1853.] Notes upon a Tour in the Sikkim Himalayali Mountains. 559 



down the valley of the Kullait, a wild and beautiful scene. The 

 fort, which is built of flat slabs of gneiss rock, is fifty feet square 

 with walls eight feet in height, with a square bastion in the centre of 

 each face ; the walls are pierced for musketry. Within the fort are 

 two houses the residence of a Bhooteah, by name Oheoong Lethoo, 

 who styles himself the Sirdar or chief of Singaleelah, and of the 

 valley of the Kullait ; he receives no pay from the Eajah of Sikkim, 

 but has to collect soldiers from his district, when required, which, I 

 imagine, is not often the case. This little stronghold is surrounded 

 by fields of Indian corn, rice and murrooa. Immediately under the 

 walls were cucumbers and chillies, whilst all beyond this small 

 cleared space is dense forest. The fort was built by the present 

 owner's father, who was a man of note in Sikkim. As we approached 

 the fort, the Sirdar was seen parading up and down upon the top of 

 the walls, gun in hand, his basket hat, which was highly ornamented 

 with sparkling plates of mica, shining like a helmet in the sun. He 

 seemed wonder-struck at seeing our long line of fifteen coolies and 

 two Sirdars, headed by two Europeans, invading his forest fastness, 

 where from the commencement to the close of the year a stranger 

 is never seen. Our presence seemed to distress him very much, and 

 it was some time before he would condescend to answer any of our 

 questions regarding the road up to the summit of Singaleelah. A 

 present of gunpowder, shot and ball for his old English single-bar- 

 relled gun seemed to please him, as he soon after volunteered to be 

 our guide to a village where his wife and family were residing a few 

 miles further up the valley, and where we should be obliged to halt 

 for the night. This was most fortunate, as, without his assistance, 

 we never could possibly have found the footpath which crosses and 

 recrosses streams and forest tracts, in some places without a trace of 

 a footpath. 



From the fort we descended to the banks of the Kullait, which 

 river we skirted for a short distance until we came upon the spot 

 where the Sungroo and Sungsor streams, both flowing from the south, 

 fall into the Nyu, a feeder of the Kullait, only a few yards from 

 each other. The noise of the three streams, filled as they were by 

 the late heavy rains, can only be understood by a visit to the spot. 

 The roar and confusion caused by the falling, bounding and foaming 



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