31. Implements of worship in the Sikkim temples. p.314 Fig. 32. Chaits at Tassiding, with decayed funereal cypresses. p.316 Fig. 33. Vestibule of temple at Tassiding. p.319 Fig. 34. Southern temple, at Tassiding. p.320 Fig. 35. Middle temple, at Tassiding, with mounted yaks. p.321 Fig. 36. Chair, altar, and images in the great temple at Tassiding. p.322 Fig. 37. Ground-plan of southern temple at Tassiding. p.323 Fig. 38. Interior of temple at Pemiongchi, the walls covered with allegorical paintings. p.329 Fig. 39. Doobdi temple, with young and old funereal cypress. p.337 Fig. 40. Summit of Kinchinjunga, with Pundim on the right; its black cliff traversed by white granite veins. p.347 Fig. 41. Image of Maitrya, the coming Boodh. p.357 Fig. 42. Stone altar, and erection for burning juniper ashes. p.361 Fig. 43. Facsimile of the vermilion seal of the Dhurma Rajah of Bhotan, head of the Dookpa sect of Boodhists. Opposite p.372 Fig. 44. A Mech, native of the Sikkim Terai. Sketched by Miss Colvile. p.406 Fig. 45. Mech pocket-comb (of wood). p.408 HIMALAYAN JOURNALS. CHAPTER I. Sunderbunds vegetation -- Calcutta Botanic Garden -- Leave for Burdwan -- Rajah's gardens and menagerie -- Coal-beds, geology, and plants of -- Lac insect and plant -- Camels -- Kunker -- Cowage -- Effloresced soda on soil -- Glass, manufacture of -- Atmospheric vapours -- Temperature, etc. -- Mahowa oil and spirits -- Maddaobund -- Jains -- Ascent of Paras-nath -- Vegetation of that mountain. I left England on the 11th of November, 1847, and performed the voyage to India under circumstances which have been detailed in the Introduction. On the 12th of January, 1848, the "Moozuffer" was steaming amongst the low swampy islands of the Sunderbunds. These exhibit no tropical luxuriance, and are, in this respect, exceedingly disappointing. A low vegetation covers them, chiefly made up of a dwarf-palm (_Phoenix paludosa_) and small mangroves, with a few scattered trees on the higher bank that runs along the water's edge, consisting of fan-palm, toddy-palm, and _Terminalia._ Every now and then, the paddles of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of _Nipa fruticans,_ a low stemless palm that grows in the tidal waters of the Indian ocean, and bears a large head of nuts. It is a plant of no interest to the common observer, but of much to the geologist, from the nuts of a similar plant abounding in the tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames, and having floated about there in as great profusion as here, till buried deep in the silt and mud that now forms the island of Sheppey.* [Bowerbank "On the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Isle of Sheppey," and Lyell's "Elements of Geology," 3rd ed. p. 201.]