1852.] A Journey through Sikim. 425 



hope, defy for the future. The little Lama, seeing the plight I was in 

 this morning, recommended me to roll moistened tobacco leaves round 

 my feet. I did so, and with the most perfect success ; I had not a 

 leech bite all day, and when I took off my shoes a dozen were dead 

 on the stockings under the tobacco leaves, not having done me any 

 damage. 



Miangh is a flattish terrace overgrown with a rank jungle of reed 

 grass, wormwood, &c. ; the soil, a rich black peaty loam saturated with 

 moisture and covered here and there by small stagnant pools of water. 



Although the place has apparently all the requisites of virulent mala* 

 ria, it is said, and I hope truly said, to be quite healthy. Indeed the 

 whole valley of the Teesta above Bansong is considered by all the 

 people in this direction to be free from malaria ; if it be so, the fact 

 must, I think, be attributed entirely to the precepitous character of 

 the mountains bounding the valley, which rise almost perpendicularly 

 from the bed of the river to the height of 2000 feet. 



They are however generally clothed with a dense forest ; and although 

 the action of the sun on decaying vegetable matter may doubtless 

 be much limited by the near approach of both banks, the decay of 

 vegetable matter must nevertheless be very great, and on the terraces 

 such as that of Miangh the putrid smell covered by it was most offen- 

 sive. If it shall really turn out that malaria is not rife and powerful 

 here, an opinion which I have long held, that an expanded horizontal 

 surface in the mountain valleys is essential to the generation of this 

 mysterious and pestilent agency, will be confirmed. Rank vegetation, 

 a retentive soil, and profuse moisture alone, will not produce it if it be 

 not generated here. Our present encampment is a flat terrace similar 

 to Miangh not 100 feet above the river ; it is composed of sandy soil, 

 and is occupied by fine alders and young birches ; it is also considered 

 quite healthy. Landslips appear in many places, and on both sides 

 of the river. This is quite characteristic of the Teesta above Goreh. 

 Last evening at 5 o'clock I was startled by what I believed to be a 

 great explosion in the sky, followed by what seemed to be an increasing 

 peal of thunder. It suddenly ceased, and not being followed by any- 

 thing similar, and there being no lightning afterwards, I was puzzled 

 to account for the phenomenon. This morning, however, some of my 

 people who were encamped a little lower down the valley, asked me if 



