and joints. 



This spur rises out of a deep valley, quite surrounded 

 by lofty mountains ; it is narrow, and covered with red 

 clay, which the natives chew as a cure for goitre. North, 

 it looks down into a gully, at the bottom of which the 

 Rungeet's foamy stream winds through a dense forest. In 

 the opposite direction, the Rungmo comes tearing down 

 from the top of Sinchul, 7000 feet above ; and though its 

 roar is heard, and its course is visible throughout its length, 

 the stream itself is nowhere seen, so deep does it cut its 

 channel. Except on this, and a few similarly hard rocky 

 hills around, the vegetation is a mass of wood and jungle. 

 At this spot it is rather scanty and dry, with abundance 

 of the Pinus longifolia and Sal. The dwarf date-palm 

 (Phoenix acaidis) also, was very abundant. 



The descent to the river was exceedingly steep, the banks 

 presenting an impenetrable jungle. The pines on the arid 

 crests of the hills around formed a remarkable feature : they 

 grow like the Scotch fir, the tall, red trunks springing from 

 the steep and dry slopes. But little resin exudes from the 

 stem, which, like that of most pines, is singularly free 

 from lichens and mosses ; its wood is excellent, and the 

 charcoal of the burnt leaves is used as a pigment. Being 

 confined to dry soil, this pine is local in Sikkim, and the 

 elevation it attains here is not above 3000 feet. In Bhotan, 



