104 EAST NEPAL. Chap. VIII. 



I reached the east bank of the Tambur, on the 13th 

 of November, at its junction with the Khawa, in a deep 

 gorge. It formed a grand stream, larger than the Teesta, 

 of a pale, sea-green, muddy colour, and flowed rapidly with 

 a strong ripple, but no foam ; it rises six feet in the rains, 

 but ice never descends nearly so low ; its breadth was sixty 

 to eighty yards, its temperature 55° to 58°. The breadth 

 of the foaming Khawa was twelve to fifteen yards, and 

 its temperature 56^°. The surrounding vegetation was 

 entirely tropical, consisting of scrubby sal trees, acacia, 

 Grislea, Eiiiblica, Hibiscus, &c. ; the elevation being but 

 1300 feet, though the spot was twenty -five miles in a 

 straight line from the plains. I camped at the fork of the 

 rivers, on a fine terrace fifty feet above the water, about 

 seventy yards long, and one hundred broad, quite flat- 

 topped, and composed of shingle, gravel, &c, with enormous 

 boulders of gneiss, quartz, and hornstone, much water- 

 worn ; it was girt by another broken terrace, twelve feet or 

 so above the water, and covered with long grass and bushes. 



The main road from Ham to Wallanchoon, which I 

 quitted on Sakkiazung, descends steeply on the opposite 

 bank of the river, which T crossed in a canoe formed of a 

 hollow trunk (of Toon), thirty feet long. There is considerable 

 traffic along this road ; and I was visited by numbers of 

 natives, all Hindoos, who coolly squatted before my tent- 

 door, and stared with their large black, vacant, lustrous 

 eyes : they appear singularly indolent, and great beggars. 



The land seems highly favoured by nature, and the 

 population, though so scattered, is in reality considerable, 

 the varied elevation giving a large surface ; but the natives 

 care for no more than will satisfy their immediate wants. 

 The river swarms with fish, but they are too lazy to catch 

 them, and they have seldom anything better to give or sell 



