Himalayan Journals, vol 2 | Page 6

given in children's books as the resting-place of the ark.
The ascent from the Great Rungeet (alt. 818 feet) is through dry woods
of Sal and Pines (_P. longifolia_). I camped the first night at the village
of Mikk (alt. 3,900 feet), and on the following day ascended to Namtc
(alt. 5,600 feet).
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke Goompa. Though a
resident on the Lassoo Kajee's estates, he politely brought me a present,
at the same time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped, owing
to his excessive fat, which prevented his climbing. I accepted his
excuses, though well aware that his real reason was that he wished to
pay his respects, and show his good feeling, in private. Besides his
ordinary canonicals, he carried a tall crozier-headed staff, and had a
curious horn slung round his neck, full of amulets; it was short, of a
transparent red colour, and beautifully carved, and was that of the small
cow of Lhassa, which resembles the English species, and is not a yak
(it is called "Tundro").
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance; and still

possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed slabs; a temple, and a
Lama attached thereto: the latter waited on me soon after I had
encamped, but he brought no present, and I was not long kept in
suspense as to his motives. These people are poor dissemblers; if they
intend to obstruct, they do it clumsily and hesitatingly: in this instance
the Lama first made up to my people, and, being coolly received, kept
gradually edging up to my tent-door, where, after an awkward salute,
he delivered himself with a very bad grace of his mission, which was
from the Lassoo Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing
of the Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed on the following
morning: he then urged the bad state of the roads, and advised me to
wait two days till he should receive orders from the Rajah; upon which
I dismissed him.
Soon afterwards, as I sat at my tent-door, looking along the narrow
bushy ridge that winds up the mountain, I saw twenty or thirty men
rapidly descending the rocky path: they were Lepchas, with blue and
white striped garments, bows and quivers, and with their long knives
gleaming in the sun: they seemed to be following a figure in red Lama
costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief wound round his head, its
ends streaming behind him. Though expecting this apparition to prove
the renowned Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a sudden
termination to my progress, I could not help admiring the exceeding
picturesqueness of the scenery and party. My fears were soon
dissipated by my men joyfully shouting, "The Tchebu Lama! the
Tchebu Lama!" and I soon recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes
of my friend of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about the
Rajah's court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were particularly
wanted at Dorjiling.
He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from whom, he would not
say) to stop my progress, but that I should proceed nevertheless, and
that there was no objection to my doing so; and he despatched a
messenger to the Rajah, announcing my progress, and requesting him
to send me a guide, and to grant me every facility, asserting that he had
all along fully intended doing so.

On the following morning the Lama proceeded to Dorjiling, and I
continued the ascent of Tendong, sending my men round the shoulder
to Temi in the Teesta valley, where I proposed to pass the night. The
road rapidly ascends by a narrow winding path, covered with a loose
forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not found at equal
elevations on the wetter Dorjiling ranges: amongst, them the beautiful
laburnum-like _Piptanthus Nepalensis,_ with golden blossoms, was
conspicuous. Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz, and
slate, some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow ridge at 7000
feet elevation. The last ascent is up a steep rounded cone with a broad
flat top, covered with dwarf bamboo, a few oaks, laurels, magnolias,
and white-flowered rhododendron trees (_R. argenteum_), which
obstructed the view. I hung the barometers near one of the many chaits
on the summit, where there is also a rude temple, in which worship is
performed once a year. The elevation is 8,671 feet by my
observations.* [8,663 by Col. Waugh's trigonometrical observations.]
The geological formation of Tendong in some measure accounts for its
peculiar form. On the conical summit are hard quartzoze porphyries,
which have apparently forced up the gneiss and slates, which dip in all
directions from the top, and are full of injected veins