fresh-water crab, _Thelphusa,_ ("Ti-hi" of the Lepchas). Shells, from
the absence of lime, are extremely scarce, and I scarcely picked up a
single specimen: the most common are species of _Cyclostoma._

The rains commenced on the 10th of May, greatly increasing the
discomforts of travelling, but moderating the heat by drenching
thunder-storms, which so soaked the men's loads, that I was obliged
to halt a day in the Teesta valley to have waterproof covers made of
platted bamboo-work, enclosing Phrynium leaves. I was delighted to
find that my little tent was impervious to water, though its
thickness was but of one layer of blanket: it was a single ridge with
two poles, 7 feet high, 8 feet long, and 8 feet broad at the base,
forming nearly an equilateral triangle in front.

Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in its rich summer
clothing of tropical foliage. I halted during an hour of heavy rain
on the spot where I had spent the previous Christmas, and could not
help feeling doubly lonely in a place where every rock and tree
reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation of my position, the
hostility of the Dewan, and consequent uncertainty of the success of
a journey that absorbed all my thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in
the valleys I was traversing, and the many difficulties that beset my
path, all crowded on the imagination when fevered by exertion and
depressed by gloomy weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I
counted the many miles and months intervening between me and my home.

The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now covered with
a bright green crop of young rice. The house then occupied by the
Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been
repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the boiling