1839.] Capt. Pemberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. 225 



it is occupied by Tongsa Pillo, on which occasion the Soobah retires 

 to Bhoomlungtung. 



The cultivation is similar to that of the other valley, but the crops 

 looked very unpromising. The soil is by no means rich, and the 

 wind excessively bleak ; wheat or barley are the only grains cultivated. 

 The mountains which hem in this valley are not very lofty ; to the 

 north, in the back ground, perpetual snow was visible. To our west 

 was the ridge which we were told we should have to cross, and which 

 in its higher parts could not be less than 12,000 feet. 



March 4th. We commenced ascending the above ridge almost im- 

 mediately on starting ; surmounting this, which is of an elevation at 

 the part we crossed of 11,035 feet, we continued for sometime at the 

 same level, through fine open woods of Pinus Smithiana : having des- 

 cended rapidly afterwards to a small nullah, 9642 feet in elevation, we 

 then reascended slightly to descend into the Jaisa valley. On the 

 east side of the ridge, i. e. that which overlooks Byagur, we soon 

 came on snow, but none was seen on its western face, notwith- 

 standing the great elevation. The country was very beautiful, 

 particularly in the higher elevations. I may here advert to the bad 

 taste exhibited in naming such objects after persons, with whom they 

 have no association whatever. As it is not possible for all travellers 

 to be consecrated by genera, although this practice is daily becoming 

 more common, we should connect their names with such trees as are 

 familiar to every European. As we have a Pinus Gerardiana and 

 Webbiana, so we ought to have had Pinus Herbertiana and Moorcrof- 

 tiana, &c. By so doing, on meeting with fir trees among the snow-clad 

 Himalayas, we should not only have beautiful objects before us, but 

 beautiful and exciting associations of able and enduring travellers. Of 

 Capt. Herbert, the most accomplished historian of these magnificent 

 mountains, there is nothing living to give him a " local habitation and 

 a name." It will be a duty to me to remedy this neglect ; and if I 

 have not a sufficiently fine fir tree hitherto undescribed in the Bootan 

 collection, I shall change the name of the very finest hitherto found, 

 and dignify it by the name Herbertiana. The prevailing tree was the 

 Smithian pine. We saw scarcely any villages, and but very little cul- 

 tivation. Jaisa is a good sized village; it was comparatively clean, and 

 the houses were, I think, better than most we had hitherto seen. We 

 were lodged in a sort of castle, consisting of a large building, with a 

 spacious flagged court yard, surrounded by rows of offices. The part 

 we occupied fronted the entrance, and its superior pretensions were 

 attested by its having an upper story. 



