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Of the former there were here five species, some bearing eatable and very palatable fruit of enormous size, others with the fruit small and borne on prostrate, leafless branches, which spring from the root and creep along the ground. Crossing the Little Rungeet river, we camped on the base of Tonglo. The night was calm and clear, with faint cirrus, but no dew.
Chingtam village, view from Mywa river and Guola House Boulders Chain-bridge Meepo, arrival of Fevers. Owing to the unsatisfactory nature of our relations with the Sikkim authorities, to which I have elsewhere alluded, my endeavours to procure leave to penetrate further beyond the Dorjiling territory than Tonglo, were attended with some trouble and delay.
These observations, and those of the barometer, were taken 60 feet below the summit, to which I moved the instruments on the morning of the 23rd. My barometrical observations, taken simultaneously with those of Calcutta, give the height of Tonglo, 10,078.3 feet; Colonel Waugh's, by trigonometry, 10,079.4 feet, a remarkable and unusual coincidence. May 23.
The mean temperature was 41 degrees, extremes 53.2/26 degrees: the nights were very clear, with sharp hoar-frost; the radiating thermometer sank to 21 degrees, the temperature at 3.5 feet depth was 51.5 degrees. A few of the Bhotan coolies having voluntarily returned, I left Tonglo on the 5th, and descended its west flank to the Mai, a feeder of the Myong.
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.
Excursion from Dorjiling to Great Rungeet Zones of vegetation Tree-ferns Palms, upper limit of Leebong, tea plantations Ging Boodhist remains Tropical vegetation Pines Lepcha clearances Forest fires Boodhist monuments Fig Cane bridge and raft over Rungeet Sago-palm India-rubber Yel Pote Butterflies and other insects Snakes Camp Temperature and humidity of atmosphere Junction of Teesta and Rungeet Return to Dorjiling Tonglo, excursion to Bamboo flowering Oaks Gordonia Maize, hermaphrodite flowered Figs Nettles Peepsa Simonbong, cultivation at European fruits at Dorjiling Plains of India.
The Myong valley is remarkably fine: it runs south-west from Tonglo, and its open character and general fertility contrast strongly with the bareness of the lower mountain spurs which flank it, and with the dense, gloomy, steep, and forest-clad gorges of Sikkim.
Pemiongchi is at the same elevation as Dorjiling, and the contrast between the shoulders of 8000 to 10,000 feet on Kinchinjunga, and those of equal height on Tendong and Tonglo, is very remarkable: looking at the latter mountains from Dorjiling, the observer sees no rock, waterfall, or pine, throughout their whole height; whereas the equally wooded flanks of these inner ranges are rocky, streaked with thread-like waterfalls, and bristling with silver firs.
From the summit of Tonglo I enjoyed the view I had so long desired of the Snowy Himalaya, from north-east to north-west; Sikkim being on the right, Nepal on the left, and the plains of India to the southward; and I procured a set of compass bearings, of the greatest use in mapping the country. In the early morning the transparency of the atmosphere renders this view one of astonishing grandeur.
Of these mountains, Chumulari presents many attractions to the geographer, from its long disputed position, its sacred character, and the interest attached to it since Turner's mission to Tibet in 1783. It was seen and recognised by Dr. Campbell, and measured by Colonel Waugh, from Sinchul, and also from Tonglo, and was a conspicuous object in my subsequent journey to Tibet.
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