I 
20 
CLIMATE AND VEGETATION OF THE HIMALAYAS. 
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border. Reaching this river, at an elevation of only 2,500 feet above the sea, I ascended it, making my 
way as well as I could, through a tropical vegetation, which reaches to constantly snow-covered spurs 
of the Kanchain. On the 25th of November I arrived at the boundary of Rice-cultivation and Hindoo- 
a. Darjiling. 
b. Singalelah Range. 
c. Nepal. 
d. Phulull. 
o. Tamb'ur. 
f. Walloong. 
g. Wallanchooa Pass. 
h. Yangma. 
i. Kanglachem. 
k. Kanchain, Kinchin , 
l. Lachen pass. 
m. Lachootn pass. 
n Chumalari. 
o. Turner. 
p. Thibet. 
The broad black line indicates perpetual snow. 
q. Machoo. 
r. Teesta, 
s. Bhot-han. 
t. Plains of India. 
u. Perpetual snow. 
ism, and the commencement of a temperate zone, and of the Bhothia people. The change from buffalo 
and rice, to beef and wheat was sudden. Ascending still higher, through stupendous mountain defiles, 
toward Walloong, the second transition from beef to bison, (the Yak, the progenitor of which, is the 
undescribed wild bison of the Thibetian plains), was more gradual. 
Walloong is the Cis-Hirnalayan commercial depot of the Bhothias. Here I was received with 
mistrust, and obstacles of all kinds were opposed to my design of going toward the passes, which 
were the more effective that the season was far advanced, and they withheld provisions from me. 
Luckily I had still a dozen Bhotan men with me, a parcel of scamps who would frighten any one, 
and who, by insulting, abusing the authorities, and threatening to break open the warehouses, placed 
me in a condition to start for the passes after a halt of two days. 
The village of Walloong lies about 11,000 feet above the sea. The pass, situated a day and a-half’s 
march on the further side, is about twelve miles W. N. W. from the Kanchain peaks, and twenty- 
five from the latter. We reached the summit in two days, with much toil, for the ground at 12,000 feet 
was deeply covered with October snow, which at 13,000 feet does not melt until the following March. 
The summit of the pass is 16,700 feet high, but still three day’s march distant from the plain of Thibet, 
which is here cut off by two mighty chains, branches of the Kanchain, which, of less elevation than 
my point of view, stretch in a northward direction toward the plain. Mountains and valleys were now 
covered deeply with snow. 
The limit of the eternal snow, at this point, is, as nearly as I could determine, 14,500 feet above the 
sea; and, judging from what I saw afterwards, I believe this is near the truth, although it is impos¬ 
sible to speak with exactness—by the bounding of the snow which had fallen in October. 
This is not the most eastern of the passes leading to Thibet, and therefore not the nearest point to 
Kanchain attainable in eastern Nepal. I resolved to visit, on my return to Walloong, the valley lying 
eastward of this, where a higher—but seldomer used pass led to Thibet. Descending the Tambur, I 
penetrated, in a north-east direction, into the Yangma valley, which expands into a broad, treeless 
ravine, wholly filled up with lake beds. These beds are bounded by enormous rocky dams, which have 
been hurled across the valley when it was all under water. To express it briefly, while the Thibet Plain 
