an earthen pot as his kettle, and all manner of herbs
collected during the day’s march to flavour his food.
My tent was made of a blanket thrown oyer the
limb of a tre e ; to this others were attached, and the
whole was supported on a frame like a house. One
half was occupied by my bedstead, beneath which was
stowed my box of clothes, while my books and writing
materials were placed under the table. The barometer
hung in the most out-of-the-way corner, and my other
instruments all around. A small candle was burning
in a glass shade, to keep the light from draught and
insects, and I had the comfort of seeing the knife, fork,
and spoon laid on a white napkin, as I entered my
snug little house, and flung myself on the elastic couch
to ruminate on the proceedings of the day, and speculate
on those of the morrow, while waiting for my meal,
which usually consisted of stewed meat and rice, with
biscuits and tea. My thermometers (wet and dry bulb,
and minimum) hung under a temporary canopy made of
thickly plaited bamboo leaves close to the tent, and the
cooking- was performed by my servant under a tree.
After dinner my occupations were to ticket and put
away the plants collected during the day, write my
journal, plot maps, and take observations till 10 p .m .
As soon as I was in bed, one of the Nepal soldiers was
accustomed to enter, spread his blanket on the ground,
and sleep there as my guard. In the morning the
collectors were set to change the plant-papers, while I
explored the neighbourhood, and having taken observations
and breakfasted, we were ready to start at
10 A.M.
Following the same ridge, after a few miles of ascent
over much broken gneiss rock, the Ghorkas led me
aside to the top of a knoll, 9,300 feet high, covered
with stunted bushes, and commanding a splendid view
to the west, of the broad, low, well cultivated valley of
the Tambur, and the extensive town of Dunkotah
on its banks, about twenty-five miles off; the capital of
this part of Nepal, and famous for its manufactory of
paper from the bark of the Daphne. Here too I
gained a fine view of the plains of India, including the
course of the Cosi river, which, receiving the Arun and
Tambur, debouches into the Ganges opposite Colgong.
A little further on I crossed the main ridge of
Sakkiazung, a chain stretching for miles to the
westward from Phulloot on Singalelah, and forming the
most elevated and conspicuous transverse range in this
part of Nepal. Silver firs (Abies Webbiana) are found
on all the summits; but to my regret none occurred in
our path, which led just below their limit (10,000 feet):
there were, however, a few yews, exactly like the English.
The view that opened on cresting this range was again
magnificent, of Kinchinjunga, the western snows of
Nepal, and the valley of the Tambur, winding amongst
wooded and cultivated hills to a long line of black-
peaked, rugged mountains, sparingly snowed, which
intervene between Kinchinjunga and the great Nepal
mountain before mentioned. For fully forty miles
to the northward there were no lofty forest-clad
mountains: villages appeared everywhere, with crops
of golden mustard and purple buckwheat in full flower;
yellow rice and maize, green hemp, pulse, radishes,