Page:Sikhim and Bhutan.djvu/124

 Giaogong was visited by Hooker in 1848 and again by Macaulay in 1886. It is a desolate, wind-swept spot lying in the centre of a gorge between Chomiomo, 23,000 feet, on the west and Kangchenjhau, 24,000 feet, on the east, and is a veritable funnel up which the wind is always howling. I managed, however, to find a fairly sheltered spot for my camp and stayed for a few days. On one I climbed the 18,221-feet hill to the west called Tunlo, and from the top I had a magnificent view over the north of Sikhim up to the rounded hills forming the watershed and the true boundary. Looked at from this elevation the scene is a most desolate one, truly typical of, and only to be found in, Tibet; with the exception of the valley immediately below me, nothing was under 18,000 feet, without a shrub, much less a tree, to be seen, and the wonder was how the large flocks of sheep scattered about, numbering perhaps 10,000 or 12,000, found enough grazing to keep them alive.

On leaving Giaogong, some distance to the south-east, where the rainfall is comparatively heavy, my route took me over some ancient moraines, now, after centuries of disintegration, a series of undulating downs called Phalung, covered with thick soft turf and dotted with the yaks and tents of the Lachen herdsmen. I also passed some good flocks of burhel on these moraines, one numbering about eighty. The glaciers running down from this range are comparatively small, although with the splendid backing of the perpendicular cliffs of Kangchenjhau they look imposing.

After crossing these downs, I camped at Sechuglaka and was detained there by bad weather, my coolies declaring the Sebu-la was impassable in soft snow. The pass is 17,600 feet and there is a small glacier which has to be crossed before reaching the summit, but this was negotiated with little difficulty; there were one or two small crevasses, but my men knew where they were and how to avoid them.