Stupendous moraines rise 1,500 feet above the
Lachoong in several concentric series, curving downwards
and outwards, so as to form a bell-shaped mouth
to the valley of the Tunkrachoo. Those on the upper
flank are much the largest ; and the loftiest of them
terminates in a conical hill crowned with Boodhist
flags, and its steep sides are cut into horizontal roads
or terraces, one of which is so broad and flat as to
suggest the idea of its having been cleared by art.
On the south side of the Tunkrachoo river the
moraines are also more or less terraced, as is the
floor of the Lachoong valley, and its east slopes, 1000
feet up.*
The river is fourteen yards broad, and neither deep
nor rapid: the village is on the east bank, and contains
fully 100 good wooden houses, raised on posts, and
clustered together without order. I t was muddy and
intolerably filthy, and intersected by some small
streams, whose beds formed the roads, and at the
same time the common sewers of the natives. There
was some wretched cultivation in fields,! oi wheat,
* I have since been greatly struct with the similarity between the
features of this valley, and those of Chamouni, (though the latter is on a
smaller scale) above the Lavanchi moraine. The spectator standing in the
expanded part below the village of Argentière, and looking upwards, sees
the valley closed above by the ancient moraine of the Argentière glacier,
and below by that of Lavanchi ; and on all sides the slopes are cut into
terraces, strewed with boulders. The average slope of these pine-clad
Sikkim valleys much approximates to that of Chamouni, and never approaches
the precipitous character of the Bernese Alps’ valleys, Kandersteg,
Lauterbrunnen, and Grindenwald.
+ Full of such English weeds as shepherd’s purse, nettles, and dock ;
besides many Himalayan ones, as balsams, thistles, a beautiful geranium,
mallow, and Cucurbitaceous plants.
barley, peas, radishes, and turnips. Rice was once
cultivated at this elevation (8000 feet), but the crop
was uncertain ; some very tropical grasses grow wild
here. In gardens the hollyhock is seen; said to have
been introduced through Tibet from China; also Pinus
excelsa from Bhotan, peaches, walnuts, and weeping
willows. A tall poplar was pointed out to me as a
great wonder; it had two species of Pyrus growing on
its boughs, evidently from seed; one was a mountain
ash, the other like Pyrus Aria.
Soon after camping, the Lachoong Phipun, a very
tall, intelligent, and agreeable-looking man, waited on
me with the usual presents, and a request that I would
visit his sick father. His house was lofty and a iry : in
the inner room the sick man was stretched on a board,
covered with a blanket, and dying of pressure on the
brain ; he was surrounded by a deputation of Lamas
from Teshoo Loombo, sent for in this emergency. The
principal one was a fat fellow, who sat cross-legged
before a block-printed Tibetan book, plates of raw
meat, rice, and other offerings, and the bells, dorje,
&c. of his profession. Others sat around, reading or
chanting services, and filling the room with incense.
At one end of the apartment was a good library in a
beautifully carved book-case.