avalanches of rocks and snow. We proceeded amidst dense fog, soon
followed by hard rain; the roar of falling rocks on either hand
increasing as these invisible giants spoke to one another in voices
of thunder through the clouds. The effect was indescribably grand:
and as the weather cleared, and I obtained transient peeps of their
precipices of blue ice and black rock towering 5000 feet above me on
either hand, the feeling of awe produced was almost overpowering.
Heavy banks of vapour still veiled the mountains, but the rising mist
exposed a broad stony track, along which the Lachen wandered, split
into innumerable channels, and enclosing little oases of green
vegetation, lighted up by occasional gleams of sunshine. Though all
around was enveloped in gloom, there was in front a high blue arc of
cloudless sky, between the beetling cliffs that formed the stern
portals of the Kongra Lama pass.


CHAPTER XXI.

Top of Kongra Lama -- Tibet frontier -- Elevation -- View --
Vegetation -- Descent to Tungu -- Tungu-choo -- Ponies -- Kinchinjhow
and Changokhang mountains -- Palung plains -- Tibetans -- Dogs --
Dingcbam province of Tibet -- Inhabitants -- Dresses -- Women's
ornaments -- Blackening faces -- Coral -- Tents -- Elevation of
Palung -- Lama -- Shawl-wool goats -- Shearing -- Siberian plants --
Height of glaciers, and perpetual snow -- Geology -- Plants, and wild
animals -- Marmots -- Insects -- Birds -- Choongtam Lama -- Religious
exercises -- Tibetan hospitality -- _Delphinium_ -- Perpetual snow --
Temperature at Tungu -- Return to Tallum Samdong -- To Lamteng --
Houses -- Fall of Barometer -- Cicadas -- Lime deposit -- Landslips
-- Arrival at Choongtam -- Cobra -- Rageu -- Heat of Climate --