graced with his Chinese attribute of very long pendulous
moustaches and heard, and totally wanting that
air of contemplative repose which the Tibetan Lamas
give to their idols. Banners were suspended around,
with paintings of Lhassa, Teshoo-Loombo, and various
incarnations of Booddh. The books were of the usual
Tibetan form, oblong squares of separate block-printed
leaves of paper, made in Nepal or Bhotan from the
bark of Daphne, bound together by silk cords, and
placed between ornamented wooden boards. On our
way up the valley, we bad passed some mendongs and
chaits, the latter very pretty stone structures, consisting
of a cube, pyramid, hemisphere, and cone
placed on the top of one another, forming together the
tasteful combination which appears on the cover of
these volumes.
Beyond the convents the valley again contracted,
and on crossing a third, but much lower, moraine, a
lake opened to view, surrounded by flat terraces, and a
broad gravelly beach, part of the lake being dry. To
the west, the cliffs were high, black, and steep: to the
east a large lateral valley, filled at about 1500 feet up
with blue glaciers, led to the gleaming snows of Nango.
Much snow lay on the ground, and the cold was
pinching in the shade; still I could not help attempting
to sketch this wonderfully grand scene, especially
as lakes in the Himalaya are extremely ra re : the
present one was about a mile long, very shallow, but
broad, and as smooth as glass: it reminded me of the
tarn in Glencoe. The reflected lofty peak of Nango
appeared as if frozen deep down in its glassy bed,
Deo. 1848. YAN0MA VALLEY. «
every snowy crest and ridge being rendered with perfect
F N lg o is about 18.000 feet high; it is the next lofty
mountain of the Kinchinjunga group to the west ot
Junnoo, and I doubt if any equally high peak occurs
LOOKING ACROSS 1HE YANGMA VALLEY.
again for some distance further west in Nepal. Facing
the Yangma valley, it presents a beautiful range ot
precipices of black rock, capped with a thiek crust ot
snow: below the cliffs the snow again appears continuously
and very steep, for 3000 feet downwards,
where it terminates in glaciers that descend to 14,000
feet. The steepest snow-beds appear cut into vertical