During the night the rain did not abate; and the
tent-roof leaked in such torrents that we had to throw
pieces of wax-cloth over our shoulders as we lay in bed;
and there was no improvement whatever in the weather
on the following morning. Two of the Hindoos crawled
into the tent during the night, attacked with fever and
ague. The tent being too sodden to he carried, we had
to remain where we were, hut with abundance of novelty
in the botany around, I found no difficulty in getting
through the day. Observing the track of sheep, we
sent two Lepchas to follow them, who returned at night
from some miles west in Nepal, bringing two. The
shepherds were Geroongs of Nepal, who were grazing
their flocks on a grassy mountain top from which the
woods had been cleared, probably by fire. The mutton
was a great boon to the Lepchas, but the Hindoos
would not touch it, and several more sickening during
the day, we had the tent most uncomfortably full.
My barometrical observations, taken simultaneously
with those of Calcutta, give the height of Tonglo,
10,078'3 feet; Colonel Waugh’s, by trigonometry,
10,079’4 feet,—a remarkable and unusual coincidence.
May 23.—We spent a few hours of alternate fog and
Sunshine on the top of the mountain, vainly hoping for
the most modest view; our inability to obtain it was
extremely disappointing, as the summit commands a
superb prospect. The air, which was always foggy, was
alternately cooled and heated, as it blew over the trees,
or the open space we occupied; sometimes varying 5°
and 6° in a quarter of an hour.
Having partially dried the tent in the wind, we commenced
the descent, which, owing to the late torrents
of rain, was most fatiguing and slippery; it again commenced
to drizzle at noon, nor was it till we had
descended to 6000 feet that we emerged from the
region of clouds. By dark we arrived at Simonbong,
having descended 5000 feet, at the rate of 1000 feet
an hour; and were kindly received by the Lama, who
gave us his temple for the accommodation of our
party. We were surprised at this, both because the
Sikkim authorities had represented the Lamas as very
averse to Europeans, and because he might well have
hesitated before admitting a promiscuous horde of
thirty people into a sacred building, where the
little valuables on the altar, &c., were quite at our
disposal. A better tribute could not well have been
paid to the honesty of my Lepcha followers. Our
host only begged us not to disturb his people, nor to
allow the Hindoos of our party to smoke inside.
Simonbong is one of the smallest and poorest
Goompas, or temples, in Sikkim; being built of wood
only. I t consisted of one large room, raised on a
stone foundation, with small sliding shutter windows,
and roofed with shingles of wood ; opposite the door a
wooden altar was placed, rudely chequered with black,
white and red ; to the right and left were shelves, with
a few Tibetan books, wrapped in silk } a model of
Symbonath temple in Nepal, a praying-cylinder,* and
* It consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame ; a projecting
piece of iron struck a little bell at each revolution, the movement
being caused by an elbowed axle and string. Within such cylinders are
deposited written prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is