Books: Himalayan Journals (Complete)

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

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The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now covered with
a bright green crop of young rice. The house then occupied by the
Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been
repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the boiling
flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful object in this most beautiful
landscape. The temperature of the river was 58 degrees, only 7
degrees above that of mid-winter, owing to the now melting snows.
I had rather expected to meet either with a guide, or with some
further obstruction here, but as none appeared, I proceeded onwards
as soon as the weather moderated.

Illustration--PANDANUS. SIKKIM SCREW-PINE.

Higher up, the scenery resembles that of Tchintam on the Tambur: the
banks are so steep as to allow of no road, and the path ascends from
the river, at 1000 feet, to Lathiang village, at 4,800 feet, up a
wild, rocky torrent that descends from Mainom to the Teesta.
The cliffs here are covered with wild plantains and screw-pines
(_Pandanus_), 50 feet high, that clasp the rocks with cable-like
roots, and bear one or two crowns of drooping leaves, 5 feet long:
two palms, Rattan (_Calamus_) and _Areca gracilis,_ penetrate thus
far up the Teesta valley, but are scarcely found further.

From the village the view was superb, embracing the tropical gulley
below, with the flat of Bhomsong deep down in the gorge, its bright
rice-fields gleaming like emeralds amid the dark vegetation that
surrounded it; the Teesta winding to the southward, the pine-clad
rocky top of Mainom, 10,613 feet high, to the south-west, the cone of
Mount Ararat far to the south, to the north black mountains tipped
with snow, and to the east the magnificent snowy range of Chola,
girdling the valley of the Ryott with a diadem of frosted silver.
The coolies, each carrying upwards of 80 lb. load, had walked twelve
hours that day, and besides descending 2000 feet, they had ascended
nearly 4000 feet, and gone over innumerable ups and downs besides.

Beyond Lathiang, a steep and dangerous path runs along the east flank
of Mainom, sometimes on narrow ledges of dry rock, covered with long
grass, sometimes dipping into wooded gullies, full of _Edgeworthia
Gardneri_ and small trees of Andromeda and rhododendron, covered with
orchids* [Especially some species of _Sunipia_ and _Cirrhopetalum,_
whicb have not yet been introduced into England.] of great beauty.

Descending to Gorh (4,100 feet), I was met by the Lama of that
district, a tall, disagreeable-looking fellow, who informed me that
the road ahead was impassable. The day being spent, I was obliged to
camp at any rate; after which he visited me in full canonicals,
bringing me a handsome present, but assuring me that he had no
authority to let me advance. I treated him with civility, and
regretted my objects being so imperative, and my orders so clear,
that I was obliged to proceed on the following morning: on which he
abruptly decamped, as I suspected, in order to damage the paths and
bridges. He came again at daylight, and expostulated further; but
finding it of no use, he volunteered to accompany me, officiously
offering me the choice of two roads. I asked for the coolest, knowing
full well that it was useless to try and out-wit him in such matters.
At the first stream the bridge was destroyed, but seeing the planks
peeping through the bushes in which they had been concealed, I
desired the Lama to repair it, which he did without hesitation. So it
was at every point: the path was cumbered with limbs of trees,
crossing-stones were removed from the streams, and all natural
difficulties were increased. I kept constantly telling the Lama that
as he had volunteered to show me the road, I felt sure he intended to
remove all obstacles, and accordingly I put him to all the trouble I
possibly could, which he took with a very indifferent grace. When I
arrived at the swinging bridge across the Teesta, I found that the
canes were loosened, and that slips of bamboo, so small as nearly to
escape observation, were ingeniously placed low down over the single
bamboo that formed the footing, intended to trip up the unwary
passenger, and overturn him into the river, which was deep, and with
a violent current. Whilst the Lama was cutting these, one of my party
found a charcoal writing on a tree, announcing the speedy arrival
from the Rajah of my old guide, Meepo; and he shortly afterwards
appeared, with instructions to proceed with me, though not to the
Tibetan frontier. The lateness of the season, the violence of the
rains, and the fears, on the Rajah's part, that I might suffer from
fever or accident, were all urged to induce me to return, or at least
only to follow the west branch of the Teesta to Kinchinjunga.
These reasons failing, I was threatened with Chinese interference on
the frontier. All these objections I overruled, by refusing to
recognise any instructions that were not officially communicated to
the Superintendent of Dorjiling.

The Gorh Lama here took leave of me: he was a friend of the Dewan,
and was rather surprised to find that the Rajah had sent me a guide,
and now attempted to pass himself off as my friend, pompously
charging Meepo with the care of me, and bidding me a very polite
farewell. I could not help telling him civilly, but plainly, what I
thought of him; and so we parted.

