Books: Himalayan Journals (Complete)

J >> J. D. Hooker >> Himalayan Journals (Complete)

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My tent was made of a blanket thrown over the limb of a tree; to this
others were attached, and the whole was supported on a frame like a
house. One half was occupied by my bedstead, beneath which was stowed
my box of clothes, while my books and writing materials were placed
under the table. The barometer hung in the most out-of-the-way
corner, and my other instruments all around. A small candle was
burning in a glass shade, to keep the draught and insects from the
light, and I had the comfort of seeing the knife, fork, and spoon
laid on a white napkin, as I entered my snug little house, and flung
myself on the elastic couch to ruminate on the proceedings of the
day, and speculate on those of the morrow, while waiting for my meal,
which usually consisted of stewed meat and rice, with biscuits and
tea. My thermometers (wet and dry bulb, and minimum) hung under a
temporary canopy made of thickly plaited bamboo and leaves close to
the tent, and the cooking was performed by my servant under a tree.

After dinner my occupations were to ticket and put away the plants
collected during the day, write up journals, plot maps, and take
observations till 10 p.m. As soon as I was in bed, one of the Nepal
soldiers was accustomed to enter, spread his blanket on the ground,
and sleep there as my guard. In the morning the collectors were set
to change the plant-papers, while I explored the neighbourhood, and
having taken observations and breakfasted, we were ready to start at
10 a.m.

Following the same ridge, after a few miles of ascent over much
broken gneiss rock, the Ghorkas led me aside to the top of a knoll,
9,300 feet high, covered with stunted bushes, and commanding a
splendid view to the west, of the broad, low, well cultivated valley
of the Tambur, and the extensive town of Dunkotah on its banks, about
twenty-five miles off; the capital of this part of Nepal, and famous
for its manufactory of paper from the bark of the _Daphne._ Hence too
I gained a fine view of the plains of India, including the course of
the Cosi river, which, receiving the Arun and Tambur, debouches into
the Ganges opposite Colgongl (see Chapter IV).

A little further on we crossed the main ridge of Sakkiazung, a long
flexuous chain stretching for miles to the westward from Phulloot on
Singalelah, and forming the most elevated and conspicuous transverse
range in this part of Nepal: its streams flow south to the Myong, and
north to feeders of the Tambur. Silver firs (_Abies Webbiana_) are
found on all the summits; but to my regret none occurred in our path,
which led just below their limit (10,000 feet), on the southern
Himalayan ranges. There were, however, a few yews, exactly like the
English. The view that opened on cresting this range was again
magnificent, of Kinchinjunga, the western snows of Nepal, and the
valley of the Tambur winding amongst wooded and cultivated hills to a
long line of black-peaked, rugged mountains, sparingly snowed, which
intervene between Kinchinjunga and the great Nepal mountain before
mentioned. The extremely varied colouring on the infinite number of
hill-slopes that everywhere intersected the Tambur valley was very
pleasing. For fully forty miles to the northward there were no lofty
forest-clad mountains, nor any apparently above 4000 to 5000 feet:
villages and hamlets appeared everywhere, with crops of golden
mustard and purple buckwheat in full flower; yellow rice and maize,
green hemp, pulse, radishes, and barley, and brown millet. Here and
there deep groves of oranges, the broad-leafed banana, and
sugar-cane, skirted the bottoms of the valleys, through which the
streams were occasionally seen, rushing in white foam over their
rocky beds. It was a goodly sight to one who had for his only
standard of comparison the view from Sinchul, of the gloomy
forest-clad ranges of 6000 to 10,000 feet, that intervene between
that mountain and the snowy girdle of Sikkim; though I question
whether a traveller from more favoured climes would see more in this,
than a thinly inhabited country, with irregular patches of poor
cultivation, a vast amount of ragged forest on low hills of rather
uniform height and contour, relieved by a dismal back-ground of
frowning black mountains, sprinkled with snow! Kinchinjunga was again
the most prominent object to the north-east, with its sister peaks of
Kubra (24,005 feet), and Junnoo (25,312 feet). All these presented
bare cliff's for several thousand feet below their summits, composed
of white rock with a faint pink tint:--on the other hand the lofty
Nepal mountain in the far west presented cliffs of black rocks. From
the summit two routes to the Tambur presented themselves; one, the
main road, led west and south along the ridge, and then turned north,
descending to the river; the other was shorter, leading abruptly down
to the Pemmi river, and thence along its banks, west to the Tambur.
I chose the latter.

