190 
BOOTAN. 
except when it was nearly vertical: many a withered pine impended 
from their dills, and, forsaken by the principle of life, rattled its dry 
branches together, when agitated by the wind. Here was a solitude ! 
uninterrupted, I believe, by any animated being, brute or human; and 
the swiftness of the river, I am sure, bade defiance to the efforts of any 
of the scaly tribes. We were inclosed in these gloomy wilds for the 
space of about four miles, when we found it necessary to dismount, and 
clamber up an immensely high and rocky mountain, which frequently 
obliged us to have recourse to our hands and knees. I was astonished, 
at the end of our journey, to see the Tanguns and all our baggage 
up with us, before it was dark, notwithstanding the difficulties of 
the way. 
These rugged and impracticable ways, certainly lessen the import¬ 
ance of those military posts, we so lately passed, Dukka-jeung and 
Paro. The Booteeas cannot possibly have a better security, than in 
such a chain of inaccessible mountains, and in the barrenness of their 
frontier. 
We crossed the Patchieu, which was now considerably diminished, 
for the last time, over a wooden bridge. 
Bridges, in a country composed of mountains, and abounding with 
torrents, must necessarily be very frequent; the traveller has com¬ 
monly some one to pass in every day’s journey. They are of different 
constructions, generally of timber; and, if the width of the river will 
admit, laid horizontally from rock to rock. Over broader streams, a 
triple or quadruple row of timbers, one row projecting over the other, 
and inserted into the rock, sustain two sloping sides, which are united 