Meepo was very glad to join my party again: he is a thorough Lepcha
in heart, a great friend of his Rajah and of Tchebu Lama, and one who
both fears and hates the Dewan. He assured me of the Rajah's good
wishes and intentions, but spoke with great doubt as to the
probability of a successful issue to my journey: he was himself
ignorant of the road, but had brought a guide, whose appearance,
however, was against him, and who turned out to be sent as a spy on
us both.

Instead of crossing the Teesta here, we kept on for two days up its
west bank, to a cane bridge at Lingo, where the bed of the river is
still only 2000 feet above the sea, though 45 miles distant from the
plains, and flowing in a valley bounded by mountains 12,000 to 16,000
feet high. The heat was oppressive, from the closeness of the
atmosphere, the great power of the sun, now high at noon-day, and the
reflection from the rocks. Leeches began to swarm as the damp
increased, and stinging flies of various kinds. My clothes were
drenched with perspiration during five hours of every day, and the
crystallising salt irritated the skin. On sitting down to rest, I was
overcome with languor and sleep, and, but for the copious supply of
fresh water everywhere, travelling would have been intolerable.
The Coolies were all but naked, and were constantly plunging into the
pools of the rivers; for, though filthy in their persons, they revel
in cold water in summer. They are powerful swimmers, and will stem a
very strong current, striking out with each arm alternately. It is an
animated sight when twenty or thirty of these swarthy children of
nature are disporting their muscular figures in the water, diving
after large fish, and sometimes catching them by tickling them under
the stones.

Of plants I found few not common at similar elevations below
Dorjiling, except another kind of Tree-fern,* [_Alsophila spinulosa,_
the "Pugjik" of the Lepchas, who eat the soft watery pith: it is
abundant in East Bengal and the Peninsula of India. The other Sikkim
Tree-fern, _A. gigantea,_ is far more common from the level of the
plains to 6,500 elevation, and is found as far south as Java.] whose
pith is eaten in times of scarcity. The India-rubber fig penetrates
thus far amongst the mountains, but is of small size. A Gentian,
_Arenaria,_ and some sub-alpine plants are met with, though the
elevation is only 2000 feet, and the whole climate thoroughly
tropical: they were annuals usually found at 7000 to 10,000 feet
elevation, and were growing here on mossy rocks, cooled by the spray
of the river, whose temperature was only 56.3 degrees. My servant
having severely sprained his wrist by a fall, the Lepchas wanted to
apply a moxa, which they do by lighting a piece of puff-ball, or
Nepal paper that burns like tinder, laying it on the skin, and
blowing it till a large open sore is produced: they shook their heads
at my treatment, which consisted in transferring some of the leeches
from our persons to the inflamed part.

After crossing the Teesta by the cane bridge of Lingo, our route lay
over a steep and lofty spur, round which the river makes a great
sweep. On the ascent of this ridge we passed large villages on flats
cultivated with buckwheat. The saddle is 5,500 feet high, and thence
a rapid descent leads to the village of Singtam, which faces the
north, and is 300 feet lower, and 3000 feet above the river, which is
here no longer called the Teesta, but is known as the
Lachen-Lachoong, from its double origin in the rivers of these names,
which unite at Choongtam, twenty miles higher up. Of these, the
source of the Lachen is in the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; while the
Lachoong rises on the south flank of Donkia mountain, both many
marches north of my present position. At Singtam the Lacben-Lachoong
runs westward, till joined by the Rihi from the north, and the
Rinoong from the west, after receiving which it assumes the name of
Teesta: of these affluents, the Rinoong is the largest, and drains
the south-east face of Kinchinjunga and Pundim, and the north of
Nursing: all which mountains are seen to the north-north-west of
Singtam. The Rinoong valley is cultivated for several miles up, and
has amongst others the village and Lamasery of Bah. Beyond this the
view of black, rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above
them, is one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that
direction, from Bah over the Tckonglah to the Thlonok valley, and
thence to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost
impracticable.

Illustration--VIEW OF KINCHINJUNGA FROM SINGTAM, LOOKING
NORTH-WESTWARD.

A race of wild men, called "Harrum-mo," are said to inhabit the head
of the valley, living in the woods of a district called Mund-po,
beyond Bah; tbey shun habitations, speak an unintelligible tongue,
have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do not plait that of
their heads, but wear it in a knot; they use the bow and arrow, and
eat snakes and vermin, which the Lepchas will not touch. Such is the
account I have heard, and which is certainly believed in Sikkim:
similar stories are very current in half civilized countries; and if
this has any truth, it possibly refers to the Chepangs,* [Hodgson, in
"Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848.] a very remarkable race,
of doubtful affinity and origin, inhabiting the Nepal forests.

