Illustration — LEPCHA AMULET.
Continue the ascent of Tonglo — Trees — Lepcha construction of hut
— Simsibong — Climbing-trees — Frogs — Magnolias, etc. — Ticks
— Leeches — — Cattle, murrain amongst — Summit of Tonglo —
Rhododendrons — Skimmia — Yew — Rose — Aconite — Bikh poison —
English genera of plants — Ascent of tropical orders — Comparison
with south temperate zone — Heavy rain — Temperature, etc. —
Descent — Simonbong temple — Furniture therein — Praying-cylinder
— Thigh-bone trumpet — Morning orisons — Present of Murwa
beer, etc.
Continuing the ascent of Tonglo, we left cultivation
and the poor groves of peaches at 4000 to 5000 feet
(and this on the eastern exposure, which is by far
the sunniest), the average height which agriculture
reaches in Sikkim.
Above Simonbong, the path up Tonglo is little frequented:
it is one of the many routes between Nepal and Sikkim,
which cross the Singalelah spur of Kinchinjunga at
various elevations between 7000 and 15,000 feet.
As usual, the track runs along ridges, wherever these
are to be found, very steep, and narrow at the top,
through deep humid forests of oaks and Magnolias,
many laurels, both Tetranthera and Cinnamomum,
one species of the latter ascending to 8,500 feet,
and one of Tetranthera to 9000. Chesnut
and walnut here appeared, with some leguminous trees,
which however did not ascend to 6000 feet. Scarlet
flowers of Vaccinium serpens, an epiphytical
species, were strewed about, and the great blossoms
of Rhododendron Dalhousiae and of a Magnolia
(Talaunaa Hodgsoni) lay together on the ground.
The latter forms a large tree, with very dense foliage,
and deep shining green leaves, a foot to eighteen
inches long. Most of its flowers drop unexpanded
from the tree, and diffuse a very aromatic smell;
they are nearly as large as the fist, the outer petals
purple, the inner pure white.
Heavy rain came on at 3 p.m., obliging us to take
insufficient shelter under the trees, and finally
to seek the nearest camping-ground. For this
purpose we ascended to a spring, called Simsibong,
at an elevation of 6000 feet. The narrowness of
the ridge prevented our pitching the tent, small as
it was; but the Lepchas rapidly constructed a house,
and thatched it with bamboo and the broad leaves of
the wild plantain. A table was then raised in
the middle, of four posts and as many cross pieces
of wood, lashed with strips of bamboo. Across
these, pieces of bamboo were laid, ingeniously flattened,
by selecting cylinders, crimping them all round, and
then slitting each down one side, so that it opens
into a flat slab. Similar but longer and lower
erections, one on each side the table, formed bed
or chair; and in one hour, half a dozen men, with
only long knives and active hands, had provided us
with a tolerably water-tight furnished house.
A thick flooring of hamboo leaves kept the feet dry,
and a screen of that and other foliage all round rendered
the habitation tolerably warm.
