352 STKKTM HIMALAYA. Chap. XV. 



To reach Tashimkpa by the eastern route from Yoksun, 

 being a journey of about twenty-five days, requires a long 

 detour to the southward and eastward, and afterwards the 

 ascent of the Teesta valley, to Kongra Lama, and so north 

 to the Tibetan Aran. 



My first operation after encamping and arranging my 

 instruments, was to sink the ground 'thermometer ; but 

 the earth being frozen for sixteen inches, it took four men 

 several hours' work with hammer and chisel, to penetrate 

 so deep. There was much vegetable matter for the first 

 eight or ten inches, and below that a fine red clay. I 

 spent the afternoon, which was fine, in botanising. When 

 the sun shone, the smell of the two rhododendrons was 

 oppressive, especially as a little exertion at this eleva- 

 tion brings on headache. There were few mosses ; but 

 crustaceous lichens were numerous, and nearly all of them 

 of Scotch, Alpine, European, and Arctic kinds. The 

 names of these, given by the classical Linnaeus and 

 Wahlenberg, tell in some cases of their birth-places, in 

 others of their hardihood, their lurid colours and weather- 

 beaten aspects ; such as tristis, r/elida, glacialis, arctica, 

 alpina, sascatilis, polaris, frigida, and numerous others 

 equally familiar to the Scotch botanist. I recognised many 

 as natives of the wild mountains of Cape Horn, and the 

 rocks of the stormy Antarctic ocean ; since visiting which 

 regions I had not gathered them. The lichen called 

 geogrcqildcus was most abundant, and is found to indicate 

 a certain degree of cold in every latitude ; descending to 

 the level of the sea in latitude 52° north, and 50° south, but 

 in lower latitudes only to be seen on mountains. It 

 flourishes at 10,000 feet on the Himalaya, ascending 

 thence to 18,000 feet. Its name, however, was not 

 intended to indicate its wide range, but the curious 



