274 EAST NEPAL. Chap. XII. 



mist came driving up, clinging to the mountain-tops, and 

 shrouding the landscape with extreme rapidity. The 

 remarkable mountain of Sidingbah bore south-south-east, 

 raising its rounded head above the clouds. I could, 

 however, procure no other good bearing. 



The descent from the Yalloong ridge to the Khabili 

 feeders of the Tambur was very steep, and in some places 

 almost precipitous, first through dense woods of silver fir, 

 with Rhod. Falconeri and Hodgsoni, then through Abies 

 Brunoniana, with yew (now covered with red berries) to 

 the region of Magnolias and Bhod. arbor emu and barbatum. 

 One bush of the former was in flower, making a gorgeous 

 show. Here also appeared the great oak with lamellated 

 acorns, which I had not seen in the drier valleys to the 

 westward ; with many other Dorjiling trees and shrubs. 

 A heavy mist clung to the rank luxuriant foliage, tanta- 

 lizing from its obscuring all the view. Mica schist replaced 

 the gneiss, and a thick slippery stratum of clay rendered 

 it very difficult to keep one's footing. After so many days 

 of bright sunshine and dry weather, I found this quiet, 

 damp, foggy atmosphere to have a most depressing effect ; 

 there was little to interest in the meteorology, the atmo- 

 spheric fluctuations being far too small ; geographical 

 discovery was at an end, and we groped our way along 

 devious paths in wooded valleys, or ascended spurs and 

 ridges, always clouded before noon, and clothed with heavy 

 forest. 



At 6000 feet we emerged from the mist, and found 

 ourselves clambering down a deep gully, hemmed in by 

 frightful rocky steeps, which exposed a fine and tolerably 

 continuous section of schistose rocks, striking north-west, 

 and dipping north-east, at a very high angle. 



At the bottom three furious torrents met : we descended 



