CHAPTER VIII
A TRIP TO THE SINGALELA RANGE IN THE RAINS,
JULY, 1886
Elwes was never the man to waste time that could be turned to profitable account. While the Tibet expedition was waiting at Darjeeling through the rainy season, he determined to make a short collecting trip to the Singalela range. A full journal of this trip was left among his papers and is now printed as it stands. It illustrates both his keen powers of observation and his vigorous descrip¬ tive style.
As the high range of hills which divides Sikkim from Nepal on the west has been very little visited in the rainy season, I took advantage of a few days of fine weather, after a month of almost unceasing wet and mist, to visit them. Now that a good pony road has been made as far as Thallut, four good marches from Darjeeling, and comfortable rest houses arc erected at the end of each day’s journey, no tents or crockery need be taken, and the traveller is sure of a dry and waim shelter at night, how¬ ever wet the march may be. A few coolies to carry bedding, provisions and clothing, ‘with a Lepcha butterfly catcher and plant collector, were therefore soon ready to start, and favoured by a fine morning, I got away from Darjeeling on July nth, 1886. The road along the Goom ridge lies at a level of from 6,000 to 7,000 feet for ten miles, most of which is through a dense forest of the usual Sikkim character—oaks, laurels, chestnuts and magnolias, with a dense undergrowth of maling or dwarf bamboo in many places, and a thick scrub of Rubus and shrubs in others; the ground is covered with ferns mixed with Melastomas, Begonias and several beautiful Arisæmas, with Vaccinium , Cœlogyne, Pleione, and other orchids, ferns and mosses. Many of the birds peculiar to Sikkim frequent this forest, which, being protected by Government, has not been devastated by clearings, woodcutting and burning, as many of the forests at a lower elevation have been.
Butterflies at this season are not conspicuous or numerous, but as I go along I see many specimens of a small Lethe which I do not know, flitting along the road and settling on the path, and I am able to take a good series of fresh specimens. Papilio minercus is once seen flying over the tree-tops, and single specimens of the lovely Limenitis Zayla and Pieris Horsfieldii are also taken. The latter insect seems to be peculiar to eleva¬ tions of 6,000 feet and upwards, whilst its variety P. Isthiela (Buttler), as far as I have been able to see, keeps lower down. As usual in the rainy season in Sikkim, mist and rain come on in the afternoon, but I reach Jorpokri bungalow in good time and find lunch ready. In the afternoon I take a fine male of Athyma jina which settles on the path in a short gleam of sunshine, and see one or two Neptis, probably N. inara, settling on the tree-tops. In the evening a few fine moths come to the light, but not so many as usual, owing to the moonlight. Next morning I am off at six. The morning is cloudy, but clears off as I descend the dip of 1,000 feet
to the saddle where the ascent of Tonglo begins, giving a beautiful peep
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