Dec. 1848. THE YALL00NG RIDGE. 273 



river, and on its east flank. A Hydrangea was the 

 common small wood, but Abies Webbiana formed the 

 forest, with great Rhododendrons. The weather was 

 foggy, whence I judged that we were in the sea of mist I 

 saw beneath me from the passes ; the temperature, con- 

 sidering the elevation, was mild, 37° and 38°, which was 

 partly due to the evolution of heat that accompanies the 

 condensation of these vapours, the atmosphere being loaded 

 with moisture. The thermometer fell to 28° during the 

 night, and in the morning the ground was thickly covered 

 with hoar-frost. 



December 7. — We ascended the Yalloong ridge to a 

 saddle 11,000 feet elevation, whence the road dips south 

 to the gloomy gorges of the eastern feeders of the 

 Tambur. Here we bade adieu to the grand alpine scenery, 

 and for several days our course lay in Nepal in a southerly 

 direction, parallel to Singalelah, and crossing every spur 

 and river sent off by that mighty range. The latter flow 

 towards the Tambur, and their beds for forty or fifty 

 miles are elevated about 3000 or 4000 feet. Pew of the 

 spurs are ascended above 5000 feet, but all of them rise to 

 12,000 or 14,000 feet to the westward, where they join 

 the Singalelah range. 



I clambered to the top of a lofty hummock, through a 

 dense thicket of interwoven Rhododendron bushes, the 

 clayey soil under which was slippery from the quantity of 

 dead leaves. I had hoped for a view of the top of 

 Kinchinjunga, which bore north-east, but it was enveloped 

 in clouds, as were all the snows in that direction ; to the 

 north-west, however, I obtained bearings of the principal 

 peaks, &c, of the Yangma and Kambachen valleys. To 

 the south and south-east, lofty, rugged and pine-clad 

 mountains rose in confused masses, and white sheets of 



VOL. I. T 



