486 A Journey through Sikim. [No. 6. 



excitement for an hour, when I reached a turning that brought the 

 mountain in full front of me, and here I had 20 minutes of great 

 delight before any one came up, and before the envious clouds had 

 greatly marred the prospect. I did not however get a full view at any 

 one time of this noble mountain, which rises within 3 or 4 miles dis- 

 tance to 5 or 6,000 feet above where I stood at 15,000 feet; masses 

 of fleeting clouds obscured large portions of its sides, and occasionally 

 flew with the rapidity of lightning over its crest, leaving its sides and 

 base only in full view, which was very tantalising. 



It is a table-topped mountain, the outline of which describes a very 

 flat arch ; the dip to the west is sudden, to the east it is perpendicu- 

 lar, and the south face is equally so. The summit is an enormous 

 bank of snow, at least a mile long, of the purest whiteness, and un- 

 broken anywhere by protending rocks. The cliffs in front were 

 sprinkled with newly fallen snow, and from their base to the foot of 

 the mountain lay a mass of sloping snow of 2,000 feet or so in 

 breadth. 



Advancing further, we ascended gradually by a sloping spur to 

 Phaloong, which is an open expanse of undulating ground, or a succes- 

 sion of downs extending for 3 miles or more in a North Eaot direction 

 to the base of Kanchanjhow, and of nearly equal breadth, being bound- 

 ed on the east by the valley of the Ihachoo, and on the west, bv a 

 mountain range of easy slope and grassy surface, which divides Pha- 

 loong from the valley of the Lachen. The whole of Phaloong is 

 quite bare of trees or shrubs, but affords excellent pasturage in grass 

 sedges and numerous herbs. The mean elevation of the downs is 

 16,000 feet, the bounding range to the west being about 500 feet 

 higher, with similar pasturage to its summit on the south-east expo- 

 sure ; and nothing but bare rock and loose stones on the north-west- 

 ern one.* 



The ridge which divides Phaloong from the Lachen valley was 

 thinly snowed over at noon. Phaloong was so at 8 a. m. ; but it all 

 disappeared by 10 o'clock under the rays of a very hot sun, which 



* This is the character of the Lachen valley also all the way from Tongu to 

 Kangra Lama, when a red-coloured rocky spur from Chomiomo comes down in an 

 easterly direction, its flank facing you as you look to the north, and appearing to 

 shut up the head of the valley completely. 



