sweet-blossomed _Sphaerostema._ Many English water-plants*
[_Sparganium, Typha, Potamogeton, Callitriche, Utricularia,_ sedges
and rushes.] grew in the water, but I found no shells; tadpoles,
however, swarmed, which later in the season become large frogs.
The "painted-lady " butterfly (_Cynthia Cardui_), and a pretty "blue"
were flitting over the flowers, together with some great tropical
kinds, that wander so far up these valleys, accompanying _Marlea,_
the only subtropical tree that ascends to 8,500 feet in the interior
of Sikkim.

The river runs close tinder the eastern side of the valley, which
slopes so steeply as to appear for many miles almost a continuous
landslip, 2000 feet high.

Lamteng village, where I arrived on the 27th of May, is quite
concealed by a moraine to the south, which, with a parallel ridge on
the north, forms a beautiful bay in the mountains, 8,900 feet above
the sea, and 1000 above the Lachen. The village stands on a grassy
and bushy flat, around which the pine-clad mountains rise steeply to
the snowy peaks and black cliffs which tower above. It contains about
forty houses, forming the winter-quarters of the inhabitants of the
valley, who, in summer, move with their flocks and herds to the
alpine pastures of the Tibet frontier. The dwellings are like those
described at Wallanchoon, but the elevation being lower, and the
situation more sheltered, they are more scattered; whilst on account
of the dampness of the climate, they are raised higher from the
ground, and the shingles with which they are tiled (made of _Abies
Webbiana_) decay in two or three years. Many are painted lilac, with
the gables in diamonds of red, black, and white: the roofs are either
of wood, or of the bark of _Abies Brunoniana,_ held down by large