AND LLONAKH VALLEYS OF SIKKIM. 
145 
the villages up the river. TUroughout our relations with the 
people were of the pleasantest and no difficulties were experienced 
as far as they were concerned. Here also we sent our ponies back 
and until we arrived again in Gangtok on August 24th our journey 
was done on foot with the exception of our three days’ visit to the 
Kangralamo La. Our routes up the Zemu and up the Llonakh were 
out of the question for ponies, even Sikkim ones. 
On July 4th we left Gangtok and took the next stage to Dikchu 
bungalow. Our route led over the Penlong La (6,250 feet), anl 
then followed a long precipitous descent to Dikchu. Here the 
first day’s rations were given out to the coolies, each man receiving 
one seer of rice, quarter seer of dal with small additions of ghee, 
salt, etc. 
On the 5th we left Dikchu and proceeded up the valley. The 
elevation of Dikchu is about 1,500 feet and on the w^ay to our 
next halting place Sinchik we gradually rose to about 4,000 feet. 
The road follows the stream for .the first four cr five miles and 
then makes a fairly easy ascent. It proved a hot and tiring day, 
especially at the lower levels. Here and there in the valley 
bottom were small plantations of Ficus elasiica introduced by the 
Sikkim Government. The vegetation was tlial of the Darjeeling 
District at a corresponding altitude. Gesneracecc w'ere common 
along this route decking the cliffs and boulders. Green pigeons 
were numerous feeding on the fruits of Macaranga denticuilata. 
We arrived in the afternoon at Sinchik where the bungalow faces 
a fine hill clothed with forest with the river between and far below. 
On the following morning We marclied by way of Tong to 
Cheungtong at the junction of the Lachen and Lachung rivers. 
A pleasant winding path to Tong and then a sharp dip to a bridge 
crossing the Tista. Among the noteworthy plants seen here were 
Lc'ptocodon gracilis ^ a beautiful but evil-smell iug flower, 
Didissandra lanuginosa^ Tylo'phora tFnerrvmay Baho.^pcrm^im 
corgmlnferum, W oodwardia radicans. Five miles from the bridge 
brought us to Cheungtong where there is a new bungalow for the 
traveller on the flat near the rivers instead of the upper storey of 
the monastery as in former years. On the 7th we left early follow- 
ing the Lachen branch of the Tista. The tropical and semi-tropi- 
cal flora of the lower Tista now gives place to a flora characteris- 
tic of temperate regions— a transition fully described by Hooker 
in his Himalayan Journals. Here Chirita Clarkei was met with, 
a rare Gesnerad, and Decaisnea insignis, not a common plant in 
Sikkim — it is seldom sent in by the native seed-collectors though 
possibly this latter fact is due to its being edible. The same fate 
