Page:Sikhim and Bhutan.djvu/60

 Building a house. Lepcha servants. Supplies. A garden party. The Residency garden. Roses and lilies. A wave of colour. Orchids. Visit to Tumlong. Worship of Kangchenjunga. Lama dance. Missionaries. Difficulties of travelling. Crossing the Teesta in flood. Landslips. Leeches. of the first things to be done on my appointment to Sikhim was to build a house, not an easy task in a wild country where masons and carpenters were conspicuous by their absence, where stone for building had to be quarried from the hill-sides and trees cut down for timber. In my jungle wanderings round Gangtak, I came across a charming site in the midst of primeval forest which seemed suitable in every way, so I determined to build on it, felling only the trees which might possibly endanger the safety of the house, a necessary precaution, as many of them were quite 140 feet high, and in the spring the thunderstorms, accompanied by violent winds, were something terrible and wrought havoc everywhere. By levelling the uneven ground and throwing it out in front, I managed to get sufficient space for the house, with lawn and flower beds round it. Behind rose a high mountain, thickly wooded, which protected us from the storms sweeping down from the snows to the northeast, and in front the ground fell away with a magnificent view across the valley, where, from behind the opposite hills, Kangchenjunga and its surrounding snows towered up against the clear sky, making one of the most beautiful Rh