492 A Journey through Sikim. [No. 6. 



Thibet to the Donkiah Pass. After some delay, the Dingpun com- 

 manding the party with the Deputy of the Soobah of Kambajong, and 

 fifteen sepoys, came up. I told the Dingpun that I had come up the 

 Lachen valley to his frontier on business, and to see the country, that 

 I had also to go to the Lachoong valley and the Donkiah Pass, and 

 that there were three ways of doing this. One was to march back to 

 Choongtam and up the Lachoong ; this would take me ten days. The 

 second was to cross the Seeboolah Pass from the head of the Lachen 

 to Samdong in the Lachoong valley ; but that route was deeply snowed 

 and dangerous. The third, the most obvious, and the easiest, was to 

 go round the northern base of Kanchanjhow, and come out by the 

 Donkiah Pass, and I wished to encamp that night at Yeuntso, going on 

 to the Pass by Cholamoo without delay. I said I knew that the route 

 proposed was not inhabited, that therefore no one could be alarmed or 

 inconvenienced by our passage, and as it would greatly convenience 

 us, it was not I thought worth their while to make us go back so far, 

 or to endanger our lives by braving the Seeboolah Pass after the 

 recent heavy fall of snow. There was much more talk between the 

 Thibetan party and my friend the Lama about the propriety of my 

 waiting for instructions from Kambajong, which the Dingpun suggested 

 he would ask for, the unprecedented nature of my request, and how 

 all their throats might be cut by orders from Lassa, if a passage was 

 effected by our party. The talking might have lasted a week without 

 any result ; at all events I thought so, and time was precious : to cut it 

 short therefore, and be no longer standing idle at the Rubicon, I told 

 the Dingpun I would with his leave move on, and I did so accordingly 

 on foot, and unopposed by word or deed from any one ; leaving the 

 Lama and all our people to arrange with the Dingpun about our fol- 

 lowers and baggage to follow me at his leisure. Hooker rode straight 

 on into Thibet when I stopped to parley with the Dingpun, and I 

 saw no more of him that day till we met at Yamchoo in the afternoon, 

 after he had been all the way to the Chalamoo Lake, and whence he 

 was then returning towards Kangra Lama in search of me, not being 

 aware that I had followed him. 



Leaving Kangra Lama at 11 a. m. stick in hand, and with a cloth 

 cloak carried over my shoulder to insure some covering for the night, 

 and followed by one chapprassey — Seetaram, — who had not the good 



