154 GREAT RUNGEET. Chap. VI. 



had followed from the west, of the Teesta, coming from 

 the north, and of their united streams flowing south. 



We were not long before enjoying the water, when I 

 was surprised to find that of the Teesta singularly cold ; 

 its temperature being 7° below that of the Rungeet.* 

 At the salient angle (a rocky peninsula) of their junction, 

 we could almost place one foot in the cold stream and 

 the other in the warmer. There is a no less marked 

 difference in the colour of the two rivers ; the Teesta 

 being sea-green and muddy, the Great Rungeet dark 

 green and very clear; and the waters, like those of 

 the Arve and Rhone at Geneva, preserve their colours 

 for some hundred yards ; the line separating the two 

 being most distinctly drawn. The Teesta, or main stream, 

 is much the broadest (about 80 or 100 yards wide at this 

 season), the most rapid and deep. The rocks which skirt 

 its bank were covered with a silt or mud deposit, which I 

 nowhere observed along the Great Rungeet, and which, as 

 well as its colour and coldness, was owing to the vast number 

 of then melting glaciers drained by this river. The Run- 

 geet, on the other hand, though it rises amongst the glaciers 

 of Kinchinjunga and its sister peaks, is chiefly supplied by 

 the rainfall of the outer ranges of Sinchul and Singalelah, 

 and hence its waters are clear, except during the height of 

 the rains. 



Prom this place we returned to Dorjiling, arriving on the 

 afternoon of the following day. 



The most interesting trip to be made from Dorjiling, is 

 that to the summit of Tonglo, a mountain on the Singalelah 



* This is, no doubt, due partly to the Teesta flowing south, and thu3 having 

 less of the sun, and partly to its draining snowy mountains throughout a much 

 longer portion of its course. The temperature of the one was 674°, and that of 

 the other 60£°. 



