SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
quarters of the migratory inhabitants of the Lachen Valley, comprising about seventy-five houses. The people are herdsmen as well as traders, and move with their cattle up or down the valley according to the season, and as the summer months are the only ones during which the passes to Tibet are open for their merchandise, they are only to be found in Lamteng during the winter. One of the annual migrations down the valley is a curious sight to witness. In order to insure that no individual shall have the advantage of his neighbour in the matter of grazing, the whole population moves into Lamteng on the same day, bringing with them their entire families, all their yaks, ponies, cattle, goats, fowls, dogs and household goods, and on such a day it is safer to camp some little way off the road, as yaks are no respectors of persons and would soon have all the tents trampled on the ground.
On my way down the valley I had the luck to witness an enormous rock avalanche, the only one of any magnitude I have seen in Sikhim. It was a grand sight; the rocks came thundering down the hillside with tremendous velocity, many of them as large as a house, and dashed into the river at the bottom. I was exactly opposite the slip on the farther side of the valley in an absolutely safe position and could watch this very unusual phenomenon at my ease. My coolies were much alarmed, and I was not surprised, as it was in many ways a most awe-inspiring sight.
From Lamteng I returned to Thangu and went up to Giaogong where I was again met by Tibetan officials with the same story, that I could not be allowed to cross the boundary into Tibet, and that they knew nothing of the late Treaty. Much my easiest way would have been to follow the Lachen river to the Cholamo lakes, and then cross the Donlda-la into the Lachung Valley, but as this necessitated going through the disputed ground, I was obliged to take a more difficult route to the south of Kangchenjhau and then over the Sibu-la between Lachen and Lachung.
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