The descent was very abrupt on the first day, from 9,500 feet to 5000
feet, and on that following to the bed of the Pemmi, at 2000 feet;
and the road was infamously bad, generally consisting of a narrow,
winding, rocky path among tangled shrubs and large boulders,
brambles, nettles, and thorny bushes, often in the bed of the
torrent, or crossing spurs covered with forest, round whose bases it
flowed. A little cultivation was occasionally met with on the narrow
flat pebbly terraces which fringed the stream, usually of rice, and
sometimes of the small-leaved variety of hemp (_Cannabis_), grown as
a narcotic.

The rocks above 5000 feet were gneiss; below this, cliffs of very
micaceous schist were met with, having a north-west strike, and being
often vertical; the boulders again were always of gneiss. The streams
seemed rather to occupy faults, than to have eroded courses for
themselves; their beds were invariably rocky or pebbly, and the
waters white and muddy from the quantity of alumina. In one little
rocky dell the water gushed through a hole in a soft stratum in the
gneiss; a trifling circumstance which was not lost upon the crafty
Brahmins, who had cut a series of regular holes for the water,
ornamented the rocks with red paint, and a row of little iron
tridents of Siva, and dedicated the whole to Mahadeo.

In some spots the vegetation was exceedingly fine, and several large
trees occurred: I measured a Toon (_Cedrela_) thirty feet in girth at
five feet above the ground. The skirts of the forest were adorned
with numerous jungle flowers, rice crops, blue _Acanthaceae_ and
_Pavetta,_ wild cherry-trees covered with scarlet blossoms, and trees
of the purple and lilac _Bauhinia_; while _Thunbergia, Convolvulus,_
and other climbers, hung in graceful festoons from the boughs, and on
the dry micaceous rocks the _Luculia gratissima,_ one of our common
hot-house ornaments, grew in profusion, its gorgeous heads of
blossoms scenting the air.

At the junction of the Pemmi and Khawa rivers, there are high rocks
of mica-slate, and broad river-terraces of stratified sand and
pebbles, apparently alternating with deposits of shingle. On this
hot, open expanse, elevated 2250 feet, appeared many trees and plants
of the Terai and plains, as pomegranate, peepul, and sal; with
extensive fields of cotton, indigo, and irrigated rice.

We followed the north bank of the Khawa, which runs westerly through
a gorge, between high cliffs of chlorite, containing thick beds of
stratified quartz. At the angles of the river broad terraces are
formed, fifteen to thirty feet above its bed, similar to those just
mentioned, and planted with rows of _Acacia Serissa,_ or laid out in
rice fields, or sugar plantations.

I reached the east bank of the Tambur, on the 13th of November, at
its junction with the Khawa, in a deep gorge. It formed a grand
stream, larger than the Teesta, of a pale, sea-green, muddy colour,
and flowed rapidly with a strong ripple, but no foam; it rises six
feet in the rains, but ice never descends nearly so low; its breadth
was sixty to eighty yards, its temperature 55 degrees to 58 degrees.
The breadth of the foaming Khawa was twelve to fifteen yards, and its
temperature 56.5 degrees. The surrounding vegetation was entirely
tropical, consisting of scrubby sal trees, acacia, _Grislea, Emblica,
Hibiscus,_ etc.; the elevation being but 1300 feet, though the spot
was twenty-five miles in a straight line from the plains. I camped at
the fork of the rivers, on a fine terrace fifty feet above the water,
about seventy yards long, and one hundred broad, quite flat-topped,
and composed of shingle, gravel, etc., with enormous boulders of
gneiss, quartz, and hornstone, much water-worn; it was girt by
another broken terrace, twelve feet or so above the water, and
covered with long grass and bushes.

The main road from Ilam to Wallanchoon, which I quitted on
Sakkiazung, descends steeply on the opposite bank of the river, which
I crossed in a canoe formed of a hollow trunk (of Toon), thirty feet
long. There is considerable traffic along this road; and I was
visited by numbers of natives, all Hindoos, who coolly squatted
before my tent-door, and stared with their large black, vacant,
lustrous eyes: they appear singularly indolent, and great beggars.

The land seems highly favoured by nature, and the population, though
so scattered, is in reality considerable, the varied elevation giving
a large surface; but the natives care for no more than will satisfy
their immediate wants. The river swarms with fish, but they are too
lazy to catch them, and they have seldom anything better to give or
sell than sticks of sugar-cane, which when peeled form a refreshing
morsel in these scorching marches. They have few and poor oranges,
citrons, and lemons, very bad plantains, and but little else;--eggs,
fowls, and milk are all scarce. Horned cattle are of course never
killed by Hindoos, and it was but seldom that I could replenish my
larder with a kid. Potatos are unknown, but my Sepoys often brought
me large coarse radishes and legumes.

