280 EAST NEPAL. Chap. XII. 



6000 to 9000 feet they literally swarmed, where there was 

 neither path nor animal life. They were, however, more 

 tolerable than a commoner species of parasite, which I found 

 it impossible to escape from, all classes of mountaineers 

 being infested with it. 



On the 14th, after an arduous ascent through the path- 

 less jungle, we camped at 9,300 feet on a narrow spur, in 

 a dense forest, amongst immense loose blocks of gneiss. 

 The weather was foggy and rainy, and the wind cold. I 

 ate the last supply of animal food, a miserable starved 

 pullet, with rice and Chili vinegar ; my tea, sugar, and all 

 other superfluities having been long before exhausted. 



On the following morning, we crossed the Islumbo pass 

 over Singalelah into Sikkim, the elevation being 11,000 

 feet. Above our camp the trees were few and stunted, and 

 we quickly emerged from the forest on a rocky and grassy 

 ridge, covered with withered Saxifrages, Umbelliferce, 

 Parnassia, Hypericum, 8fc. There were no pines on either 

 side of the pass ; a very remarkable peculiarity of the 

 damp mountains of Sikkim, which I have elsewhere had 

 occasion to notice : we had left Pinus longi folia (a far from 

 common tree in these valleys) at 3000 feet in the Tawa 

 three days before, and ascended to 11,000 feet without 

 passing a coniferous "tree of any kind, except a few yews, 

 at 9000 feet, covered with red berries. 



The top of the pass was broad, grassy, and bushy with 

 dwarf Bamboo, Rose, and Berberry, in great abundance, 

 covered with mosses and lichens : it had been raining hard 

 all the morning, and the vegetation was coated with ice : a 

 dense fog obscured everything, and a violent south-east 

 wind blew over the pass in our teeth. I collected 

 some very curious and beautiful mosses, putting these 

 frozen treasures into my box, in the form of exqui- 



