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
At the bottom three furious torrents met: we descended the course of
one of them, over slanting precipices, or trees lashed to the rocks,
and after a most winding course our path conducted us to the village of
Tarbu, high above a feeder of the Khabili river, which flows west,
joining the Tambur three days’ march lower down. Having no food, we had
made a very long and difficult march to this place, but finding none
here, proceeded on to Tonghem village on the Khabili, descending
through thickets of _Rhod. arboreum_ to the elevation of 5,560.
This village, or spur, called “Tonghem” by the Limboos, and “Yankutang”
by the Bhoteeas, is the winter resort of the inhabitants of the upper
Yalloong valley: they received us very kindly, sold us two fowls, and
rice enough to last for one or two days, which was all they could
spare, and gave me a good deal of information. I found that the
Kanglanamo pass had been disused since the Nepal war, that it was very
lofty, and always closed in October.
The night was fine, clear, and warm, but the radiation so powerful that
the grass was coated with ice the following morning, though the
thermometer did not fall below 33°. The next day the sun rose with
great power, and the vegetation reeked and steamed with the heat.
Crossing the river, we first made a considerable descent, and then
ascended a ridge to 5,750 feet, through a thick jungle of _Camellia,
Eurya,_ and small oak: from the top I obtained bearings of Yalloong and
Choonjerma pass, and had also glimpses of the Kinchin range through a
tantalizing jungle; after which a very winding and fatiguing
up-and-down march southwards brought us to the village of Khabang, in
the magnificent valley of the Tawa, about 800 feet above the river, and
5,500 feet above the sea.
I halted here for a day, to refresh the people, and if possible to
obtain some food. I hoped, too, to find a pass into Sikkim, east over
Singalelah, but was disappointed: if there had ever been one, it had
been closed since the Nepal war; and there was none, for several
marches further south, which would conduct us to the Iwa branch of the
Khabili.
Khabang is a village of Geroongs, or shepherds, who pasture their
flocks on the hills and higher valleys during summer, and bring them
down to this elevation in winter: the ground was consequently infested
with a tick, equal in size to that so common in the bushes, and quite
as troublesome, but of a different species.
The temperature rose to 72°, and the black-bulb thermometer to 140°.
Magnolias and various almost tropical trees were common, and the
herbaceous vegetation was that of low elevations. Large sugar-cane
(_Saccharum_), palm (_Wallichia_), and wild plantains grew near the
river, and _Rhod. arboreum_ was very common on dry slopes of mica-slate
rocks, with the gorgeous and sweet-scented _Luculia gratissima._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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