From the junction of the rivers the road led up the Tambur to Mywa
Guola; about sixteen miles by the river, but fully thirty-five, as we
wound, ascended, and descended, during three days' marches. We were
ferried across the stream in a canoe much ruder than that of the New
Zealander. I watched my party crossing by boat-loads of fifteen each;
the Bhotan men hung little scraps of rags on the bushes before
embarking, the votive offerings of a Booddhist throughout central
Asia;--the Lepcha, less civilised, scooped up a little water in the
palm of his hand, and scattered it about, invoking the river god of
his simple creed.

We always encamped upon gravelly terraces a few feet above the river,
which flows in a deep gorge; its banks are very steep for 600 feet
above the stream, though the mountains which flank it do not exceed
4000 to 5000 feet: this is a constant phenomenon in the Himalaya, and
the roads, when low and within a few hundred feet of the river, are
in consequence excessively steep and difficult; it would have been
impossible to have taken ponies along that we followed, which was
often not a foot broad, running along very steep cliffs, at a dizzy
height above the river, and engineered with much trouble and
ingenuity: often the bank was abandoned altogether, and we ascended
several thousand feet to descend again. Owing to the steepness of
these banks, and the reflected heat, the valley, even at this season,
was excessively hot and close during the day, even when the
temperature was below 70 degrees, and tempered by a brisk breeze
which rushes upwards from sunrise to sunset. The sun at this season
does not, in many places, reach the bottom of these valleys until 10
a.m., and is off again by 3 p.m.; and the radiation to a clear sky is
so powerful that dew frequently forms in the shade, throughout the
day, and it is common at 10 a.m. to find the thermometer sink from 70
degrees in a sheltered spot, dried by the sun, to 40 degrees in the
shade close by, where the sun has not yet penetrated. Snow never
falls.

The rocks throughout this part of the river-course are mica-schists
(strike north-west, dip south-west 70 degrees, but very variable in
inclination and direction); they are dry and grassy, and the
vegetation wholly tropical, as is the entomology, which consists
chiefly of large butterflies, _Mantis_ and _Diptera._ Snowy mountains
are rarely seen, and the beauty of the scenery is confined to the
wooded banks of the main stream, which flows at an average
inclination of fifty feet to the mile. Otters are found in the
stream, and my party shot two, but could not procure them.

Illustration--TAMBUR RIVER & VALLEY (EAST NEPAL) FROM CHINTAM.
(ELEVATION 5000 FT.) LOOKING NORTH.

In one place the road ascended for 2000 feet above the river, to the
village of Chingtam, situated on a lofty spur of the west bank,
whence I obtained a grand view of the upper course of the river,
flowing in a tremendous chasm, flanked by well-cultivated hills, and
emerging fifteen miles to the northward, from black mountains of
savage grandeur, whose rugged, precipitous faces were streaked with
snow, and the tops of the lower ones crowned with the
tabular-branched silver-fir, contrasting strongly with the tropical
luxuriance around. Chingtam is an extensive village, covering an area
of two miles, and surrounded with abundant cultivation; the houses,
which are built in clusters, are of wood, or wattle and mud, with
grass thatch. The villagers, though an indolent, staring race, are
quiet and respectable; the men are handsome, the women, though less
so, often good-looking. They have fine cattle, and excellent crops.

Immediately above Chingtam, the Tambur is joined by a large affluent
from the west, the Mywa, which is crossed by an excellent iron
bridge, formed of loops hanging from two parallel chains, along which
is laid a plank of sal timber. Passing through the village, we camped
on a broad terrace, from sixty to seventy feet above the junction of
the rivers, whose beds are 2100 feet above the sea.

Mywa Guola (or bazaar) is a large village and mart, frequented by
Nepalese and Tibetans, who bring salt, wool, gold, musk, and
blankets, to exchange for rice, coral, and other commodities; and a
custom-house officer is stationed there, with a few soldiers.
The houses are of wood, and well built: the public ones are large,
with verandahs, and galleries of carved wood; the workmanship is of
Chinese character, and inferior to that of Katmandoo; but in the same
style, and quite unlike anything I had previously seen.

The river-terrace is in all respects similar to that at the junction
of the Tambur and Khawa, but very extensive: the stones it contained
were of all sizes, from a nut to huge boulders upwards of fifteen
feet long, of which many strewed the surface, while others were in
the bed of the river: all were of gneiss, quartz, and granite, and
had doubtless been transported from great elevations, as the rocks
_in situ_--both here and for several thousand feet higher up the
river--were micaceous schists, dipping in various directions, and at
all angles, with, however, a general strike to the north-west.

