SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
The strata to the north of the glacier are very noticeable and run in thick bands of red and grey, which give the hills a very different appearance to those on the south, while disintegration is going on very rapidly owing to the horizontal strata decaying at different rates.
All this was new country hitherto unvisited, though some of it was traversed later by Mr. Douglas Freshfield and his party in 1899.
The weather continued so bad, I decided to return to the lower end of the glacier, and here I am sorry to say Mr. Hoffmann left me, having no more time at his disposal. My way led me into the mountains to the north, and I made for the Tang-chung-la, 17,100 feet, passing a small lake to the north at 15,200 feet.
The grazing on this and the adjoining hills is very good, the grass from 8 inches to 12 inches deep, but no flocks of sheep or herds of yaks were to be seen. The reason given for not making use of this excellent pasture was its inaccessibility from the south and the unsuitability of its wet climate to animals accustomed to the dryness of Tibet, but it seemed a pity it should be so wasted. Next day I crossed the Thi-la, 17,430 feet, and after a tiring march, camped in the Lonak Valley at an elevation of 15,300 feet. The change in climate after crossing the Thi-la was wonderful. Up the southern slopes it had rained continuously, but I had not gone more than a few hundred feet down the northern side when the rain ceased, the sun came out, and a little further down the ground was dusty, and I camped at the bottom in a perfectly dry climate, the climate of Tibet.
The face of the country too had changed, there were no longer rugged rocks and precipices, the hills were rounded, the result of the disintegration which in this dry climate does not wash away; the bottoms of the valleys were broad and flat, and there were numerous flocks of sheep and herds of yaks grazing in every direction, while everywhere were scattered the black yaks' hair tents of the
70
