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



These wholly envelope and often conceal the tree they enclose, whose 

 leafy bowers then appear aloft far above those of its future destroyer. 

 To the first of these groups belong many natural orders, of which the 

 most prominent are Leguminosce (Bauhinia, Ccesalpinia, Dalbergia, 

 Galedupa, Butea, Robinia, Mimosa). Vines, Pothos, Bignoniacece, 

 Menispermacece, Malpighiac.ee, and a few other natural orders. The 

 inosculating branched ones are almost all figs. 



At night the Lepchas sit late chatting round the fire, wretchedly 

 housed, miserably clad, and very insufficiently fed. A more thoroughly 

 happy people it would be difficult to find any where ; they very rarely 

 quarrel amongst themselves, and their disposition is singularly cheerful 

 and lively. The flute is their favorite and only musical instrument ; it 

 is of bamboo, has only 4 equi-distant holes, situated far below the 

 mouth-hole, which again is remote from the butt end of the instrument. 

 It is very difficult to sound, the tone low and sweet. I have often 

 listened with real pleasure to the simple music of this rude wind instru- 

 ment ; its voice is singularly seolian, as are the airs usually played, 

 which fall by octaves ; it seems to harmonize with the solitude of their 

 primseval forests. 



A thermometer sunk 2 feet 4 inches in the deep vegetable mould and 

 clay, fell to 62°, and stood at 61.7 on the following morning. 



Except for the occasional hooting of an owl, the night was profoundly 

 still for several hours, after dark, it being too early in the season for 

 the Cicadas. A dense mist shrouded every thing and the rain pattered 

 on the leaves of our hut. At midnight a tree frog broke into the 

 stillness with his curious metallic clack, and others quickly taking up 

 the burthen, they kept up their strange intercourse till morning. This 

 is called the " Simook" (Lepcha), and like so many Butrachians, has a 

 voice less like that of an animal, than any organized creature I know. 

 The cries of beasts, birds and insects are all more explicable to our 

 senses, and we can recognize most of them as belonging to such or such 

 an order of animalia. But the voices of many frogs are like nothing 

 else, and allied species utter noises which betray no affinity between them. 

 In some, as this, it is the sound of the concussion of metals, in others 

 of the ringing of steel or brass, any thing but the natural effects of 

 lungs, larynx and muscles.* 



* A very common Tasmanian species, utters a sound that appears to ring in an 

 underground vaulted chamber beneath the feet. 



