182 EAST NEPAL. Chap. VIII. 



character and general fertility contrast strongly with the 

 bareness of the lower mountain spurs which flank it, and 

 with the dense, gloomy, steep, and forest-clad gorges of 

 Sikkim, At its lower end, about twenty miles from the 

 frontier, is the military fort of Ham, a celebrated stockaded 

 post and cantonment of the Ghorkas : its position is 

 marked by a conspicuous conical hill. The inhabitants 

 are chiefly Brahmins, but there are also some Moormis, and 

 a few Lepchas who escaped from Sikkim during the 

 general massacre in 1825. Among these is a man who 

 had formerly much influence in Sikkim ; he still retains 

 his title of Kazee,* and has had large lands assigned to him 

 by the Nepalese Government : he sent the usual present of 

 a kid, fowls, and eggs, and begged me to express to 

 Dr. Campbell his desire to return to his native country, 

 and settle at Dorjiling. 



The scenery of this valley is the most beautiful I know 

 of in the lower Himalaya, and the Cheer Pine (P. longi- 

 folia) is abundant, cresting the hills, which are loosely 

 clothed with clumps of oaks and other trees, bamboos, 

 and bracken (Pteris). The slopes are covered with red 

 clay, and separate little ravines luxuriantly clothed with 

 tropical vegetation, amongst which flow pebbly streams of 

 transparent cool water. The villages, which are merely 

 scattered collections of huts, are surrounded with fields of 

 rice, buckwheat, and Indian corn, which latter the natives 

 were now storing in little granaries, mounted on four 

 posts, men, women, and children being all equally busy. 

 The quantity of gigantic nettles ( Urtica heterophylld) on the 

 skirts of these maize fields is quite wonderful : their long 

 white stings look most formidable, but though they sting 



* This Mahometan title, by which the officers of state are known in Sikkim, is 

 there generally pronounced Kajee. 



