The night was misty, and though the temperature
was 35°, I was miserably cold; for my blankets being
laid on the bare ground, the chill seemed to strike
from the rock to the very marrow of my bones. At
sunrise the mist rose majestically from all the mountain-
tops ; but the view obtained was transient, for in less
than an hour the dense fog which choked the valleys
ascended to the warmed atmosphere above, and slowly
threw a veil over the landscape. I waited till the last
streak of snow was shut out from my view, when I
descended, to breakfast on Himalayan grouse (Tetrao->
perdix nivicola), a small gregarious bird which inhabits
the loftiest mountains, and utters a short cry of
“ Quiok, quiok; ” in character and appearance it is
intermediate between grouse and partridge, and is good
eating, though tough.
Hoping to obtain another view, which might enable
me to correct the hearings taken that morning, I was
tempted to spend a second night at Lacheepia, passing
the day in botanizing and taking observations. Little
rain fell during the day, hut it was' heavy at night,
though there was fortunately no wind; and I made
a more comfortable bed with tufts of juniper brought
up from below, My fire was principally of wet
rhododendron wood, with masses of the aromatic dwarf
species, which, being full of resinous glands, blazed
with fury. Next day, after a very transient glimpse of
the snows, I descended to Lachoong, where I remained
for some days botanizing.
During my stay at Lachoong I was several times
awakened by all the noises and accompaniments of a
night-attack or alarm ; screaming voices, groans, shouts,
and ejaculations, the beating of drums and firing of
guns, and flambeaux of pine-wood gleaming amongst
the trees, and flitting from house to house. The
cause, I was informed, was the presence of a demon,
who required exorcisement, and who generally managed
to make the villagers remember his visit, by their
missing various articles after the turmoil made to drive
him away.
On the 29th of August I left Lachoong and proceeded
up the valley, along a terrace covered with long grass,
and bounded by lofty banks of gravel and sand. The
old moraines were very difficult to cross, and on one I
found a barricade, which had been erected to deceive
me regarding the frontier, had I chosen this route
instead of the Lachen one, in May.
Broad flats clothed with rhododendron, alternated
with others covered with mud, boulders, and débris,
which had flowed down from the gorges on the west,
and which still contained trees, inclined in all directions,
and buried up to their branches ; some of these
débâcles were 400 yards across, and sloped at an angle
of 2° to 3°, bearing on their surfaces blocks fifteen
feet in diameter* They seem to subside materially,
as I perceived they had left marks many feet higher on
the tree-trunks. Such débâcles must often bury
standing forests in a very favourable material, climate,
and position for becoming fossilized.
I arrived at Yeumtong, a small summer cattle-station,
* None were to be compared in size and extent with that at Bex, at the
mouth of the Rhone valley.