1852.] A Journey through Sikim. 427 



bad bit of ground, my friend." He replied, " It is pretty safe to-day, 

 there has been plenty of rain to take it down ; but three days of sun- 

 shine will bring it all crumbling down into the Teesta !" 



I believed him, and I am satisfied that to travel on the upper Teesta 

 in the rains needs as steady a head and as much care as any mountain 

 journeys whatever. I can now very adequately appreciate the intre- 

 pidity and zeal which has carried Hooker through five months of it 

 without a companion. 



Choongtam, October 5th. 



Started at 6 a. m. a beautiful morning, no clouds, and a fresh cold 

 weather feel in the air : a lofty Snow Peak of Kunchinjinga in sight 

 to the south west, and Peaks partially covered with snow are in 

 sight up the Teesta valley to the east and north. Crossed the Cha- 

 koong, a feeder of the Teesta, two miles from camp by a suspension 

 bridge, and at 8 o'clock crossed the Ryote by a similar bridge which 

 hung 60 feet above the torrent. It was a bed of foam for 1000 feet 

 above the bridge, and similarly furious in its course to the Teesta, which 

 it joined 300 yards below. There is a cane-bridge across the Teesta, 

 just above the junction of the Ryote. The road to-day has been 

 exceedingly difficult and very dangerous. We had to cross more than 

 a dozen landslips, some of them quite recent, and of very infirm foot- 

 ing, the river tearing past at the bottom of them with such speed 

 and violence that nothing could resist its force. The noises from 

 masses of rock rolling down with the current were incessant, and 

 resembled distant volleys of musketry. 



On nearing Chongtam the bed of the Teesta is considerably wider 

 than it is lower down, a bank of loose mud and rubble is thrown up on 

 the south side of it by the Ryote feeder, which dams up the river into 

 a quiet lake-like expansion of half a mile long. The water was 

 clear and green, and fringed with fine trees to the very edge. The 

 effect was very striking and pleasing, being greatly heightened by the 

 Chongtam hill rising at the back ground to 5000 feet, the upper por- 

 tion of it 2000 feet from the summit being clothed with verdant grass. 

 This is the first grassy land I have seen in Sikim ; it is a pleasing fore- 

 taste of what I expect beyond on the plateau of Thibet. The Lachoong 

 river coming down from the north-east is crossed by a cane-bridge 

 close to Chongtam, at which there is a large flat terrace, 200 feet 



