Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
Above Simonbong, the path up Tonglo is little frequented: it is one of
the many routes between Nepal and Sikkim, which cross the Singalelah
spur of Kinchinjunga at various elevations between 7000 and 15,000
feet. As usual, the track runs along ridges, wherever these are to be
found, very steep, and narrow at the top, through deep humid forests of
oaks and Magnolias, many laurels, both 1 _Tetranthera_ and
_Cinnamomum,_ one species of the latter ascending to 8,500 feet, and
one of _Tetranthera_ to 9000. Chesnut and walnut here appeared, with
some leguminous trees, which however did not ascend to 6000 feet.
Scarlet flowers of _Vaccinium serpens,_ an epiphytical species, were
strewed about, and the great blossoms of _Rhododendron Dalhousiæ_ and
of a Magnolia (_Talaunaa Hodgsoni_) lay together on the ground. The
latter forms a large tree, with very dense foliage, and deep shining
green leaves, a foot to eighteen inches long. Most of its flowers drop
unexpanded from the tree, and diffuse a very aromatic smell; they are
nearly as large as the fist, the outer petals purple, the inner pure
white.
Heavy rain came on at 3 p.m., obliging us to take insufficient shelter
under the trees, and finally to seek the nearest camping-ground. For
this purpose we ascended to a spring, called Simsibong, at an elevation
of 6000 feet. The narrowness of the ridge prevented our pitching the
tent, small as it was; but the Lepchas rapidly constructed a house, and
thatched it with bamboo and the broad leaves of the wild plantain. A
table was then raised in the middle, of four posts and as many cross
pieces of wood, lashed with strips of bamboo. Across these, pieces of
bamboo were laid, ingeniously flattened, by selecting cylinders,
crimping them all round, and then slitting each down one side, so that
it opens into a flat slab. Similar but longer and lower erections, one
on each side the table, formed bed or chair; and in one hour, half a
dozen men, with only long knives and active hands, had provided us with
a tolerably water-tight furnished house. A thick flooring of bamboo
leaves kept the feet dry, and a screen of that and other foliage all
round rendered the habitation tolerably warm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account