The Singtam Soubah being again laid up here from the consequences of leech-bites, I took the opportunity of visiting the Tunkra-lah pass, represented as the most snowy in Sikkim; which I found to be the case. The route lay over the moraines on the north flank of the Tunkrachoo, which are divided by narrow dry gullies,* [These ridges of the moraine, separated by gullies, indicate the progressive retirement of the ancient glacier, after periods of rest. The same phenomena may be seen, on a diminutive scale, in the Swiss Alps, by any one who carefully examines the lateral and often the terminal moraines of any retiring or diminishing glacier, at whose base or flanks are concentric ridges, which are successive deposits.] and composed of enormous blocks disintegrating into a deep layer of clay. All are clothed with luxuriant herbage and flowering shrubs,* [_Ranunculus, Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Aconitum variegatum_ of Europe, a scandent species, Berberry, _Deutzia, Philadelphus,_ Rose, Honeysuckle, Thistles, Orchis, _Habenaria, Fritillaria, Aster, Calimeris, Verbascum thapsus, Pedicularis, Euphrasia, Senecio, Eupatorium, Dipsacus, Euphorbia,_ Balsam, _Hypericum, Gentiana, Halenia, Codonopsis, Polygonum._] besides small larches and pines, rhododendrons and maples; with _Enkianthus, Pyrus,_ cherry, _Pieris,_ laurel, and _Goughia._ The musk-deer inhabits these woods, and at this season I have never seen it higher. Large monkeys are also found on the skirts of the pine-forests, and the _Ailurus ochraceus_ (Hodgs.), a curious long-tailed animal peculiar to the Himalaya, something between a diminutive bear and a squirrel. In the dense and gigantic forest of _Abies Brunoniana_ and silver fir, I measured one of the former trees, and found it twenty-eight feet in girth, and above 120 feet in height. The _Abies Webbiana_ attains thirty-five feet in girth, with a trunk unbranched for forty feet.