garments and bedding. Yet the house was high,
airy, and light ; the walls composed of bamboo, lath,
and plaster.
Tropical Cicadas ascend to the pine-woods above
Lamteng in this month, and chirp shrilly in the heat
of the day ; and glow-worms fly about at night. The
common Bengal and Java toad abounded in the
marshes, a remarkable instance of wide geographical
distribution, for a Batrachian which is common at the
level of the sea under the tropics.
On the 3rd of August I descended to Choongtam,
which I reached on the 5th.
Terrific landslips had taken place along the valley,
carrying down acres of rock, soil, and pine-forests,
into the stream ; and I saw one which swept over
100 yards in breadth of forest. The bridge at the
Tuktoong being carried away, we had to ascend for
1000 feet to a place where the river could be crossed.
In many places we had great difficulty in proceeding,
the track being obliterated by the rains and landslips.
Along the flats, now covered with a dense végétation,
we waded often knee-deep in mud, swarming with
leeches ; and instead of descending into the valley of
the now swollen Lachen, we made long detours,
rounding spurs by canes and bamboos suspended from
trees.
The venomous black cobra was common, and we
left the path with great caution, as it is a lazy reptile,
and lies basking in the sun; many beautiful and
harmless green snakes, four feet long, glided amongst
the bushes. My dogs caught a “ Rageu,” a very
remarkable animal, half goat and half deer; the flesh
was good and tender, dark-coloured, and lean.
I remained here till the 15th of August, arranging
my Lachen valley collections previous to starting for
the Lachoong, whence I hoped to reach Tibet by a
different route, crossing the Donkia pass, and thence
exploring the sources of the Teesta at the Cholamoo
lakes.
Whilst here I ascertained the volume and velocity of
the Lachen and Lachoong rivers. Both were rapid
torrents, the rains being at their height, and the melting
of the snows at its maximum. I first measured several
hundred yards along the banks of each river above the
bridges, and then I timed floating masses thrown in at
the upper point. I was surprised to find the velocity of
the Lachen only nine miles an hour, for its waters
seemed to shoot past with the speed of an arrow. The
breadth of the river averaged sixty-eight feet, and the
discharge was 4,480 cubic feet of water in a second.
The mean velocity of the Lachoong was eight miles
an hour, the breadth ninety-five feet, the depth about
the same as that of the Lachen, and the discharge 5,700
cubic feet of water in a second.*
On the 15th of August, having received supplies
from Dorjiling, I started up the north bank of the
* Hence it appears that the Lachoong, being so much the more copious,
should in one sense be regarded as the main stream of the Teesta,
rather than the Lachen, -which, however, has by far the most distant
source. Their united streams discharge upwards of 10,000 cubic feet of
water per second in the height of the rams ! which, is, however, a mere
fraction of the discharge of the Teesta where that river leaves the Himalaya.
The Ganges, where it leaves the Himalaya at Hurdwar, discharges 8000
feet per second during the dry season.