1853.] Notes upon a Tour in the Sihkim Ilimalay ah Mountains. 617 



Not being able to come to any terms about the purchase of some 

 sheep, we left the Gurung's hut, and descended a few hundred feet 

 under the guidance of one of the Gurungs to a fir forest, from whence 

 we again ascended and encamped at one p. m. upon a grassy moun- 

 tain covered with sheep tracks and overhanging the deep valley of 

 the Tung-ya river. "We were above the line of firs at 12,109 feet, 

 Thermometer 56°, my breathing was very much affected, and it was 

 with great difficulty I managed the last ascent, and with greater 

 difficulty I managed to bag a beautiful scarlet-legged pheasant. 

 Our Lepchas, who are the most timid of mortals, appeared rather 

 frightened at being in Nepal, especially as the Gurung Sirdar had 

 been questioning them as to the meaning of our party coming into 

 Nepal. He was informed that the rocky nature of the summit of 

 Singaleelah was the reason we were in the Nepal territory, and that 

 had it been possible to have avoided crossing the Sikkim boundary, 

 we would not have done so. The Sirdar said, it was all very well 

 talking, but he knew very well that we had come to examine the 

 boundary, and that he would report our party to the Nepal Durbar, 

 which we suppose he did, as we saw a messenger depart that very 

 afternoon towards the west. 



Towards the evening the Gurungs brought some dead sheep for 

 sale that had been killed on account of sickness produced by eating 

 the aconitum. The Gurungs watch the animal that has partaken 

 of this deadly plant, and if they find there is no chance of its living, 

 its throat is cut and the carcass eaten. The wool is first cut off 

 close and the stumps singed until the animal appears dressed in 

 parchment. Strange to say the Lepchas, who will eat snakes, frogs 

 and other extraordinary food, would not partake of these diseased 

 sheep, the two carcasses therefore that I purchased were made over 

 to the Nepalese Hindoo coolies, four in number, who consumed the 

 two sheep in two days. 



Across a deep valley immediately opposite or west of our small 

 encampment, was an immense cascade falling by a succession of 

 leaps from upwards of 3,000 feet down into the valley of the Yung- 

 ya river. To our east the ragged and serrated crest of Singaleelah 

 rose some thousand feet above us, the horizontal masses of gneiss 

 being destitute of any vegetation. About 2,000 feet above our camp, 



