May, 1848. EXCURSION TO TONGLO. 155 



range, 10,079 feet high, due west of the station, and twelve 

 miles in a straight line, but fully thirty by the path.* 



Leaving the station by a native path, the latter plunges 

 at once into a forest, and descends very rapidly, occasionally 

 emerging on cleared spurs, where are fine crops of various 

 millets, with much maize and rice. Of the latter grain as 

 many as eight or ten varieties are cultivated, but seldom 

 irrigated, which, owing to the dampness of the climate, is 

 not necessary: the produce is often eighty-fold, but the grain 

 is large, coarse, reddish, and rather gelatinous when boiled. 

 After burning the timber, the top soil is very fertile for 

 several seasons, abounding in humus, below which is a 

 stratum of stiff clay, often of great thickness, produced by 

 the disintegration of the rocks ; f the clay makes excellent 

 bricks, and often contains nearly 30 per cent, of alumina. 



At about 4000 feet the great bamboo (" Pao " Lepcha) 

 abounds ; it flowers every year, which is not the case with 

 all others of this genus, most of which flower profusely over 

 large tracts of country, once in a great many years, and 

 then die away ; their place being supplied by seedlings, 

 which grow with immense rapidity. This well-known fact 

 is not due, as some suppose, to the life of the species being 

 of such a duration, but to favourable circumstances in the 

 season. The Pao attains a height of 40 to 60 feet, and the 

 culms average in thickness the human thigh ; it is used for 

 large water-vessels, and its leaves form admirable thatch, in 

 universal use for European houses at Dorjiling. Besides 

 this, the Lepchas are acquainted with nearly a dozen kinds 

 of bamboo; these occur at various elevations below 12,000 



* A full account of the botanical features noticed on this excursion (which I 

 made in May, 1848, with Mr. Barnes) has appeared in the "London Journal of 

 Botany," and the " Horticultural Society's Journal," and I shall, therefore, recapi- 

 tulate its leading incidents only. 



t An analysis of the soil will be found in the Appendix. 



