The Wallanchoon path follows the west bank, but
the bridge above having been carried away, we crossed
by a plank, and proceeded along very steep banks of
decomposed schist, affording an insecure footing,
especially where great landsbps bad occurred. The
lateral streams (of a muddy opal green) bad cut beds
200 feet deep in the soft earth, and were very troublesome
to cross, from the crumbling cbflfs on either side, and
their broad swampy channels.
Five or six miles above Mywa, the valley contracts
much, and the Tambur becomes a turbulent river,
shooting along its course with immense velocity, tom
into foam as it lashes the spurs of rock that flank it,
and the enormous boulders with which its bed is
strewn. From this elevation to 9000 feet, its sinuous
track extends about thirty miles, which gives a fall of
200 feet to the mile, quadruple of what it is for the
lower part of its course. So long as its bed is below
5000 feet, a tropical vegetation prevails, but the steep
mountain sides above are either bare and grassy, or
cliffs with scattered shrubs and trees, their summits
bristling with pines : those faces exposed to the south
and east are invariably the driest and most grassy;
while the opposite are well wooded.
In the contracted parts of the valley, the mountains
often dip to the river-bed in precipices, under the
ledges of which wild bees build pendulous nests, looking
like huge hats suspended by their wings ; they are two
or three feet long, and as broad at the top, whence
they taper downwards: the honey is much sought for,
except in spring, when it is said to he poisoned by
Rhododendron flowers, just as that, eaten by the
soldiers in the retreat of the Ten Thousand, was by
the flowers of the B. ponticum.
Above these gorges are enormous accumulations of
rocks, especially at the confluence of lateral valleys,
where they rest upon little flats, like the river-terraces
of Mywa: some of these boulders were thirty or forty
yards across, and split as if they had fallen from a
height; the path passing between the fragments ; they
are probably due to ancient glacial action, especially
when laden with such enormous blocks as are probably
ice-transported.
A change in the population accompanies that in the
natural features of the country, Tibetans replacing
the Nepalese who inhabit the lower region. I daily
passed parties of ten or a dozen Tibetans, on their
way to Mywa Guola, laden with sa lt; several families
of these wild, black, and uncouth-looking people
generally travelling together. The men were middle-
sized or small, very square-built and muscular; they
had no beard, moustache, or whiskers, the few hairs on
their faces being carefully removed with tweezers.
They were dressed in loose blanket robes, girt about
the waist with a leather belt, in which they placed
their iron or brass pipes, and from which they suspended
their long knives, chop-sticks, tobacco-pouch,
tweezers, tinder-box, &c. The robe, boots, and cap
were gray, or striped with bright colours, and they wore
skull-caps, and the hair plaited into a pig-tail.
The women were dressed in long flannel petticoats
and spencer, over which was thrown a sleeveless, short,