Jan. 1849. CAMP ON RATONG. 



333 



It is quite impossible for any one who cannot from experi- 

 ence realise the solitary wandering life I had been leading 

 for months, to appreciate the desolate feeling that follows 

 the parting from one who has heightened every enjoyment, 

 and taken far more than his share of every annoyance and 

 discomfort : the few days we had spent together appeared 

 then, and still, as months. 



On my return to Pemiongchi I spent the remainder of 

 the day sketching in the great temple, gossiping with the 

 Lamas, and drinking salted and buttered tea-soup, which I 

 had begun to like, when the butter was not rancid. 



My route hence was to be along, the south flank of 

 Kinchinjunga, north to Jongri, which lay about four or five 

 marches off, on the road to the long deserted pass of 

 Kanglanamo, by which I had intended entering Sikkim 

 from Nepal, when I found the route up the Yalloong valley 

 impracticable. The village and ruined convents of Yoksun 

 lay near the route, and the temples of Doobdi, Catsuperri 

 and Molli, on the Ratong river. 



I descended to the village of Tchonpong (alt. 4,980 

 feet), where I was detained a day to obtain rice, of 

 which I required ten days' supply for twenty -five people. 

 On the way I passed groves of the paper-yielding Edge- 

 worthia Gardneri: it bears round heads of fragrant, beautiful, 

 yellow flowers, and would be a valuable acquisition to an 

 English conservatory. 



From Tchonpong we descended to the bed of the 

 Rungbee (alt. 3,160 feet), an affluent of the Ratong, flowing 

 in a deep gulley with precipitous sides of mica schist 

 full of garnets, dipping west and north-west 45° : it was 

 spanned by a bridge of two loose bamboo culms, about 

 fifteen yards long, laid across without handrails ; after wet 

 sand had been thrown on it the bare-footed coolies crossed 



