shoulders when on the march. Such loads, averaging nearly 100 pounds each, seem heavy for marching over such bad and steep and often slippery paths as we had before us, but the Bhutias and Nepalese often carry much more on their own business; and though they go slowly, and stop to rest often, they will do as long a march as we cared to do ourselves in such a hot and trying climate.
Blanford arrived from Calcutta early in August, and on the 10th I started all the coolies to await us at Dumsong on the other side of the Tista, and on the 12th started on my pony for the cane bridge, over which it was impossible to ride. It was a pouring wet morning, and as I found a bridge broken in the Rangit valley, I had to walk a good deal further than I liked. The eight miles up a steep ascent of 4,000 feet from the Tista bridge was one of the hardest grinds I ever had in a broiling sun, with the thermometer in the valley over 90°. 1 got in at dark, however, and found the servants waiting and the coolies gone on.
As Blanford had been a little out of sorts and had stayed a day longer at Ging, I managed next morning to borrow a mule from a policeman, which I sent down to meet him at the bridge. I myself followed our coolies, who had gone on about twenty miles along the ridge to a place in the forest where there were a few Bhutia houses, called Pedong, or Phyn- dong. Here I had my first night in the small tent we had between us, which was much better adapted for cold than for such a warm climate as this, for during the rainy season it is never cold or even chilly in the forest below 10,000 feet. Blanford joined me the next day, and we soon settled down to routine, which we found best suited to our work on the march. Unless the morning was exceptionally wet, or there was reason for delay, we breakfasted at daylight on tea and chupatties fried in ghee, and started the coolies as soon as the tents and baggage could be packed, but they would never start until they had cooked and eaten their first meal, which took at least an hour and often more, I generally got ahead on the path with one of my shikaris, as I found that in the early morning, before anyone had disturbed the path, I was most likely to find birds feeding on or near it. If I saw anything specially good, I would leave my shikari to get specimens and follow on, and after throe to five hours on the road I always tried to halt by a river, or in some agreeable place, for breakfast. We selected one of our best coolies to carry a light load and keep up with one of us, so that no time might be lost in waiting for cooking pots and food. We generally had curry of tomatoes and chicken with our rice, and when there were neither pineapples or bananas, we had some jam and biscuits. At the higher elevations we were sometimes able to get mutton or goat, but found that meat was by no means so necessary for hard work as many people suppose.
pedition into what was then a little-known country. But a detailed description of the journey with notes on the fauna was contributed by his companion, Mr, Blanford, to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.* Sikkim is bounded on the north, towards Tibet, by the main chain of the Himalayas, It was the object of the travellers to study the fauna of these lofty snow ranges, which no
Vol. xl., part 3, pp. 367 seq., and vol xli., part 2, pp. 30 seq.