1852.] A Journey through Sikim. 489 



mountain in all the splendour of unclouded brightness, a monster 

 mass of brilliant snow; to the northeast and east, the Donkiah 

 Lah 23,000 feet; the Seeboo Lah Pass 18,000 feet, and the Changoo 

 Kang mountain 22,000 feet, were in equal glory ; to the west, no less 

 lofty and brilliant, the peak of Chomiomo was full in sight ; while down 

 the valley of Lachen to the south-west, innumerable snowy peaks of 

 minor note closed the view behind us. Ascending the ridge which 

 divides Phaloong from Lachen — to about 17,000 feet — our prospect 

 was still more extended and beautiful. Here we had Kunchinjinga to 

 the W. S. W., Kanchanjhow, E. N. E , and not 2 miles off, with the 

 intervening downs of Phaloong as a foreground at our feet. To the 

 north and west a fine rounded red and yellow coloured spur from 

 Chomiomo, extending across the head of the Lachen valley to Kangra 

 Lama, and standing in bold relief against the clearest azure sky, gave 

 me a delightful foretaste of Thibetan scenery. The whole was such a 

 round of novel glories, such a vast picture of splendid objects on a 

 great scale, that I was overcome with the deepest emotion. I could 

 not realise a landscape of this gigantic nature, distinctly and in detail, 

 far less can I describe it. Never however shall 1 forget that scene ; 

 then it was that I first found out the real depth and intensity of the 

 hold these mountains have always had on my mind and feelings, nor 

 did I then wonder, nor do I now, at their being objects of veneration 

 and worship to the human beings who dwell among them. 



From the ridge above Phaloong a very large glacier on the east 

 face of Chomiomo is visible ; it discharges itself by the Chomiochoo, 

 which falls into the Lachen five miles above Tungu. The south-east 

 exposure of the Phaloong ridge has soil and pasture up to 17,000 

 feet. The north-west exposure is quite barren and rocky at that 

 elevation; but at 16,000 feet it is covered with a diminutive heather- 

 like Rhododendron — R. Setosum of Hooker — lower down, the pasture 

 is composed of small rushes, grass, and numerous herbs. The whole 

 of Phaloong is covered with a knobby peaty soil, on which the vege- 

 tation is now browning fast under the approach of winter. 



We had a fine breeze from the south all day, the air was light and 

 bracing, sky clear and cloudless. Temp, at 2 p. m. on the flat of Pha- 

 loong 51°. Wet bulb Ther. 44°. No snow at 17,000 feet. 



We saw a flock of forty wild sheep ; it is called Naa by the Bbotias, 



