Page:Sikhim and Bhutan.djvu/147

 hills so characteristic of parts of Tibet and was again to the south of the main Himalayan range. The peaks in this part of the boundary are magnificent, and all the way up the valley of the Lungpo-chhu the scenery is splendid. To the north lies the chain of hills which bound Sikhim, and to the south the magnificent peak of Kangchenjunga, with the range running from it to the north, which, combined with the huge glaciers coming down on all sides makes up a splendid picture which is not easy to surpass in any other part of the world.

From my camp in the Lungpo-chhu I went up to the Chorten Nema-la, a difficult pass, but occasionally used by Tibetan graziers bringing their flocks and herds to graze in this valley. The southern side is a scree for some thousands of feet, and the northern is a glacier, and I should think a difficult one to climb. It was a very weird spot, and the pinnacles of bare rock starting out of the snow on the top of the pass gave it a very wild and most distinctive character.

One of my most interesting journeys from this camp was to the head of the valley. This I found filled by an enormous glacier which I suddenly came upon looming out of the mist, a sheer wall of perpendicular ice some forty to fifty feet high. I managed to climb this in one place, and went for some miles along the top, which was almost quite flat, but the weather was bad, and it commenced to snow, and I had to retrace my footsteps. Unfortunately I never had the time or opportunity to explore further up. Coming suddenly upon these glaciers on a misty day, they look very weird, standing out in ghostlike shapes, the stratification of the ice adding to their peculiar appearance. In sunlight they are quite different and look very beautiful, as the colouring in the ice is then seen to perfection. Once, while exploring down the glacier, I came upon the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. The glacier was cut up into a succession of huge ice waves and looked exactly like an angry sea suddenly frozen solid. The ice hummocks were