At Singtam I was waited on by the Soubah of the district, a tall
portly Bhoteea, who was destined to prove a most active enemy to my
pursuits. He governs the country between Gorh and the Tibet frontier,
for the Maha-Raanee (wife of the Rajah), whose dowry it is; and she
being the Dewan's relative, I had little assistance to expect from
her agent. His conduct was very polite, and he brought me a handsome
offering for myself; but after delaying me a day on the pretext of
collecting food for my people, of which I was in want, I was obliged
to move on with no addition to my store, and trust to obtaining some
at the next village, or from Dorjiling. Owing, however, to the
increasing distance, and the destruction of the roads by the rains,
my supplies from that place were becoming irregular: I therefore
thought it prudent to reduce my party, by sending back my guard of
Sepoys, who could be of no further use.

From this point the upper portion of the course of the Teesta
(Lachen-Lachoong) is materially different from what it is lower down;
becoming a boisterous torrent, as suddenly as the Tambur does above
Mywa Guola. Its bed is narrower, large masses of rock impede its
course, nor is there any place where it is practicable for rafts at
any season; the only means of passing it being by cane bridges that
are thrown across, high above the stream.

The slope on either side of the valley is very steep; that on the
north, in particular, appearing too precipitous for any road, and
being only frequented by honey seekers, who scale the rocks by cane
ladders, and thus reach the pendulous bees'-nests, which are so large
as in some instances to be conspicuous features at the distance of a
mile. This pursuit appeared extremely perilous, the long thread-like
canes in many places affording the only footing, over many yards of
cliff: the procuring of this honey, however, is the only means by
which many of the idle poor raise the rent which they must pay to
the Rajah.

The most prominent effect of the steepness of the valleys is the
prevalence of land-slips, which sometimes descend for 3000 feet,
carrying devastation along their course: they are caused either by
the melting of the snow-beds on the mountains, or by the action of
the rains on the stratified rocks, and are much increased in effect
and violence by the heavy timber-trees which, swaying forwards,
loosen the earth at their roots, and give impetus to the mass.
This phenomenon is as frequent and destructive as in Switzerland,
where, however, more lives are lost; from the country being more
populous, and from the people recklessly building in places
particularly exposed to such accidents. A most destructive one had,
however, occurred here the previous year, by which a village was
destroyed, together with twelve of its inhabitants, and all the
cattle. The fragments of rock precipitated are sometimes of enormous
size, but being a soft mica-schist, are soon removed by weathering.
It is in the rainy season that landslips are most frequent, and
shortly after rain they are pretty sure to be heard far or near.
I crossed the debris of the great one alluded to, on the first march
beyond Singtam: the whole face of the mountain appeared more or less
torn up for fully a mile, presenting a confused mass of white
micaceous clay, full of angular masses of rock. The path was very
difficult and dangerous, being carried along the steep slope, at an
angle, in some places, of 35 degrees; and it was constantly shifting,
from the continued downward sliding, and from the action of streams,
some of which are large, and cut deep channels. In one I had the
misfortune to lose my only sheep, which was carried away by the
torrent. These streams were crossed by means of sticks and ricketty
bamboos, and the steep sides (sometimes twenty or thirty feet high),
were ascended by notched poles.

The weather continued very hot for the elevation (4000 to 5000 feet),
the rain brought no coolness, and for the greater part of the three
marches between Singtam and Chakoong, we were either wading through
deep mud, or climbing over rocks. Leeches swarmed in incredible
profusion in the streams and damp grass, and among the bushes: they
got into my hair, hung on my eyelids, and crawled up my legs and down
my back. I repeatedly took upwards of a hundred from my legs, where
the small ones used to collect in clusters on the instep: the sores
which they produced were not healed for five months afterwards, and I
retain the scars to the present day. Snuff and tobacco leaves are the
best antidote, but when marching in the rain, it is impossible to
apply this simple remedy to any advantage. The best plan I found to
be rolling the leaves over the feet, inside the stockings, and
powdering the legs with snuf.

Another pest is a small midge, or sand-fly, which causes intolerable
itching, and subsequent irritation, and is in this respect the most
insufferable torment in Sikkim; the minutest rent in one's clothes is
detected by the acute senses of this insatiable bloodsucker, which is
itself so small as to be barely visible without a microscope.
We daily arrived at our camping-ground, streaming with blood, and
mottled with the bites of peepsas, gnats, midges, and mosquitos,
besides being infested with ticks.

