Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
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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
On the 3rd November I encamped on the flank of Tonglo (called Nanki in
Nepal), at 9,300 feet, about 700 feet below the western summit, which
is rocky, and connected by a long flat ridge with that which I had
visited in the previous May. The Bhotan coolies behaved worse than
ever; their conduct being in all respects typical of the turbulent,
mulish race to which they belong. They had been plundering my
provisions as they went along, and neither their Sirdar nor the Ghorka
soldiers had the smallest authority over them. I had hired some Ghorka
coolies to assist and eventually to replace them, and had made up my
mind to send back the worst from the more populous banks of the Tambur,
when I was relieved by their making off of their own accord. The
dilemma was however awkward, as it was impossible to procure men on the
top of a mountain 10,000 feet high, or to proceed towards Phulloot. No
course remained but to send to Dorjiling for others, or to return to
the Myong valley, and take a more circuitous route over the west end of
Sakkiazung, which led through villages from which I could procure
coolies day by day. I preferred the latter plan, and sent one of the
soldiers to the nearest village for assistance to bring the loads down,
halting a day for that purpose.
From the summit of Tonglo I enjoyed the view I had so long desired of
the Snowy Himalaya, from north-east to north-west; Sikkim being on the
right, Nepal on the left, and the plains of India to the southward; and
I procured a set of compass bearings, of the greatest use in mapping
the country. In the early morning the transparency of the atmosphere
renders this view one of astonishing grandeur. Kinchinjunga bore nearly
due north, a dazzling mass of snowy peaks, intersected by blue
glaciers, which gleamed in the slanting rays of the rising sun, like
aquamarines set in frosted silver. From this the sweep of snowed
mountains to the eastward was almost continuous as far as Chola
(bearing east-north-east), following a curve of 150 miles, and
enclosing the whole of the northern part of Sikkim, which appeared a
billowy mass of forest-clad mountains. On the north-east horizon rose
the Donkia mountain (23,176 feet), and Chumulari (23,929). Though both
were much more distant than the snowy ranges, being respectively eighty
and ninety miles off, they raised their gigantic heads above, seeming
what they really were, by far the loftiest peaks next to Kinchinjunga;
and the perspective of snow is so deceptive, that though 40 to 60 miles
beyond, they appeared as though almost in the same line with the ridges
they overtopped. Of these mountains, Chumulari presents many
attractions to the geographer, from its long disputed position, its
sacred character, and the interest attached to it since Turner’s
mission to Tibet in 1783. It was seen and recognised by Dr. Campbell,
and measured by Colonel Waugh, from Sinchul, and also from Tonglo, and
was a conspicuous object in my subsequent journey to Tibet. Beyond
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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