92 Trip to the Bulcha and Oonta Dhoora Passes. QNo. 134. 



of road to the river, the bed of which, including debouchements of 

 these rills, is fully half a mile wide, formed of loose stones and gravel. 



At 6h. 55m. p. m., reached the river flowing from East nearly due 

 West, and joining the Chingnoo stream about a mile or less below 

 Luikhel, after passing through a magnificently bold cleft in the hill 

 of solid rock for many hundred feet of perpendicular height. This 

 river comes from the hill North of Lufkhel in several small streams. 

 These unite somewhere to the East, and had been swollen, either by 

 rain or some other cause into a rapid torrent thirty or forty yards wide, 

 through which the jooboos carried us with very great difficulty. In 

 fact it was dangerous work, but this rapid rise will probably decrease 

 very speedily, as the river is usually fordable by sheep. I reached 

 Lufkhel at 7h. 10m. a. m., much fatigued. This is a pretty halting 

 place (no village) a few hundred feet above the river, shut in by an 

 amphitheatre of low hills, which form the base of the last range before 

 Thibet. The thorn bush (damah) is tolerably abundant, and the 

 hollows are covered with deliriously emerald-colored young grasses. 

 The place is a favorite pasturage, and during the rains some of the 

 nearest Thibet villagers pitch their tents here. Lufkhel and Topee 

 Doongah were the refuge of numerous Thibetans, when the Seiks ad- 

 vanced last year. 



My servants and jooboos had arrived sometime before me, after two 

 and three quarter hours' travelling from Chingnoo.* Their road was 

 excellent, and lay over a succession of the small hillocks I have de- 

 scribed. The Lama was encamped at Lufkhel in a great state of alarm, 

 and very indignant with Nagoo and Dhunsing, (whom he knew well,) 



* At and about Chingnoo, there is a little grass for cattle, and 1 found one salgram 

 here. I saw also the foot-print of an animal called "chunkoo." This I had sup- 

 posed to be a small tiger, but from subsequent description of the color, hunting in 

 packs, and lolling out the tongue when fatigued, it must be the wolf, and judging 

 from the foot-prints, of large size. The " chunkoo" will kill jooboos, also whole 

 flocks of sheep and goats if left untended. It also hunts the burral, but is said never 

 to attack a man. The " thurwak," is a smaller animal, slightly marked like a tiger, and 

 hunts singly. (Perhaps Felis macrocelis hitherto supposed to be confined to Sumatra, 

 but of which a specimen has just been l'eceived in our Museum from E. B. Ryan, 

 Esq. who obtained it at Darjeeling. Eds.) Possibly I may yet see these animals. The 

 two streams at Chingnoo have rather wide gravel beds, denoting a large body of water 

 at some period of the year. 



Much to my surprise, Nagoo informs me, that the jooboo will breed, either male or 

 female, with the cow or bull. The produce is called "toloo," is but little used, and 

 I fancy but rare. Nagoo could not tell me where one was to be seen. 



