ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE YANGMA VALLEY.
through which the Yangma
rushed, cutting a channel
about sixty feet deep ; the
flanks of this second lake-bed
were cut most distinctly into
two principal terraces, which
were again sub-divided into
others, so that the general
appearance was that of many
raised beaches, but each so
broken up, that, with one exception,
none were continuous
for any distance. We crossed
the valley and river to a broad
flat terrace under the black,
precipitous, west flank : this
gave me a good opportunity
of examining this part of the
valley, which was filled with
an accumulation, probably 200
feet thick at the deepest part,
of angular gravel and enormous
boulders, both imbedded
in the gravel, and strewed on
the flat surfaces of the terraces.
The latter were always
broadest opposite to the lateral
valleys, perfectly horizontal
and very barren; there
were no traces of fossils, nor
could I assure myself of stratification.
The accumulation was wholly glacial; and a
lake had probably supervened on the melting of the
great glacier and its recedence, which, confined by
a frozen moraine, would periodically lose its waters by
sudden accessions of heat melting the ice of the glacier.
Stratified silt, no doubt, once covered the lake bottom,
and the terraces have, in succession, been denuded of
it by rain and snow. These causes are now in.
operation amongst the stupendous glaciers of north-east
Sikkim, where valleys, dammed up by moraines, exhibit
lakes hemmed in between these, the glaciers, and the
flanks , of the valleys,
Yangma convents stood at the mouth of a gorge
which opened upon the uppermost terrace ; they consisted
of a wretched collection of stone huts, painted
red, and enclosed by loose stone dykes.. Two shockingly
dirty-Lainas conducted me to the temple, which
had very thick walls, but was undistinguishable from
the other buildings. A small door opened upon an
apartment piled full of old battered gongs, drums,
scraps of silk hangings, red cloth, broken praying-
machines—relics much resembling those in the lumber-
room of a theatre. A ladder led from this dismal hole
to the upper story, which was entered by a handsomely
carved and gilded door: within all was dark, except
from a little lattice-window covered with oiled paper.
On pne side was the library, a carved case, with a
hundred gilded pigeon-holes, each holding a real or
sham book, and closed by a little square door, on which
hung a bag full of amulets. In the centre of the bookcase
was a recess, containing a genuine Jos or Fo,
i3