so after firing three or four shots, of which no one took any notice, he was obliged to climb back by Donkia pass and to astonish the Tibetans by appearing fiom the north.” Upon this Elwes comments; “ This was the hardest day's work I ever had, and if my Lepcha shikari had not persuaded me to return and found the track leading to the Donkia pass before it became dark, I should have bivouacked at the Cholamu lake without blankets. When I passed the Tibetan guard in the dark, they fired shots in our direction.” Next day the Tibetan governor was furious at Elwes's accidental violation of the frontier. As their coolies would not enter Tibet, the travellers had to agree to retrace their steps and reach Kongra Lama by the circuitous Sikkim route; though Mr. Blanford declares that the Tibetan guard had no reason to fear punishment if they had allowed him and his companion to follow in Hooker's track just across the frontier.
Elwes was now very lame after his long climbs and had to go south by easy stages. The slow journey down the Lachung valley refreshed him. On September 30th the party left Chungtam and marched up the Lachen, the western head-waters of the Tista, till they reached the Tibetan frontier again on October 4th. High up the valley, where its bed is composed of moraines alternating with stony flats, the travellers secured some rare birds of a Palæarctic type, notably Otocoris Elwesi; Leucosticte hæmatopyga—which was only known before from Western Tibet—and another finch, then new to science, Montifringilla ruficollis; Fregilus pyrrhocorax, Cinclus sordidus and Accentor rubeculoides. The horned lark, Otocoris, was first found by Elwes, who shot three specimens close to the Kongia Lama pass, at a height of 15,000 feet; it was thus named after him. Mr. Blanford and Elwes were met at the frontier by the Tibetan governor, who presented them with three fresh skins of the wild sheep, Ovis ammon, and the Tibetan deer, Procapra picticaudata, and some live sand-grouse, while lamenting, as a Buddhist, the sin that they had committed in shooting birds. The plateau was desolate and afforded no views into Tibet. The travellers therefore, after spending a day with the Suba, marched south again, collecting as they went, and a fortnight later reached their
base.On returning to Darjeeling I estimated that during the journey in Sikkim I had ascended, on foot, something like 127,000 feet in all; and as much of this was done in a high temperature over an extremely bad path, while during the latter part of the time I was weakened by the leech bites, of which I bear traces to this day, I was very glad of a rest.
I had plenty to do in getting my collections dried and packed to send home, and found that I had nearly 1,000 specimens of birds, including 330 species, of which three proved to be new. Besides these I had about 200 species of ferns, among which three or four were new, notwith¬ standing the very much larger collection that had been made on the same ground by Hooker.
I had also a large number of butterflies, which were examined by Mr. Atkinson, of the Bengal Civil Service, who had collected for some years at Darjeeling, and who found among them a Parnassius taken at nearly 18,000 feet, which I afterwards described as P. epaphus var. Sikkimensis.
I found that a good many of the butterflies which I had collected in June and July had become damaged by damp, but there remained a great number of fine specimens, which I gave to Mr. F. D. Godman on my return home. They are now incorporated with the British Museum collection.
Between the 23rd and 27th October there was a continuous rain amount-
