Jan. 1849. SALT-SMUGGLING. 341 



me that it took five days to reach Yalloong in Nepal from 

 Yoksun, on the third of which the Kanglanamo pass is 

 crossed, which is open from April to November, but is 

 always heavily snowed. Owing to this duty, and the 

 remoteness of the eastern passes, the people on the west 

 side of the Great Rungeet were compelled to pay an 

 enormous sum for salt ; and the Lamas of Changachelling 

 and Pemiongchi petitioned Dr. Campbell to use his influence 

 with the Nepal Court to have the Kanglanamo pass 

 re-opened, and the power of trading with the Tibetans of 

 Wallanchoon, Yangma, and Kambachen, restored to them : 

 the pass having been closed since the Nepalese war, to 

 prevent the Sikkim people from kidnapping children and 

 slaves, as was alleged to be their custom.* 



We passed some immense landslips, which had swept the 

 forest into the torrent, and exposed white banks of angular 

 detritus of gneiss and granite : we crossed one 200 yards 

 long, by a narrow treacherous path, on a slope of 35° : the 

 subjacent gneiss was nearly vertical, striking north-east. 

 We camped at 6,670 feet, amongst a vegetation I little 

 expected to find so close to the snows of Kinchin ; it con- 

 sisted of oak, maple, birch, laurel; rhododendron, white 

 Daphne, jessamine, Arum, Begonia, Cyrtandracece, pepper, 

 fig, Menispermum, wild cinnamon, Scitaminecs, several 

 epiphytic orchids, vines, and ferns in great abundance. 



On the following day, I proceeded north-west up the 

 Ratong river, here a furious torrent; which we crossed, 



* An accusation in which there was probably some truth; for the Sikkim 

 Dingpun, who guided Dr. Campbell and myself to Mainom, Tassiding, &c, since 

 kidnapped, or caused to be abducted, a girl of Brahmin parents, from the Mai 

 valley of Nepal, a transaction which cost him some 300 rupees. The Nepal 

 Durbar was naturally furious, the more so as the Dingpun had no caste, and 

 was therefore abhorred by all Brahmins. Kestitution was demanded through 

 Dr. Campbell, who caused the incensed Dingpun to give up his paramour and her 

 jewels. He vowed vengeance against Dr. Campbell, and found means to gratify 

 it, as I shall hereafter show. 



