DE. CAMPBELL EXPECTED 307 
Two letters to Sir William describe the happenings of this 
month. 
Choongtam : October 3, 1849. 
I arrived here late last night, having made three flying 
marches down from Momay Samdong to meet Campbell, 
who will be here to-morrow en route to Kongra Lama, as 
he tells me you are (ere the receipt of this) aware. I have 
been months stimulating him to the journey and with success 
at last. It is now six months since I have had any one to 
talk to, and now that the route is known and he has the 
Eajah under his thumb, I do not anticipate any difficulty. 
He had a most narrow escape for his life on the second day 
after leaving Darjihng : his pony shpped its foot in a most 
dangerous part of the road ; feeling it do so he wisely jerked 
himself off, and the animal, rolling down the precipice, was 
killed on the spot ! 
I had hoped to make a very fine collection of seeds on 
the road down here, but it sleeted and snowed all the first 
day, and rained tremendously all the other two, which sadly 
impeded my proceedings. However, I did my utmost, and 
have ripe and good seeds of many very fine things, of which 
I send a few samples. I am now collecting seeds as fast and 
hard as I well can, and losing no opportunity. 
The tardy advance of the whole flora is most remarkable, 
and many plants actually ripening their seeds, and uniformly 
past flower at 15-16,000 feet are still in full flower at 7-10,000. 
The reason plainly is, the further north you go the more sun- 
shine there is. . . . 
On the way down I passed an uncut maize field at 7000 
feet — ^very high for the culture of that plant — and I stole 
several hermaphrodite heads. The villagers made an outcry 
at first, as they appear to know the value of the male panicle, 
but a sick woman turning up whom I doctored, gave me 
the run of the field as fee, and a pocketful of small, hard, 
tasteless peaches. . . . 
I brought down three loads of 80 lbs. each of plants whose 
sodden state now keeps me hard at work. It is a very fine 
collection after all, with heaps of new and curious things 
from the Passes. The roads, mere tracks at best, were in 
a horrid state from landslips and deep mire, and I do wonder 
how my coolies made it out in three days, but they are all 
