CHAPTER XXI.
Top of Kongra Lama—Tibet frontier—Elevation—View—Vegetation—Descent
to Tungu—Tungu-cboo—Ponies—Kincbinjhow and Changokbang
mountains — Palung plains — Tibetans — Dogs — Dingcham province
of Tibet—Inhabitants—Dresses—Women’s ornaments—Blackening
faces—Coral—Tents—Elevation of Palung—Lama—Shawl-wool goats
—Shearing—Siberian plants—Height of glaciers, and perpetual snow
—Plants, and wild animals—Marmots—Insects—Birds—Cboongtam
Lama — Religions exercises— Tibetan hospitality— Delphinium—
Perpetual snow—Return to Tallum Samdong—To Lamteng—Houses
—Cicadas — Landslips — Arrival at Choongtam—Cobra—Rageu—
Velocity and volume of rivers measured—Leave for Lachoong valley—
Keadom— General features of valley—Lachoong village—Tunkra
mountain—Moraines—Cultivation—Lachoong Phipun—Lama ceremonies
beside a sick-bed.
W e reached the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet
early in the afternoon; it is drawn along Kotogra Lama,
which is a low flat spur running east from Kinchinjhow
towards Chomiomo, at a point where these mountains
are a few miles apart, thus crossing the Lachen river:
it is marked by cairns of stone, some rudely fashioned
into chaits, covered with votive rags on wands of
bamboo. I made the altitude by barometer 15,745
feet above the sea, and by boiling water, 15,694 fee t:
the temperature of the air varied from 41^ to 43^°;
that of the Lachen river was 47°, which was remarkably
high. We were bitterly cold; as the previous rain had
wetted us through, and a keen wind was blowing.
The mist and fog intercepted all view, except
of the flanks of the mountains on either hand, of
the rugged snowy ones to the south, and of those
bounding the Lachen to the north. The latter were
unsnowed, and appeared lower than Kongra Lama, hut
when I ascended them, three months afterwards, I
found they were 3000 feet higher! a proof how utterly
fallacious are estimates of height, when formed by the
eye alone.
Isolated patches of vegetation appeared on the top of
the pass, where I gathered forty kinds of plants, most of
them being of a tufted habit characteristic of an extreme
climate ; some forming hemispherical balls on the
naked soil, others growing in matted tufts level with
the ground. The greater portion had no woolly
covering, nor did I find any of the cottony species
of Saussurea, which are so common at equal elevations
on the moister mountains to the southward. Some
most delicate-flowered plants even defy the biting winds
of these exposed regions; such as a prickly Meconopsis
with slender flower-stalks and four large blue poppylike
petals, a Cyananthus with a bell-shaped corolla,
and a fntillary. Other curious plants were a little
yellow saxifrage with long runners, and the strong-
scented spikenard.
We made a fire at the top with sheep’s droppings (of
which the Phipun had brought up a bagful), with the
aid of a pair of goat-skin bellows, which worked by
a slit that was opened by the hand in the act of raising •
when inflated the hole was closed, and the skin pressed
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