614 Notes upon a Tour m the SikJcim Himalayan Mountains. [No. 7. 



Sikkim, Kanglanamo is made to appear covered with perpetual snow ; 

 this is a mistake, as I found the following plants on its summit and 

 no snow ; yellow and purple aromatic rhododendrons and another 

 kind, rose, pyrus americana, and many small flowers. 



The stratification of the gneiss at this elevation is perfectly 

 horizontal, and in no way contorted, as it is at 7,000 feet and lower 

 — associated with the gneiss on Kanglanamo is much hornblende 

 and a black micaceous slate, green felspar, veins of snow-white 

 quartz and masses of black mica. 



The view from the summit of Kanglanamo is very extensive, em- 

 bracing as it does nearly two hundred miles of the Nepal snowy 

 range, and showing the junction of Kunchinjinga with the Nepal 

 range : a sharp peak bearing a little to the north of west, distant 200 

 miles, that has been visible for two days, but has barely altered its 

 bearing I imagine to be Gosainthan mountain, directly north of 

 Catmandu ; so that from Grosainthan mountain on the west round by 

 the Nepal snowy range passing round by Kunchinjinga, Pundeem, 

 the eastern snowy range down southward to Cholah — we had a 

 glorious panorama of three hundred miles of perpetual snow, peak 

 towering above peak, all approach to which appears guarded by steep, 

 precipitous and bare rocky mountains. Looking to the south the 

 plains of Bengal appear but a very few miles distant, although sixty 

 miles removed, and on a very clear day the Eajmuhal Hills south of 

 the Granges distant 165 miles must be visible, as they are from lower 

 elevations. Chumulari could not be seen, though I searched well for 

 him — probably haze or clouds shut him out from our view. On the 

 north-west we could see the Wallanchun and Kanglachema passes 

 into Tibet, forty miles distant. Over these passes salt is brought 

 from the salt lakes in Tibet. The salt is laden first upon men's 

 backs, who with much difficulty convey it over a dangerous portion 

 of the pass, it is then transferred to the backs of sheep who convey 

 it over the narrow footpaths of the great elevations ; from the sheep 

 it is transferred to yaks, from yaks to bullocks and eventually, when 

 nearing the plains, it is transferred to carts. 



There is a strange prophecy amongst the Bhotias concerning 

 these salt lakes, it is as follows : In the salt lake region there is one 

 large lake from which no salt has hitherto been obtained by reason 



