nor do I know any authentic record of its having been
Seen in the Himalaya.
At a fork of the valley several miles above Yeum-
tong, and below the great glacier of Chango-Khang, the
ancient moraines are prodigious, much exceeding any
I have elsewhere seen, both in extent, in the size of
the boulders, and in the height to which the latter are
piled on one another. Many boulders I measured
were twenty yards across, and some even forty; and
the chaotic scene they presented baffles all description
: they were scantily clothed with stunted silver
firs.
Beyond this, the path crossed the river, and ascended
rapidly over a mile of steeply sloping landslip, composed
of angular fragments of granite, which were
constantly falling from above, and were extremely
dangerous. At 14,000 feet, trees and shrubs ceased,
willow and honeysuckle being the l a s t ; and thence
onward the valley was bleak, open, and stony, with
lofty rocky mountains on either side. The south
wind brought a cold drizzling rain, which numbed
us, and two of the lads who had last come up from
Dorjiling were seized with a remittent fever, originally
contracted in the hot valleys: luckily we found some
cattle-sheds, in which I left them, with two men to
attend on them.
Momay Samdong is situated in a broad part of the
Lachoong valley, where three streams meet; it is on
the west of Chango-Khang, and is six miles south-east
of Kinchinjhow, and seven south-west of Donkia: it is
in the same latitude as Palung, but scarcely so lofty;
being nearly the elevation of Lacheepia (near the
Tunkra pass), from which, however, its scenery and
vegetation entirely differ,
I pitched my tent close to a little shed at the base of
a mountain that divided the Lachoong river from a
western tributary. I t was a wild and most exposed
spot; stony mountains, grassy on the base near the
river ; distant snowy peaks, stupendous precipices,
moraines, glaciers, transported boulders, and rocks
rounded by glacial action, formed the landscape which
everywhere met the view. There was not a bush six
inches high, and the only approach to woody plants
were minute creeping willows and dwarf rhododendrons,
with a very few prostrate junipers and Ephedra.
The base of the spur was cut into broad flat terraces,
composed of sand, pebbles, and boulders; the remains,
doubtless, of an enormously thick glacial deposit.
Another tributary falls into the Lachoong at Momay,
which leads eastwards up to an enormous glacier that
descends from Donkia. Snowy mountains rise nearly
all around it : those on its south and east divide
Sikkim from the Phari province in Tibet; those on the
north terminate in a forked or cleft peak, which is a remarkable
and conspicuous feature from Momay. This,
which I have called Forked Donkia, is elevatecTabout
SI,870 feet, and is. the termination of a magnificent
amphitheatre of stupendous snow-clad precipices, continuously
upwards of. SO,000 feet high, that forms the
east flank of the upper Lachoong valley. From Donkia
top again, the mountains sweep round to the westward,
rising into fingered peaks of extraordinary magnificence;
a 3