mountain-sorrel and the bladder-headed Saussurea,
whose flowers are enclosed in inflated membranous
bracts, and smell like putrid m e a t; there were also
splendid primroses, the spikenard, valerian, and
golden Potentillas.
The ascent was steep and difficult, up a stony valley
hounded by precipices; in this the river flowed in a
north-west direction, and we were obliged to wade along
it, though its waters were bitterly cold. At 15,000 feet
we passed from great snow-heds to the surface of a
glacier, partly an accumulation of snow, increased by
lateral glaciers: its slope was very gentle for several
miles ; the surface was eroded by rain, and very rough,
whilst those of the lateral glaciers were ribboned,
crevassed, and often conspicuously marked with dirtbands.
A gently sloping saddle, hare of snow, which succeeds
the glacier, forms the top of the Tunkra pass; it
unites two snowy mountains, and opens on the great
valley of the Machoo, which flows in a part of Tibet
between Sikkim and Bhotan ; its height is 16,083 feet
above the sea. Nothing can he more different than the
two slopes of this p a s s ; that by which I had come
presented a gentle snowy acclivity, hounded by precipitous
mountains; while that which opened before
me was a steep, rocky, broad, grassy valley, where not
a particle of snow was to be seen, and yaks were feed-
ing near a small lake not 1000 feet down. Nor were
snowy mountains visible anywhere in this direction,
except far to the south-east, in Bhotan. This remarkable
difference of climate is due to the southerly wind
which ascends the Tibetan or IMachoo valley being
drained by intervening mountains before reaching
this pass, whilst the Sikkim current brings abundant
vapours up the Teesta and Lachoong valleys.
Very few plants grew amongst the stones at the
top of the Tunkra pass, and those few were mostly
different from those of Palung and Kongra Lama.
A pink-flowered Arenaria, two kinds of Corydalis, the
cottony Saussurea, and diminutive primroses, were the
most conspicuous. The wind was variable, blowing
alternately up both valleys, bringing much snow when
it blew from the Teesta, though deflected to a northwest
breeze ; when, on the contrary, it blew from Tibet,
it was, though southerly, dry. Clouds obscured all
distant view. The temperature was 39i°, the air
being extremely damp and consequently very cold.
Returning to the foot of the glacier, I took up my
quarters for two days under an enormous rock overlooking
the broad valley in which 1 had spent the
previous night, and directly fronting Tunkra mountain,
which bore north about five miles distant. This
rock was sixty to eighty feet high, and placed on
the top of a bleak ridge, facing the n o rth ; no shrub
or bush being near it. The gentle slope outwards of
the rock afforded the only shelter, and a more utterly
desolate place than Lacheepia, as it is called, I never
laid my unhoused head in. I t commanded an incomparable
view across the Lachoong and Lachen valleys,
of the whole group of Kinchinjunga snows, from Tibet
southwards, and was therefore a most valuable position
for geographical purposes.