I was here overtaken by a messenger with letters from Dr. Campbell,
announcing that the Sikkim Rajah had disavowed the refusal to the
Governor-General's letter, and authorising me to return through any
part of Sikkim I thought proper. The bearer was a Lepcha attached to
the court: his dress was that of a superior person, being a scarlet
jacket over a white cotton dress, the breadth of the blue stripes of
which generally denotes wealth; he was accompanied by a sort of
attache, who wore a magnificent pearl and gold ear-ring, and carried
his master's bow, as well as a basket on his back; while an attendant
coolie bore their utensils and food. Meepo, or Teshoo (in Tibetan,
Mr.), Meepo, as he was usually called, soon attached himself to me,
and proved an active, useful, and intelligent companion, guide, and
often collector, during many months afterwards.

The vegetation round Mywa Guola is still thoroughly tropical: the
banyan is planted, and thrives tolerably, the heat being great during
the day. Like the whole of the Tambur valley below 4000 feet, and
especially on these flats, the climate is very malarious before and
after the rains; and I was repeatedly applied to by natives suffering
under attacks of fever. During the two days I halted, the mean
temperature was 60 degrees (extremes, 80/41 degrees), that of the
Tambur, 53 degrees, and of the Mywa, 56 degrees; each varying a few
degrees (the smaller stream the most) between sunrise and 4 p.m.: the
sunk thermometer was 72 degrees.

As we should not easily be able to procure food further on, I laid in
a full stock here, and distributed blankets, etc., sufficient for
temporary use for all the people, dividing them into groups or messes.

CHAPTER IX.

Leave Mywa -- Suspension bridge -- Landslips -- Vegetation -- Slope
of riverbed -- Bees' nests -- Glacial phenomena -- Tibetans,
clothing, ornaments, amulets, salutation, children, dogs -- Last
Limboo village, Taptiatok -- Beautiful scenery -- Tibet village of
Lelyp -- _Opuntia_ -- _Edgeworthia_ -- Crab-apple -- Chameleon and
porcupine -- Praying machine -- _Abies Brunoniana_ -- European plants
-- Grand scenery -- Arrive at Wallanchoon -- Scenery around -- Trees
-- Tibet houses -- Manis and Mendongs -- Tibet household -- Food --
Tea-soup -- Hospitality -- Yaks and Zobo, uses and habits of --
Bhoteeas -- Yak-hair tents -- Guobah of Walloong -- Jhatamansi --
Obstacles to proceeding -- Climate and weather -- Proceed --
Rhododendrons, etc. -- Lichens -- _Poa annua_ and Shepherd's purse --
Tibet camp -- Tuquoroma -- Scenery of pass -- Glaciers and snow --
Summit -- Plants, woolly, etc.

On the 18th November, we left Mywa Guola, and continued up the river
to the village of Wallanchoon or Walloong, which was reached in six
marches. The snowy peak of Junnoo (alt. 25,312 feet.) forms a
magnificent feature from this point, seen up the narrow gorge of the
river, bearing N.N.E. about thirty miles. I crossed the Mewa, an
affluent from the north, by another excellent suspension bridge.
In these bridges, the principal chains are clamped to rocks on either
shore, and the suspended loops occur at intervals of eight to ten
feet; the single sal-plank laid on these loops swings terrifically,
and the handrails not being four feet high, the sense of insecurity
is very great.

The Wallanchoon road follows the west bank, but the bridge above
having been carried away, we crossed by a plank, and proceeded along
very steep banks of decomposed chlorite schist, much contorted, and
very soapy, affording an insecure footing, especially where great
landslips had occurred, which were numerous, exposing acres of a
reddish and white soil of felspathic clay, sloping at an angle of 30
degrees. Where the angle was less than 15 degrees, rice was
cultivated, and partially irrigated. The lateral streams (of a muddy
opal green) had cut beds 200 feet deep in the soft earth, and were
very troublesome to cross, from the crumbling cliffs on either side,
and their broad swampy channels.

Five or six miles above Mywa, the valley contracts much, and the
Tambur (whose bed is elevated about 3000 feet) becomes a turbulent
river, shooting along its course with immense velocity, torn into
foam as it lashes the spurs of rock that flank it, and the enormous
boulders with which its bed is strewn.* [In some places torrents of
stone were carried down by landslips, obstructing the rivers; when in
the beds of streams, they were often cemented by felspathic clay into
a hard breccia of angular quartz, gneiss, and felspar nodules.] From
this elevation to 9000 feet, its sinuous track extends about thirty
miles, which gives the mean fall of 200 feet to the mile, quadruple
of what it is for the lower part of its course. So long as its bed is
below 5000 feet, a tropical vegetation prevails in the gorge, and
along the terraces, consisting of tall bamboo, _Bauhinia, Acacia,
Melastoma,_ etc.; but the steep mountain sides above are either bare
and grassy, or cliffs with scattered shrubs and trees, and their
summits are of splintered slaty gneiss, bristling with pines: those
faces exposed to the south and east are invariably the driest and
most grassy; while the opposite are well wooded. _Rhododendron
arboreum_ becomes plentiful at 5000 to 6000 feet, forming a large
tree on dry clayey slopes; it is accompanied by _Indigofera,
Andromeda,_ _Spiraea,_ shrubby _Compositae,_ and very many plants
absent at similar elevations on the wet outer Dorjiling ranges.