As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be called into existence in
countless swarms; large and small moths, cockchafers, glow-worms, and
cockroaches, made my tent a Noah's ark by night, when the candle was
burning; together with winged ants, May-flies, flying earwigs, and
many beetles, while a very large species of _Tipula_
(daddy-long-legs) swept its long legs across my face as I wrote my
journal, or plotted off my map. After retiring to rest and putting
out the light, they gradually departed, except a few which could not
find the way out, and remained to disturb my slumbers.

Chakoong is a remarkable spot in the bottom of the valley, at an
angle of the Lachen-Lachoong, which here receives an affluent from
Gnarem, a mountain 17,557 feet high, on the Chola range to the east.*
[This is called Black Rock in Col. Waugh's map. I doubt Gnarem being
a generally known name: the people hardly recognise the mountain as
sufficiently conspicuous to bear a name.] There is no village, but
some grass huts used by travellers, which are built close to the
river on a very broad flat, fringed with alder, hornbeam, and birch:
the elevation is 4,400 feet, and many European genera not found about
Dorjiling, and belonging to the temperate Himalaya, grow intermixed
with tropical plants that are found no further north. The birch,
willow, alder, and walnut grow side by side with wild plantain,
_Erythrina, Wallichia_ palm, and gigantic bamboos: the _Cedrela
Toona,_ figs, _Melastoma, Scitamineae,_ balsams, _Pothos,_ peppers,
and gigantic climbing vines, grow mixed with brambles, speedwell,
_Paris,_ forget-me-not, and nettles that sting like poisoned arrows.
The wild English strawberry is common, but bears a tasteless fruit:
its inferiority is however counterbalanced by the abundance of a
grateful yellow raspberry. Parasitical Orchids (_Dendrobium nobile,_
and _densiflorum,_ etc.), cover the trunks of oaks, while
_Thalictrum_ and _Geranium_ grow under their shade. _Monotropa_ and
_Balanophora,_ both parasites on the roots of trees (the one a native
of north Europe and the other of a tropical climate), push their
leafless stems and heads of flowers through the soil together: and
lastly, tree-ferns grow associated with the _Pteris aquilina_ (brake)
and _Lycopodium clavatum_ of our British moors; and amongst mosses,
the superb Himalayan _Lyellia crispa,_* [This is one of the most
remarkable mosses in the Himalaya mountains, and derives additional
interest from having been named after the late Charles Lyell, Esq.,
of Kinnordy, the father of the most eminent geologist of the present
day.] with the English _Funaria hygrometrica._

The dense jungles of Chakoong completely cover the beautiful flat
terraces of stratified sand and gravel, which rise in three shelves
to 150 feet above the river, and whose edges appear as sharply cut as
if the latter had but lately retired from them. They are continuous
with a line of quartzy cliffs, covered with scarlet rhododendrons,
and in the holes of which a conglomerate of pebbles is found, 150
feet above the river. Everywhere immense boulders are scattered
about, some of which are sixty yards long: their surfaces are
water-worn into hollows, proving the river to have cut through nearly
300 feet of deposit, which once floored its valley. Lower down the
valley, and fully 2000 feet above the river, I had passed numerous
angular blocks resting on gentle slopes where no landslips could
possibly have deposited them; and which I therefore refer to ancient
glacial action: one of these, near the village of Niong, was nearly
square, eighty feet long, and ten high.

It is a remarkable fact, that this hot, damp gorge is never
malarious; this is attributable to the coolness of the river, and to
the water on the flats not stagnating; for at Choongtam, a march
further north, and 1500 feet higher, fevers and ague prevail in
summer on similar flats, but which have been cleared of jungle, and
are therefore exposed to the sun.

I had had constant headache for several mornings on waking, which I
did not fail to attribute to coming fever, or to the unhealthiness of
the climate; till I accidentally found it to arise from the wormwood,
upon a thick couch of the cut branches of which I was accustomed to
sleep, and which in dry weather produced no such effects.* [This
wormwood (_Artemisia Indaca_) is one of the most common Sikkim plants
at 2000 to 6000 feet elevation, and grows twelve feet high: it is a
favourite food of goats.]

