8000 feet elevation, and cleft by a deep ravine, from which projects
what appears to be an old moraine, fully 1500 or perhaps 2000 feet
high. Extensive landslips on its steep flank expose (through the
telescope) a mass of gravel and angular blocks, while streams cut
deep channels in it.

This valley is far more open and grassy than that of the Lachen, and
the vegetation also differs much.* [_Umbelliferae_ and _Compositae_
abound, and were then flowering; and an orchis (_Satyrium
Nepalense_), scented like our English _Gymnadenia,_ covered the
ground in some places, with tall green _Habenariae_ and a yellow
_Spathoglottis,_ a genus with pseudo-bulbs. Of shrubs, _Xanthoxylon,
Rhus, Prinsepia, Cotoneaster, Pyrus,_ poplar and oak, formed thickets
along the path; while there were as many as eight and nine kinds of
balsams, some eight feet high.] In the afternoon we reached Lachoong,
which is by far the most picturesque village in the temperate region
of Sikkim. Grassy flats of different levels, sprinkled with brushwood
and scattered clumps of pine and maple, occupy the valley; whose west
flanks rise in steep, rocky, and scantily wooded grassy slopes. About
five miles to the north the valley forks; two conspicuous domes of
snow rising from the intermediate mountains. The eastern valley leads
to lofty snowed regions, and is said to be impracticable; the
Lachoong flows down the western, which appeared rugged, and covered
with pine woods. On the east, Tunkra mountain* [This mountain is seen
from Dorjiling; its elevation is about 18,700 feet.] rises in a
superb unbroken sweep of dark pine-wood and cliffs, surmounted by
black rocks and white fingering peaks of snow. South of this, the
valley of the Tunkrachoo opens, backed by sharp snowed pinnacles,
which form the continuation of the Chola range; over which a pass
leads to the Phari district of Tibet, which intervenes between Sikkim