220 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



HIMALAYAN REPTILES AND INSECTS. 



I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes, 

 which are rare and shy in most parts of the Hima- 

 laya. I, however, found an extremely venomous 

 one at Choongtam — a small black viper, a variety 

 of the cobra di capello, which it replaces in the 

 drier grassy parts of the interior of Sikkim, the 

 large cobra not inhabiting the mountain regions. 

 Altogether I only collected about twelve species 

 in Sikkim, seven of which are venomous, and all 

 are dreaded by the Lepchas. An enormous 

 hornet ( Vespa magnified, Sm.), nearly two inches 

 long, was here brought to me alive, in a cleft-stick, 

 lolling out its great thorn-like sting, from which 

 drops of a milky poison distilled. Its sting is said 

 to produce fatal fevers in men and cattle, which 

 may very well be the case, judging from that of a 

 smaller kind, which left great pain in my hand 

 for two days, while a feeling of numbness remained 

 in the arm for several weeks. It is called Vok by 

 the Lepchas, a common name for any bee. Its 

 larva; are said to be greedily eaten, as are those 

 of various allied insects. Choongtam boasts a 

 profusion of beautiful insects, amongst which the 

 British swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio Macliaon) 

 disports itself in company with magnificent black, 

 gold, and scarlet winged butterflies of the Trojan 

 group, so typical of the Indian tropics. At night 

 my tent was filled with small water-beetles {Berosi) 

 that quickly put out the candle ; and with lovely 

 moths came huge cockchafers (Encerris Grijfithii) 

 and enormous and foetid flying bugs (of the genus 

 Derecterix), which bear great horns on the thorax. 

 The irritation of mosquito and midge bites, and 

 the disgusting insects that clung with spiny legs 

 to the blankets of my tent and bed, were often as 

 effectual in banishing sleep as were my anxious 

 thoughts regarding the future. 



The author's description of his sufferings 

 by the attacks of insects well deserves 

 chronicling : 



INSECT LIFE, — A BUSY SCENE. 



The weather continued very hot for the elevation 

 (4000 to 5000) ; the rain brought no coolness ; 

 and for the greater part of three marches between 

 Singtam and Chakoong, we were either wading 

 through deep mud, or climbing over rocks. 

 Leeches swarmed in incredible profusion in the 

 streams and damp grass, and among the bushes ; 

 they got into my hair, hung on my eyelids, and 

 crawled up my legs and down my back. I 

 repeatedly took upwai'ds of a hundred from my legs, 

 where the small ones used to collect in clusters on 

 the instep ; the sores which they produced were 

 not healed for five months afterwards, and I retain 

 the scars to the present day. 



Snuff and tobacco leaves are the best antidote ; 

 but when marching in the rain it is impossible to 

 apply this simple remedy to any advantage. The 

 best plan I found to be rolling the leaves over the 

 feet, inside the stockings, and powdering the legs 

 with snuff. Another pest is a small midge, or 

 sand-fly, which causes intolerable itching and sub- 

 sequent irritation, and is in this respect the most 

 insufferable torment in Sikkim ; the minutest rent 

 in one's clothes is detected by the acute senses of 

 this insatiable bloodsucker, which is itself so small 

 as to be barely visible without a microscope. We 



daily arrived at our camping-ground streaming 

 with blood, and mottled with the bites of peepsas, 

 gnats, midges, and mosquitos, besides being in- 

 fested with ticks. 



As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be 

 called into existence in countless swarms ; large 

 and small moths, cockchafers, glowworms, and 

 cockroaches, made my tent a Noah's ark by night, 

 when the candle was burning; together with 

 winged ants, May-flies, flying earwigs, and many 

 beetles ; while a large species of Tipula (daddy- 

 longlegs) swept its long legs across my face as I 

 wrote my journal, or plotted off my map. After 

 retiring to rest and putting out the light, they 

 gradually departed, except a few which could not 

 rind the way out, and remained to disturb my 

 slumbers. 



A CURIOUS LIZARD. 



Mr. Theobald (my companion in this and many 

 other rambles; pulled a lizard from a hole in the 

 bank. Its throat was mottled with scales of 

 brown and yellow. Three ticks had fastened on 

 it, each of a size covering three or four scales : the 

 first was yellow, corresponding with the yellow 

 color of the animal's belly, where it lodged; the 

 second brown, from the lizard's head; but the 

 third, which was clinging to the parti-colored 

 scales of the neck, had its body parti-colored, the 

 hues corresponding with the individual scales 

 which they covered. The adaptation of the two 

 first specimens in color to the parts to which they 

 adhered, is sufficiently remarkable ; but the third 

 case was most extraordinary. 



We cannot afford room for further ex- 

 tracts ; and therefore take our leave with a 

 well painted picture of 



A MOUNTAIN PASS. 



No village or house is seen throughout the ex- 

 tensive area over which the eye roams from 

 Bhomtso, and the general character of the deso- 

 late landscape was similar to that which I have 

 before described as seen from Donkia Pass. The 

 wild ass grazing with its foal on the sloping 

 downs, the hare bounding over the stony soil, the 

 antelope scouring the sandy flats, and the fox 

 stealing along to his burrow, are all desert and 

 Tartarion types of the animal creation. The 

 shrill whisde of the marmot alone breaks the 

 silence of the scene, recalling the snows of Lapland 

 to the mind : the kite and raven wheel through 

 the air, a thousand feet over head, with as strong 

 and steady a pinion as if that atmosphere possessed 

 the same power of resistance that it does at the 

 level of the sea. Still higher in the Heavens, 

 long black V-shaped trains of wild geese cleave 

 the air, shooting over the glacier-crowned top of 

 Kinchinjhow, and winging their flight in one day, 

 perhaps, from the Yaru to the Ganges, over 500 

 miles space, and through 22,000feet of elevation. 



One plant alone, the yellow lichen, (Borrera) 

 is found at this height, and only as a visitor; for, 

 Tartar-like, it emigrates over these lofty slopes 

 and ridges, blown about by the violent winds. I 

 found a small beetle on the very top, probably 

 blown up also; for it was a flower-feeder, and 

 seemed benumbed with cold. 



