in Sikkim. I t was grassy, strewn with huge boulders,
and adorned with clumps of firs: on the summit, was
a small pool, beautifully fringed with bushy trees of white
rose, a white-blossomed apple, a Pyrus like mountain -
ash, scarlet rhododendrons, holly, and maples; there
were also Daphnes, purple magnolia and a pink
sweet-blossomed Sphserostema. Many English water-
plants grew in the pond, but I found no shells; tadpoles,
however swarmed, which later in the season become
large frogs. The “ painted-lady ” butterfly and a pretty
“ blue ” were flitting over the flowers, together with
some great tropical kinds, that wander so far up these
valleys, accompanying Marlea, the only sub-tropical tree
that ascends to 8,500 feet in the interior of Sikkim.
Lamteng village, where I arrived on the 27th of
May, is quite concealed by a moraine to the south,
which, with a parallel ridge on the north, forms a
beautiful bay in the mountains, 8,900 feet above the
sea. The village stands on a grassy and bushy flat,
around which the fir-clad mountains rise steeply to
the black cliffs and snowy peaks which tower above.
I t contains above forty houses, forming the winter-
quarters of the inhabitants of the valley, who, in
summer, move with their flocks and herds to the alpine
pastures of the Tibet frontier. The dwellings are like
those described at Wallanchoon, hut the elevation
being lower, and the situation better sheltered, they are
more scattered ; whilst on account of the dampness of
the climate, they are raised higher from the ground, and
the shingles with which they are tiled decay in two or
three years. Many are painted lilac, with the gables
LAMTENG VILLAGE.