on the north-east flank of Kinchinjunga: at this place
I halted for several days, while building a bridge over
the Thlonok. The path runs first through a small
forest of birch, alder, and maple, on the latter of which
I found Balanophora growing abundantly: this species
produces the great knots on the maple roots, from
which the Tibetans form the cups mentioned by MM.
Hue and Gabet. I was so fortunate as to find a small
store of these knots, cleaned, and cut ready for the
turner, and hidden behind a stone by some poor
Tibetan: they had evidently been there a very long
time.
In the ravines there were enormous accumulations
of ice, the result of avalanches; one of them crossed
the river, forming a bridge thirty feet thick, at an
elevation of only 9,800 feet above the sea. In the
fir-woods a large mushroom was abundant, which
also forms a favourite article of food. Another potherb
(to which I was afterwards more indebted than
any) was a beautiful Smilacina, which grows from two
to five feet high, and has plaited leaves and crowded
panicles of white bell-shaped flowers, like those of its
ally the lily of the valley, which it also resembles in its
mucilaginous properties. I t is called “ Chokli-bi,”
and its young flower-heads, sheathed in tender green
leaves, form an excellent vegetable. Nor must I forget
to include amongst the eatable plants of this hungry
country, young shoots of the mountain bamboo, which
are good either raw or boiled, and may be obtained up
to 12,000 feet in this valley. At 10,000 feet silver-fir
commenced, with a close undergrowth of a small twiggy
holly. This, and the dense thicket of rhododendron *
on the banks of the river and edges of the wood, rendered
the march very fatiguing, and swarms of midges
kept up a tormenting irritation.
The Zemu continued an impetuous muddy torrent,
whose hoarse voice, mingled with the deep grumbling
noise of the boulders rolling along its bed, was my
lullaby for many nights. At its junction with the
Thlonok, it comes down a steep gulley from the north,
foreshortened into a cataract 1000 feet high, and
appearing the smaller stream of the two; whilst the
Thlonok winds down from the snowy face of Kinchinjunga,
whose summit is seen up the valley, about twenty
miles distant. All around are lofty and rocky mountains,
sparingly wooded with pines and larch, chiefly on their
south flanks, which receive the warm, moist, up-valley
winds; the faces exposed to the north being colder and
more barren: exactly the reverse of what is the case at
Choongtam, where the rocky and sunny south-exposed
flanks are the driest.
My tent was pitched on a broad terrace, opposite the
junction of the Zemu and Thlonok; it was sheltered
by some enormous transported blocks fifteen feet high,
and surrounded by a luxuriant vegetation of most
beautiful rhododendrons in full flower, willow, white
rose, white-flowered cherry, thorn, maple and birch.
Some great tuberous-rooted arums were very abundant;
and the - ground was covered with small pits, in which
were large wooden pestles: these are used in the
preparation of food from the arums, to which the miser-
* Of which I had already gathered thirteen kinds in this valley.