196 EAST NEPAL. Chap. VIII. 



heat, the valley, even at this season, was excessively hot and 

 close during the day, even when the temperature was below 

 70°, and tempered by a brisk breeze which rushes upwards 

 from sunrise to sunset. The sun at this season does not, in 

 many places, reach the bottom of these valleys until 10 a.m., 

 and is off again by 3 p.m.; and the radiation to a clear sky 

 is so powerful that dew frequently forms in the shade, 

 throughout the day, and it is common at 10 a.m. to find 

 the thermometer sink from 70° in a sheltered spot, dried by 

 the sun, to 40° in the shade close by, where the sun has 

 not yet penetrated. Snow never falls. 



The rocks throughout this part of the river-course are 

 mica-schists (strike north-west, dip south-west 70°, but 

 very variable in inclination and direction) ; they are dry 

 and grassy, and the vegetation wholly tropical, as is 

 the entomology, which consists chiefly of large butter- 

 flies, Mantis and Diptera. Snowy mountains are rarely 

 seen, and the beauty of the scenery is confined to the 

 wooded banks of the main stream, which flows at an ave- 

 rage inclination of fifty feet to the mile. Otters are found 

 in the stream, and my party shot two, but could not 

 procure them. 



In one place the road ascended for 2000 feet above the 

 river, to the village of Chingtam, situated on a lofty spur of 

 the west bank, whence I obtained a grand view of the upper 

 course of the river, flowing in a tremendous chasm, flanked 

 by well-cultivated hills, and emerging fifteen miles to the 

 northward, from black mountains of savage grandeur, whose 

 rugged, precipitous faces were streaked with snow, and the 

 tops of the lower ones crowned with the tabular-branched 

 silver-fir, contrasting strongly with the tropical luxuriance 

 around. Chingtam is an extensive village, covering an 

 area of two miles, and surrounded with abundant culti- 



