Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
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 was then conducted to a house, where I found salted and buttered
tea and Murwa beer smoking in hospitable preparation. As usual, the
house was of wood, and the inhabited apartments above the low
basement story were approached by an outside ladder, like a Swiss
cottage: within were two rooms floored with earth; the inner was
small, and opened on a verandah that faced Kinchinjunga, whence the
keen wind whistled through the apartment.
The head Lama, my jolly fat friend of the 20th of December, came to
breakfast with me, followed by several children, nephews and nieces
he said; but they were uncommonly like him for such a distant
relationship, and he seemed extremely fond of them, and much pleased
when I stuffed them with sugar.
Changachelling hill is remarkable for having on its summit an immense
tabular mass of chlorite slate, resting apparently horizontally on
variously inclined rocks of the same: it is quite flat-topped, ten to
twelve yards each way, and the sides are squared by art; the country
people attribute its presence here to a miracle.
The view of the Kinchin range from this spot being one of the finest
in Sikkim, and the place itself being visible from Dorjiling, I took
a very careful series of bearings, which, with those obtained at
Pemiongchi, were of the utmost use in improving my map, which was
gradually progressing. To my disappointment I found that neither
priest nor people knew the name of a single snowy mountain. I also
asked in vain for some interpretation of the lines I have quoted at
earlier; they said they were Lepcha worship, and that they only used
them for the gratification of the people, on the day of the great
festival of Kinchinjunga.
Hence I descended to the Kulhait river, on my route back to
Dorjiling, visiting my very hospitable tippling friend, the Kajee of
Lingcham, on the way down: he humbly begged me to get him a pair of
spectacles, for no other object than to look wise, as he had the eyes
of a hawk; he told me that mine drew down universal respect in
Sikkim, and that I had been drawn with them on, in the temple at
Changachelling; and that a pair would not only wonderfully become
him, but afford him the most pleasing recollections of myself.
Happily I had the means of gratifying him, and have since been told
that he wears them on state occasions.
I encamped by the river, 3,160 feet above the sea, amongst figs and
plantains, on a broad terrace of pebbles, boulders and sand, ten feet
above the stream; the rocks in the latter were covered with a red
conferva. The sand on the banks was disposed in layers, alternately
white and red, the white being quartz, and the red pulverised
garnets. The arranging of these sand-bands by the water must be due
to the different specific gravities of the garnet and quartz; the
former being lighter, is lifted by the current on to the surface of
the quartz, and left there when the waters retire.
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