the clouds: abrupt precipices*-deepdells, and the river dashing its
waters vritEf>astonishiag rapidity, o w thes huge stones andrisrokein
reeks below, composed the sublime and Variegated picture.
Near the top of the mountain we passed-through a chasm in the
solid rock, of the depth,®!" eighteen. or twenty feet, just^wide ehough
to admit a man on horseback. It was by this way, tradition tells, that
the dewta Tehuptehup, in his flight from Bootan to the country of
the Racusses, (whose ruler he put to death, and assumed the government
himself,) took his course; and in scramblmg the roek, he
left here a deep impression of his hands and feet upon the stofefef My
conductor, who firmly gave faith te the story,-pointed out to- me the
vestiges.
A very curious and simple bridge, for the accommodation of single
passengers, communicated between this and the opposite* mountain.
It epiriisted of two large ropes made of twisted-creepers, -stretched
parallel to each other, and encircled with a hoop. The traveller, who
wishes to cross over from hence, has only to place himself between the
ropes, and sit down on'the hoop, seizing one rope in each hand, by
means of which he slides himself along, and crosses an abyss on which
I could hot look without shuddering. Custom, however, has rendered
it Familiar, and easy to those who are in the practice of thus passing
from rone mountain to the other, as it saves them, by this expedient,
a laborious journey of several days.
We descended the mountain, and crossed the chain bridge called
dhukarcha-zum, stretched over the Tehintchieu river, a short distance
above the castle of Chuka, which is reckoned eighteen miles from