420 Notes, chiefly Botanical, made during an [May, 



transported to great distances is very surprising ; on an average our- 

 Lepcha loads weighed 100 to 120 lbs. On our return we had the 

 curiosity to weigh the then sodden tent, which was 180 lbs., and had 

 been carried for 10 hours both up and down hill in this state. To 

 keep the contents of the basket dry, the Lepcha makes a large hood of 

 bamboo platting, enclosing layers of leaves of Scitaminece ; this fits over 

 their heads and baskets, reaching as low as the hips, but open in front, 

 and leaving both the upper and lower limbs free. 



In point of climate Tonglo shares the excessive humidity of the rest 

 of Sikkim, though when viewed from Darjiling it is often seen to be 

 clear when all the northern and much nearer eastern and south-eastern 

 mountains are wrapped in clouds. This arises from its position, and 

 its protection from the S. E. or rainy wind. It rises as a long saddle^ 

 from that great southern spur of Kunchin-jinga, (which should bear 

 the general name of Singalelah) and which, dividing Nepal from Sikkim 

 throughout its whole length, extends from the perpetual snows of per- 

 haps the loftiest mountain on the globe, to the plains of India. The direc- 

 tion of this ridge is of course meridional. At right angles to, and a little 

 south of Tonglo, the Sinchul ridge of 9000 feet, meets that of Singale- 

 lah, and thus two sides of a box are formed, one of which, the meri- 

 dional, encloses Sikkim to the west, whilst the other shuts it off from 

 the plains on the south. Darjiling, placed on a spur projecting N. from 

 Sinchul, is a ridge parallel to that of Tonglo, which bounds its western 

 horizon. Throughout the greater part of the year the S. E. wind pre- 

 vails, rising at sunrise, and its vapors are condensed at once on the 

 forests of Sinchul ; billowy clouds rapidly succeed small patches of 

 vapor, and rolling over to the N. side of the mount, are carried N. W., 



mixed with, and he is both more idle and less addicted to the head-strap as a porter. 

 I have seen it to be almost universal in some villages of Bhotheas, where the 

 head-strap alone is used in carrying in both summer and winter crops, as who 

 amongst the salt traders, or rather those families who carry the salt from the passes 

 to the Nipalese villages, and who very frequently have no shoulder-straps, but invari- 

 ably head bands. I am far from attributing all goitre, even in the mountains to 

 this practice, but I think it is proved, that the disease is most prevalent in the 

 mountainous regions of both the old and new world, and that in these the practice of 

 supporting enormous loads by the cervical muscles is frequent. It is also found in 

 the Himalayan sheep and goats, which accompany the salt traders, and whose loads 

 are supported in ascending, by a band passing under the throat. 





