1852.] A Journey through Sikim. 493 



sense to bring on the pony when I left the Dingpun, I ascended a 

 gentle grassy slope in a north-easterly direction for less than a mile, 

 when I came upon a flat expanse of three miles broad, bounded on the 

 right — south — by Kanchanjhow, on the left — north — by a fine red 

 spur of Chomiomo ; the Lachen flowing very slowly and in a trifling 

 stream nearly in the centre of the flat expanse. There were about 

 100 yaks feeding on this expanse. They were tended by a dozen 

 robust Thibetans, who stared at me in dumb amazement ; their black 

 hair cloth tents were pitched close by, each with a huge black and 

 tame watch dog at the entrance, and some rosy-cheeked children play- 

 ing around. The pasture was short, quite scorched by the frost and 

 sun, and crumbled under my feet like snuff. The sun was bright and 

 very hot, the air dry and elastic, the sky blue and quite cloudless, not 

 a tree, shrub, or herbaceous plant to be seen. I waited a little to won- 

 der at this change, so great, from the moist forests, and cloudy skies 

 of Sikim, and then moved on without any guide, keeping close by 

 the base of Kanchanjhow, its nobly expanded sides, and rounded sum- 

 mit of unbroken snow towering over my head to the south of me. 

 Hugging the base of Kanchanjhow, and at an elevation of about 400 

 feet above the Lachen, I kept on due east till 2 p. m., when I reached 

 a rocky spur from the mountain, from which I saw the Yeumtso Lake 

 to the north and east of me. Halted here for Seetaram, who lagged 

 behind, having been attacked with fever since we started in the morn- 

 ing. I had a good deal of oppressed breathing, although I walked 

 slowly, and my pulse had been 108 all the way. The prospect at this 

 point is very fine. To the south, there is an immense saddle of snow, 

 probably two miles broad, lying between two peaks of Kanchanjhow ; 

 below me to the north is the valley of the Lachen, flat, with the river 

 winding through a whitish expanse of sandy like deposit — Carb. of 

 soda. To the east and trending north a fine red mountain — a spur 

 from Kanchanjhow, which divides the Yeumtso and the Cholamoo 

 Lakes. To the north-east the view is closed by a table-land, bare and 

 scorched, which stretching from Donkiah bounds the Lachen valley in 

 that direction, and is lost in the undulating downs to the north, which 

 seem to extend for ten miles at least in that direction and towards 

 Geree. To the north — and over a rocky range of red and white 

 quartz which bounds the Lachen valley to the north — and about forty 



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