During my ten days’ stay at Zemu Samdong, I
formed a large collection of insects, which was in great
part destroyed by damp: many were new, beautiful,
and particularly interesting, from belonging to types
whose geographical distribution is analogous to that of
the vegetation. The caterpillar of the swallow-tail
butterfly was common, feeding on umbelliferous plants,
as in England; and that of a Spbynx was devouring
the euphorbias; the English “ painted-lady ” was
common, as were “ sulphurs,” “ marbles,” “ whites,”
■“ blues,” and Tbecla, of British aspect but foreign
species. Amongst these, tropical forms were rare,
except one fine black swallow-tail. Beetles were most
rare, and (what is remarkable) the wood-borers particularly
so. A large Telepbora was very common, and
bad the usual propensity of its congeners for blood;
lamellicom beetles were also abundant,
On the 11th of July five coolies arrived with rice :
they bad been twenty days on the road, and bad been
obliged to make great detours, the valley being in
many places impassable. They brought me a parcel of
English letters; and I started up the Lacben on the
following day, with renewed hopes and high spirits,
The road first crossed the Zemu and the spur beyond,
and then ascended the west bank of the Lacben, a
furious torrent for five or six miles, during which it
descends 1000 feet, in a chasm from which rise lofty
black pine-clad crags, topped by snowy mountains,
15,000 feet high.
Above 11,000 feet, the valley expands remarkably,
the mountains recede, become less wooded, and morei
grassy, while the stream is suddenly less rapid, meandering
in a broader bed, and bordered by marshes,
covered with sedges, dwarf Tamarisk, and many kinds
of yellow and red Pedicularis. There are far fewer
rhododendrons here than in the damper Zemu valley
at equal elevations, and more Siberian, or dry country
types of vegetation.* The Singtam Soubab and
Lacben Phipun received me at the bridge at Tallum,
and led me across the river (into Tibet they affirmed)
to a pretty green sward, near some gigantic boulders,
where I camped.
The village of Tallum consisted of a few wretched
stone huts, placed in a broad part of the valley, which
is swampy, and crossed by several ancient moraines,
which descend from the gullies on the east flank. The
cottages were from four to six feet high, without
windows, and consisted of a single apartment, in which
the inmates were huddled together amid smoke, filth,
and darkness: it contained neither table, chair, nor stool;
their beds were merely a plank, and their only utensils
a bamboo churn, copper, bamboo and earthenware
vessels for milk, butter, &c.
Grassy or stony mountains slope upwards from
* The following common English wild and garden plants grow here.
Umbelliferce, with sage, Ranwiculus, Anemone, Aconites, Gentians,
Panax, Euphrasia, speedwell, Prwnella vulgaris, thistles, bistort,
Parnassia, purple orchis, Prenanthes, and Lactuca. The woody plants
of this region are willows, birch, Ootoneaster, maple, three species of
Viburnum, three of Spircea, Vaccinium, Aralia, Deutzia, Philadelphus,
rhododendrons, two junipers, silver fir, larch, three honeysuckles, Neillia,
and a Pieris, whose white blossoms are so full of honey as to be sweet and
palatable.