Ascend to Nango mountain — Moraines — Glaciers — Vegetation —
Rhododendron Hodgsoni — Rocks — Honey-combed surface of snow —
Perpetual snow — Top of pass — View — Elevation — Geology —
Distance of sound — Plants — Temperature — Scenery — Cliffs of
granite and hurled boulders — Camp — Descent — Pheasants — Larch
— Himalayan pines — Distribution of Deodar, note on —
Tassichooding temples — Kambachen village — Cultivation — Moraines
in valley, distribution of — Picturesque lake-beds, and their
vegetation — Tibetan sheep and goats — Cryptogramma crispa —
Ascent to Choonjerma pass — View of Junnoo — Rocks of its summit —
Misty ocean — Nepal peaks — Top of pass — Temperature, and
observations — Gorgeous sunset — Descent to Yalloong valley —
Loose path — Night scenes — Musk deer.
We passed the night a few miles below the great moraine,
in a pine-wood (alt. 11,000 feet) opposite the gorge
which leads to the Kambachen or Nango pass, over the
south shoulder of the mountain of that name:
it is situated on a ridge dividing the Yangma river
from that of Kambachen, which latter falls into the
Tambur opposite Lelyp.
The road crosses the Yangma (which is about fifteen
feet wide), and immediately ascends steeply to the
south-east, over a rocky moraine, clothed with a dense
thicket of rhododendrons, mountain-ash, maples, pine,
birch, juniper, etc. The ground was covered
with silvery flakes of birch bark, and that of Rhododendron
Hodgsoni, which is as delicate as tissue-paper,
and of a pale flesh-colour. I had never before
met with this species, and was astonished at the beauty
of its foliage, which was of a beautiful bright green,
with leaves sixteen inches long.
Beyond the region of trees and large shrubs the alpine
rhododendrons filled the broken surface of the valley,
growing with Potentilla, Honeysuckle, Polygonum,
and dwarf juniper. The peak of Nango seemed to
tower over the gorge, rising behind some black, splintered,
rocky cliffs, sprinkled with snow, narrow defiles
opened up through these cliffs to blue glaciers, and
their mouths were invariably closed by beds of shingly
moraines, curving outwards from either, flank in concentric
ridges.
Towards the base of the peak, at about 14,000 feet,
the scenery is very grand; a great moraine rises suddenly
to the north-west, under the principal mass of snow
and ice, and barren slopes of gravel descend from
it; on either side are rugged precipices; the ground
is bare and stony, with patches of brown grass:
and, on looking back, the valley appears very steep
to the first shrubby vegetation, of dark green rhododendrons,
bristling with ugly stunted pines.
