CHAPTER XV.
Leave Yoksun for Kinchinjunga—Ascend Ratong valley—Salt smuggling
over Ratong—Plants—Buckeem—Blocks of gneiss—Mon Lepcha—-
View—Weather—View from Gubroo—Kinchinjunga, tops of—Pundim
cliff—Nursing—Vegetation of Himalaya—Coup d’oeil of Jongri—Route
to Yalloong—Arduous route of salt-traders from Tibet—Kinchin,
ascent of—Lichens—Surfaces sculptured by snow and ice—Weather
at Jongri—Snow—Shades for eyes.
I l e f t Yoksun on an expedition to Kinchinjunga
on the 7th of January. I t was evident that at this
season I could not attain any h e ig h th u t I was most
anxious to reach the lower limit of that mass of
perpetual snow which descends in one continuous
sweep from 28,000 to 15,000 feet, and radiates from
the summit of Kinchin, along every spur and shoulder,
for ten to fifteen miles, towards each point of the
compass.
The route lay for the first mile over the Yoksun flat,
and then wound along the almost precipitous east flank
of the Ratong, 1000 feet above its bed, leading through
thick forest. I t was often difficult, crossing torrents
by stems of bamboo, and leading up precipices by •
notched poles and roots of trees. I wondered what
could have induced the frequenting of such a route to
Nepal, when there were so many better ones over
SALT-SMUGGLING.
Singalelah, till I found from my guide that salt,
was habitually smuggled over this pass to avoid the
oppressive duty exacted by the Dewan on all imports
from Tibet by the eastern passes: he further told me
that it took five days to reach Yalloong in Nepal from
Yoksun, on the third of which the Kanglanamo pass is.
Grossed, which is open from April to November, but is
always heavily snowed. Owing to this duty, and the
remoteness of the eastern passes, the people in the
western districts of Sikkim were compelled to pay an
enormous sum for sa lt; and in consequence the Lamas
of Changachelling and Pemiongchi petitioned Dr.
Campbell to use his influence with the Nepal Court to
have the Kanglanamo pass re-opened, and the power of
trading with the Tibetans of East Nepal restored to
them : the pass having been closed since the Nepalese
war, to prevent the Sikkim people from kidnapping
children and slaves, as was alleged to be their
custom.*
On the following day, I proceeded north-west up the
Ratong river, which I crossed, and then ascended a
very steep mountain called “ Mon Lepcha.” Immense
detached pieces of gneiss, full of coarse garnets, lay on
* An accusation in ■which there was probably some tru th ; for the Sikkim
Dingpun, who guided Dr. Campbell and myself to Mainom, Tassiding, &c.,
afterwards kidnapped, or caused to he abducted, a girl of Brahmin parents,
from the Mai valley of Nepal, a transaction which cost him some 800
rupees. The Nepal Durbar was naturally furious, the more so as the
Dingpun had no caste, and was therefore abhorred by all Brahmins.
Restitution was demanded through Dr. Campbell, who caused the incensed
Dingpun to give up his paramour and her jewels. He vowed vengeance
against Dr. Campbell, and found means to gratify it, as I shall hereafter