626 Notes upon a Tour in the SiJcJcim Hhnalayah Mountains. [No. 7, 



pair of yak horns that were nailed to a post in the house. I had 

 shown some desire to take back a good pair with me, but I could 

 not consent in the absence of the owner to remove them, especially 

 as they were evidently prized by the herdsmen from their superior 

 size and shape. 



Underneath the houses, which were built after the usual Bhotia 

 fashion, there was accommodation for the yak calves. 



From Tangpoong the descent was rapid, in the morning we had 

 stood where nothing grew except a minute golden lichen, we were 

 now at noon in a handsome forest, having passed rapidly through the 

 various botanical grades of lichen, small flowers, juniper, rhododen- 

 dron, fir, oaks, chesnut, to our tormentors the leeches. At noon we 

 passed a small stone-altar called " Mon LepcTia" erected by the 

 Lepchas, in honour of the "principle of evil ;" we put up in a yak 

 herd's hut on the left bank of the Eungbi, close to where it is joined 

 by a fine stream flowing from the mountains to the east. 



August \4dh, 1852. Started at 6.15 a. m. in a southerly direc- 

 tion crossing the Eungbi over a handsome bridge close to our 

 encampment. These bridges consist of a few saplings, their thicker 

 ends being stepped under heavy stones, their lighter ends are brought 

 together and form the crown of an arch ; from this arch, loops of 

 creepers hang down, into which one single sapling is laid, and forms 

 the platform along which the traveller walks — we were now in a 

 deep valley flanked on the west by the lofty Singaleelah, and on the 

 east by the Catsuperri mountains, our path lay through a heavy 

 forest a few feet above the Eungbi, a fine broad river full of rapids 

 and water falls. 



At 11 A. M. we arrived at a small patch of cultivation showing 

 that we had descended 9,000 feet since yesterday morning. At this 

 spot I measured one of the large black epirce bird eating spiders, 

 and found him to be eight inches across the legs ; at 11.30 a. m. we 

 reached Eungbi a Limboo clearance with four houses, near which was 

 a small stone altar and some handsome trees of the fir species with 

 very fine leaves. 



In the deep valley of the Eungbi we met a party of Limboos, men, 

 women and children all busy poisoning fish in the stream — our sud- 

 den appearance in the narrow path running througli a thick tropi- 



