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Updated: June 22, 2025
Both these mountains are on a range which is continuous with Kinchinjunga, projecting from it down into the very heart of Sikkim.
I left Yoksun on an expedition to Kinchinjunga on the 7th of January.
Though both were much more distant than the snowy ranges, being respectively eighty and ninety miles off, they raised their gigantic heads above, seeming what they really were, by far the loftiest peaks next to Kinchinjunga; and the perspective of snow is so deceptive, that though 40 to 60 miles beyond, they appeared as though almost in the same line with the ridges they overtopped.
My route hence was to be along the south flank of Kinchinjunga, north to Jongri, which lay about four or five marches off, on the road to the long deserted pass of Kanglanamo, by which I had intended entering Sikkim from Nepal, when I found the route up the Yalloong valley impracticable.
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.
She enjoyed dancing, but the many balls, At Homes, and other social functions did not attract her so much as the riding and tennis, the sight-seeing, the glimpses of the strange and varied races that fill the Darjeeling bazaar, and, above all, the glories of the superb scenery where the ice-crowned monarch of all mountains, Kinchinjunga, forty miles away though not seeming five and twenty-nine thousand feet high, towers up above the white line of the Eternal Snows.
So our eyes pass over peaks of every remarkable form abrupt, rugged, and enticing, and we seek the highest peak of all. And Kinchinjunga is a worthy mountain-monarch. It is not a needle-point a sudden upstart which might easily be upset. Kinchinjunga is grand and massive and of ample gesture, broad and stable and yet also culminating in a clear and definite point.
I had hoped for a view of the top of Kinchinjunga, which bore north-east, but it was enveloped in clouds, as were all the snows in that direction; to the north-west, however, I obtained bearings of the principal peaks, etc., of the Yangma and Kambachen valleys.
Its vegetation resembles that of Dorjiling, but is more alpine, owing no doubt to the proximity of Kinchinjunga. The magnificent Rhododendron argenteum was growing on its banks. Tree-ferns are however absent, and neither plantains, epiphytical Orchideae, nor palms, are so abundant, or ascend so high as on the outer ranges.
Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass Moraines and their vegetation Pines of great dimensions Wild currants Glaciers Summit of pass Elevation Views Plants Winds Choombi district Lacheepia rock Extreme cold Kinchinjunga Himalayan grouse Meteorological observations Return to Lachoong Oaks Ascent to Yeumtong Flats and debacles Buried pine-trunks Perpetual snow Hot springs Behaviour of Singtam Soubah Leave for Momay Samdong Upper limit of trees Distribution of plants Glacial terraces, etc.
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