Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: 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 — Volume 1: 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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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