02 
BOOTAN. 
The country now began to open; the Tehintchieu ran with less 
rapidity, over a more even bed of ground, watering a most beautiful 
narrow valley, in which not a spot of land was unemployed. Their 
labour merited a more grateful soil, for I never saw lands cleaner, or 
better dressed. Heaps of manure in every field, at proper distances, 
lay ready to be scattered amongst the corn; yet with all their care the 
crops were thin, running much to straw. In addition to this, the bare¬ 
ness of the hills, and the diminutive size of the pines, were evident 
indications of an unkindly soil. 
The road, however, improved; and we seemed to have conquered 
s 
the enormous mountains and craggy steeps, which were now reduced 
to moderate hills, with gradual and easy slopes. Traces of winter yet 
remained; and upon some of those hills that were near to us, there was 
much unmelted snow. 
Leaving Wangoka, we continued our course, on Sunday the 1st of 
June, through the same kind of verdant valley, intersected by the river, 
as we had travelled through the day before. Upon our right, on the 
summit of a lofty mountain, we saw an extensive monastery above 
Symtoka, and soon after, at the end of a valley, on our left, another 
mountain, whose top was covered with snow. We crossed a substan¬ 
tial and elevated wooden bridge over the Tehintchieu, six miles from 
Wangoka, where the bed was a rocky descent, and the stream, of 
course, extremely rapid. At the distance of two miles, Tassisudon now 
opened to our view, situated in a valley, which I compute to be about 
three miles in length, and one in breadth, lying north and south ; 
the Tehintchieu running through it. We were conducted to a house 
