CHAPTER XL 



Ascend to Nango mountain — Moraines — Glaciers — Vegetation — Rhododendron 

 Hodgsoni — Eocks — Honey-combed surface of snow — Perpetual snow — Top of 

 pass — View — Elevation — Geology — Distance of sound — Plants — Temperature 

 — Scenery — Cliffs of granite and hurled boulders — Camp — Descent — 

 Pheasants — Larch — Himalayan pines — Distribution of Deodar, note on — 

 Tassichooding temples — Kambachen village — Cultivation — Moraines in 

 valley, distribution of — Picturesque lake-beds, and their vegetation — 

 Tibetan sheep and goats — Cryptogramma crispa — Ascent to Choonjerma pass 

 — View of Junnoo — Kocks of its summit — Misty ocean — Nepal peaks — Top 

 of pass — Temperature, and observations — Gorgeous sunset — Descent to 

 Yalloong valley — Loose path — Night scenes — Musk deer. 



We passed the night a few miles below the great moraine, 

 in a pine-wood (alt. 11,000 feet) opposite the gorge which 

 leads to the Kambachen or Nango pass, over the south 

 shoulder of the mountain of that name : it is situated on a 

 ridge dividing the Yangma river from that of Kambachen, 

 which latter falls into the Tambur opposite Lelyp. 



The road crosses the Yangma (which is about fifteen 

 feet wide), and immediately ascends steeply to the south- 

 east, over a rocky moraine, clothed with a dense thicket 

 of rhododendrons, mountain-ash, maples, pine, birch, 

 juniper, &c. The ground was covered with silvery flakes 

 of birch bark, and that of Rhododendron Hodgsoni, which is 

 as delicate as tissue-paper, and of a pale flesh-colour. I 

 had never before met with this species, and was astonished 

 at the beauty of its foliage, which was of a beautiful bright 

 green, with leaves sixteen inches long. 



