360 SIKKIM HIMALAYA. Chap. XVI. 



to reopen the Kanglanamo pass, and thus give some occu- 

 pation to their herds of yaks, which were now wandering 

 idly about. 



I botanized for two days on the Yoksun flat, searching 

 for evidence of lacustrine strata or moraines, being more 

 than ever convinced by the views I had obtained of this 

 place from Mon Lepcha, that its uniformity of surface was 

 due to water action. It is certainly the most level area of 

 its size that I know of in Sikkim, though situated in one 

 of the deepest valleys, and surrounded on almost all sides 

 by very steep mountains ; and it is far above the flat gravel 

 terraces of the present river-beds. I searched the surface 

 of the flat for gravel beds in vain, for though it 

 abounds in depressions that must have formerly been 

 lake-beds, and are now marshes in the rainy season, these 

 were all floored with clay. Along the western edge, where 

 the descent is very steep for 1800 feet to the Ratong, I 

 found no traces of stratified deposits, though the spurs which 

 projected from it were often flattened at top. The only 

 existing lake has sloping clay banks, covered with spongy 

 vegetable mould ; it has no permanent affluent or outlet, its 

 present drainage being subterranean, or more probably by 

 evaporation ; but there is an old water-channel several feet 

 above its level. It is eighty to a hundred yards across, and 

 nearly circular ; its depth three or four feet, increased to 

 fifteen or sixteen in the rains ; like all similar pools in 

 Sikkim, it contains little or no animal life at this season, and 

 I searched in vain for shells, insects, or frogs. All around 

 were great blocks of gneiss, some fully twelve feet square. 



The situation of this lake is very romantic, buried in a 

 tall forest of oaks and laurels, and fringed by wild camellia 

 shrubs ; the latter are not the leafy, deep green, large-blos- 

 somed plants of our greenhouses, but twiggy bushes with 



