1853.] Notes upon a Tour in the Sikkim Himalayan Mountains. 569 



As we ascended the grassy knoll that overhung our tents, the 

 snowy range of Nepal was revealed to our sight, with all its attend- 

 ant beauties of deep valleys and blue mountains for a foreground. 

 For three and a half hours we had to cut our way through a forest 

 of rhododendrons, red currant trees in full fruit though not ripe, 

 maple, juniper, birch, white rose, cherry trees in full fruit, with an 

 underwood of Aconitum palmatum or bikh, the root of which is a 

 deadly poison, and of which our Lepchas dug up a quantity ; a purple- 

 flowered garlic, many beautiful flowers, the forget-me-not, the poppy- 

 like garnet-coloured and yellow mecanopsis, and a great variety of 

 wild flowers. The roots of this deadly aconitum are collected by 

 the hill-men (Puharias) I believe in the spring, and exported to Cal- 

 cutta and to other places, where it sells for one rupee the seer. Its 

 uses were laughingly described to me by my merry Lepcha guide, 

 as " useful to sportsmen for destroying elephants and tigers, useful 

 to the rich for putting troublesome relations out of the way, and 

 useful to jealous husbands for the purpose of destroying faithless 

 wives." 



Its poisonous power is so great that a Lepcha died at Darjeeling, 

 some months ago, who when crossing the hot valleys had allowed the 

 root which was carried across his shoulder in an open cane-basket, 

 to rub against his moist naked body ; during this time he imbibed 

 through the pores of the skin sufficient of the poisonous principle 

 to cause his death. 



At 10 a. m. we arrived at a grassy spot, where the remains of a 

 Gurung's house stood. The Grurungs are a pastoral race of Hin- 

 doos residing in Nepal, who, during the summer, drive up to the base 

 of the snows large flocks of sheep, where they depasture the grass 

 found as high as 14,000 feet, and gradually retreat to lower eleva- 

 tions as the summer draws to a close. 



Erom this spot we found a good footpath leading along the crest 

 of Singaieelah ; we had passed over five high peaks and now stood 

 upon a very high one with immense blocks of moss-capped gneiss 

 protruding through the soil ; which latter was a carpet of beautiful 

 flowers, the pretty Veronica predominating. Halted an hour to 

 breakfast and to rest and at 11 a. m. commenced the ascent of 

 Sughoo mountain, passing through a forest of small rhododendrons 



4 c 2 