In the contracted parts of the valley, the mountains often dip to the
river-bed, in precipices of gneiss, under the ledges of which wild
bees build pendulous nests, looking like huge bats suspended by their
wings; they are two or three feet long, and as broad at the top,
whence they taper downwards: the honey is much sought for, except in
spring, when it is said to be poisoned by Rhododendron flowers, just
as that, eaten by the soldiers in the retreat of the Ten Thousand,
was by the flowers of the _R. ponticum._

Above these gorges are enormous accumulations of rocks, especially at
the confluence of lateral valleys, where they rest upon little flats,
like the river-terraces of Mywa, but wholly formed of angular
shingle, flanked with beds of river-formed gravel: some of these
boulders were thirty or forty yards across, and split as if they had
fallen from a height; the path passing between the fragments.* [The
split fragments I was wholly unable to account for, till my attention
was directed by Mr. Darwin to the observations of Charpentier and
Agassiz, who refer similar ones met with in the Alps, to rocks which
have fallen through crevasses in glaciers.--See "Darwin on Glaciers
and Transported Boulders in North Wales." London, "Phil. Mag." xxi.
p. 180.] At first I imagined that they had been precipitated from the
mountains around; and I referred the shingle to land-shoots, which
during the rains descend several thousand feet in devastating
avalanches, damming up the rivers, and destroying houses, cattle, and
cultivation; but though I still refer the materials of many such
terraces to this cause, I consider those at the mouths of valleys to
be due to ancient glacial action, especially when laden with such
enormous blocks as are probably ice-transported.

A change in the population accompanies that in the natural features
of the country, Tibetans replacing the Limboos and Khass-tribes of
Nepal, who inhabit the lower region. We daily passed parties of ten
or a dozen Tibetans, on their way to Mywa Guola, laden with salt;
several families of these wild, black, and uncouth-looking people
generally travelling together. The men are middle-sized, often tall,
very square-built and muscular; they have no beard, moustache, or
whiskers, the few hairs on their faces being carefully removed with
tweezers. They are dressed in loose blanket robes, girt about the
waist with a leather belt, in which they place their iron or brass
pipes, and from which they suspend their long knives, chopsticks,
tobacco-pouch, tweezers, tinder-box, etc. The robe, boots, and cap
are grey, or striped with bright colours, and they wear skull-caps,
and the hair plaited into a pig-tail.

The women are dressed in long flannel petticoats and spencer, over
which is thrown a sleeveless, short, striped cloak, drawn round the
waist by a girdle of broad brass or silver links, to which hang their
knives, scissors, needlecases, etc., and with which they often strap
their children to their backs; the hair is plaited in two tails, and
the neck loaded with strings of coral and glass beads, and great
lumps of amber, glass, and agate. Both sexes wear silver rings and
ear-rings, set with turquoises, and square amulets upon their necks
and arms, which are boxes of gold or silver, containing small idols,
or the nail-parings, teeth, or other reliques of some sainted Lama,
accompanied with musk, written prayers, and other charms. All are
good-humoured and amiable-looking people, very square and Mongolian
in countenance, with broad mouths, high cheek-bones, narrow, upturned
eyes, broad, flat noses, and low foreheads. White is their natural
colour, and rosy cheeks are common amongst the younger women and
children, but all are begrimed with filth and smoke; added to which,
they become so weather-worn from exposure to the most rigorous
climate in the world, that their natural hues are rarely to be
recognised. Their customary mode of saluting one another is to hold
out the tongue, grin, nod, and scratch their ear; but this method
entails so much ridicule in the low countries, that they do not
practise it to Nepalese or strangers; most of them when meeting me,
on the contrary, raised their hands to their eyes, threw themselves
on the ground, and kotowed most decorously, bumping their foreheads
three times on the ground; even the women did this on several
occasions. On rising, they begged for a bucksheesh, which I gave in
tobacco or snuff, of which they are immoderately fond. Both men and
women constantly spin wool as they travel.