564 Notes upon a Tour in the Silclcim Himalayah Mountains. [No. 6. 



send some of the steadiest and strongest men into the stream, who 

 by the aid of poles manage to steady themselves and form a line 

 completely across the stream with their faces towards the source ; 

 in front of this living barricade the weaker men, those heavily laden 

 and travellers are passed safely over. At 12.15 p. m. crossed in a 

 similar manner the Sikna ; also at its junction with the Nyu, and at 

 12.45 p. m. crossed over to the left bank of the Nyu by a fallen tree. 



Halted here for half an hour ; the Barometer gave an elevation 

 of 8,321 feet, Ther. 62° in the shade. 



The rocks in the bed of the Nyu were almost entirely composed 

 of gneiss of great beauty and fineness, consisting of white quartz, 

 white, pink, green and rose felspar ; golden, silvery and black mica ; 

 garnets, and in one specimen some beautiful actinolite of a pale 

 green colour. At 4 p. m. we entered the region of Rhododendrons, 

 associated with which I noticed tea trees in blossom, maple, Bucci- 

 nicum hypericum in full blossom, Hydrangea, Daphne or paper-tree, 

 numerous flowering shrubs and an underwood of the cheem bamboo 

 of whose roasted tops, our Lepchas gave us a delicious feast in the 

 evening. "We pitched our tents in the Rhododendron forest on a 

 small piece of level land named Tumbok, from whence the name of 

 the Pass a few thousand feet above us. Our elevation was 9,660 

 feet, Ther. 67°, we have ascended 3,160 feet since the morning, leaving 

 our tormentors, the leeches, at 7,000 feet. Pew people who have not 

 travelled in the forests of Sikkim can imagine the perfect repose we 

 enjoyed when we got beyond the region of leeches ; the incessant 

 watching for these tormentors, the impossibility of standing still, or 

 of even walking slowly when amongst them, is fatiguing in the ex- 

 treme ; all pleasure is destroyed ; beautiful scenery, plants, flowers all 

 are disregarded, in order to prevent a cluster of these loathsome 

 creatures clinging round your ancles. "Watching their movements, 

 brushing them oif, the continued sprinkling of dry snuff over the 

 stockings, which is washed off again at every stream, is more than 

 enough for the undivided attention of any one. 



By observation I have learnt to save myself many hundreds of 

 bites, but, I am sorry to say, at the expense of those with me ; it is 

 never to walk behind any one, but to lead the line, which always tra- 

 vels in Indian file. Immediately a footstep has touched the path 