From Chakoong to Choongtam the route lay northwards, following the
course of the river, or crossing steep spurs of vertical strata of
mica-schist, that dip into the valley, and leave no space between
their perpendicular sides and the furious torrent. Immense landslips
seamed the steep mountain flanks; and we crossed with precipitation
one that extended fully 4000 feet (and perhaps much more) up a
mountain 12,000 feet high, on the east bank: it moves every year, and
the mud and rocks shot down by it were strewn with the green leaves
and twigs of shrubs, some of the flowers on which were yet fresh and
bright, while others were crushed: these were mixed with gigantic
trunks of pines, with ragged bark and scored timbers. The talus which
had lately been poured into the valley formed a gently sloping bank,
twenty feet high, over which the Lachen- Lachoong rolled, from a pool
above, caused by the damming up of its waters. On either side of the
pool were cultivated terraces of stratified sand and pebbles, fifty
feet high, whose alder-fringed banks, joined by an elegant cane
bridge, were reflected in the placid water; forming a little spot of
singular quiet and beauty, that contrasted with the savage grandeur
of the surrounding mountains, and the headstrong course of the
foaming torrent below, amid whose deafening roar it was impossible to
speak and be heard.

Illustration--CANE-BRIDGE AND TUKCHAM MOUNTAIN.

The mountain of Choongtam is about 10,000 feet high; it divides the
Lachen from the Lachoong river, and terminates a lofty range that
runs for twenty-two miles south from the lofty mountain of
Kinchinjhow. Its south exposed face is bare of trees, except clumps
of pines towards the top, and is very steep, grassy, and rocky,
without water. It is hence quite unlike the forest-clad mountains
further south, and indicates a drier and more sunny climate. The
scenery much resembles that of Switzerland, and of the north-west
Himalaya, especially in the great contrast between the southern and
northern exposures, the latter being always clothed with a dense
vegetation. At the foot of this very steep mountain is a broad
triangular flat, 5,270 feet above the sea, and 300 feet above the
river, to which it descends by three level cultivated shelves.
The village, consisting of a temple and twenty houses, is placed on
the slope of the hill. I camped on the flat in May, before it became
very swampy, close to some great blocks of gneiss, of which many lie
on its surface: it was covered with tufts of sedge (like _Carex
stellulata_), and fringed with scarlet rhododendron, walnut,
_Andromeda, E1aeagnus_ (now bearing pleasant acid fruit), and small
trees of a _Photinia,_ a plant allied to hawthorn, of the leaves of
which the natives make tea (as they do of _Gualtheria, Andromeda,
Vaccinium,_ and other allied plants). Rice, cultivated* [Choongtam is
in position and products analogous to Lelyp, on the Tambur (vol. i,
Chapter IX). Rice cultivation advances thus high up each valley, and
at either place Bhoteeas replace the natives of the lower valleys.]
in pools surrounded by low banks, was just peeping above ground; and
scanty crops of millet, maize, and buckwheat flourished on the
slopes around.

The inhabitants of Choongtam are of Tibetan origin; few of them had
seen an Englishman before, and they flocked out, displaying the most
eager curiosity: the Lama and Phipun (or superior officer) of the
Lachoong valley came to pay their respects with a troop of followers,
and there was lolling out of tongues, and scratching of ears, at
every sentence spoken, and every object of admiration. This
extraordinary Tibetan salute at first puzzled me excessively, nor was
it until reading MM. Huc and Gabet's travels on my return to England,
that I knew of its being the _ton_ at Lhassa, and in all civilised
parts of Tibet.

As the valley was under the Singtam Soubah's authority, I experienced
a good deal of opposition; and the Lama urged the wrath of the gods
against my proceeding. This argument, I said, had been disposed of
the previous year, and I was fortunate in recognising one of my
Changachelling friends, who set forth my kindly offices to the Lamas
of that convent, and the friendship borne me by its monks, and by
those of Pemiongchi. Many other modes of dissuading me were
attempted, but with Meepo's assistance I succeeded in gaining my
point. The difficulty and delays in remittance of food, caused by the
landslips having destroyed the road, had reduced our provisions to a
very low ebb; and it became not only impossible to proceed, but
necessary to replenish my stores on the spot. At first provisions
enough were brought to myself, for the Rajah had issued orders for my
being cared for, and having some practice among the villagers in
treating rheumatism and goitres, I had the power of supplying my own
larder; but I found it impossible to buy food for my people. At last,
the real state of the case came out; that the Rajah having gone to
Choombi, his usual summer-quarters in Tibet, the Dewan had issued
orders that no food should be sold or given to my people, and that no
roads were to be repaired during my stay in the country; thus cutting
off my supplies from Dorjiling, and, in short, attempting to starve
me out. At this juncture, Meepo received a letter from the Durbar
purporting to be from the Rajah, commanding my immediate return, on
the grounds that I had been long enough in the country for my
objects: it was not addressed to me, and I refused to receive it as
an official communication; following up my refusal by telling Meepo
that if he thought his orders required it, he had better leave me and
return to the Rajah, as I should not stir without directions from Dr.
Campbell, except forwards. He remained, however, and said he had
written to the Rajah, urging him to issue stringent orders for my
party being provisioned.