(Frou 4 Mittrany Corresroxpexr oF rue "Pant Mast Gazerte.
"Well, they say Tibet is a table-land but, begad, I'm thinking it's up the legs the table we're cimbmg!" was the remark of am Irish private in the expedition oF 1893, while the column was. toi ing painfully up the steep and di ficult. path known among the Tibetans as the Jélap La, or Easy Pass, but which is only "easy" in comparison with the neighbouring ones, which range from sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand feet, with even worse roads. The Jélap is the lowest and most access sible means of communication between Sikkim and Tibet, being only 14,200 feet, a few hundred feet higher than the summit of the Jungfrau. Formerly this was the principal trade route between the two countries, but since the British Go-ment assumed a protectorate over Sikkim the Tibetan authorities have sueceeded in almost stopping alli trade, though the terms made after the expedition of 1893 expressly insisted on the policy of the open door. The door is certainly open, when it. is not blocked by snow, but very little gets through it now-
The attitude of the Tibetan Government has for a long time been: growing more hostile and more defiant, and, among other unfriendly acts, the frontier guards have latterly taken to pulling down and obliterating the boundary pifars and_ marks which cost our Delimitation Committee so much hard work and money to erect. They even treat the ives of Sikkim with suspicion, threa-them when they visit Tibet as trade, and telling them that they are now British subjects, and as such have no business there.
This, of course, is not true, as Sikkim, though under British protection, ie governed by its own Raja, and is practically independent as fat as its internal are concerned. Its native name be rendered the Land of Peaks,"
aptly describes its natural features, cession of steep ridges, comprising me of the highest and most rugged mountains in the world, covered up to a height of about 13,000 ft. with dense forest. and intersected by huge torrents ut under the Mexican tag ad reamed the land thundering rivers.
Mexico und for a time she ran between Victoria, and Cape Nome. Two years she was bought by the North-caster Siberian Danish fag and Fenamed ber the Wat Company who put the vessel und: "The - was thoroughly overhauled and received new boilers and engines and was then.used as the Company's steamer on the Kamschatka coust, but her troubles still fol-Jowed her. In the spring of 1902 she ran Above the forest comes a belt of beautiful Alpine pastures, the home of the wild-cheep, musk-deer, and snow-leopard, and the grazing-ground in summer of the many yaks and sheep which form the wealth of the mountaineers. These pastures are covered with a profusion of wild-fowers and interspersed with broad patches of dwarf rhododendron, which wher in fall bloom are worth a long journey to sce, Sikkim is the home of the rhododendron, and the variety is endless, ranging from a tiny plant not three inches high on the uplands to great forest trees in the middle valleys, where the magnolia also flourishes, its smooth red bark contrasting beautifully with the deep green of the polished leaves and the huge bell like flowers.
The inhabitants of Sikkim are of two stiner races, the aboriginal Lepches, who live in the lower valleys, a mild, gen:
people, highly skilled im all woodcraft and jungle lore, but otherwise very un-civilised; and the Bhotiyas, of Tibetan descent, strong, sturdy mountaineers, with broad, cheery Mongolian faces and pigtails, who inhabit the higher valle and tend their flocks and herds on the rich pastures below the snow-line. Their villages usually lie from eight thousand to ten thousand feet above searlovel, and the houses are well-built, substantial structures of stone and timber, each big village usually ig a Gompa, or monastery of Jamas; for the Bhotiyas, =e their cousins of Tibet, are Buddhists. The Gompa is a somewhat imposing two-story building, with a great mushroom-shaped roof. The approach to it flanked by a double ino of tall poles, each bearing a white flag covered with Buddhist prayers. he monks live on the upper Bloor, while the lower generally consists of one large room, fitted up as a kind of temple, with figures of Buddha and other holy personages, in front of which is an altar, with food-offerings in small brass cups, while round the room are bookcases containing the sacred books, and shelves with various devotional instruments, drums, trumpets, and flageolets, on which the lamas discourse excruciating music on festival days. The walls are decorated with most horrible
huge praying-wheel stands by the door, perils in blue, red and black paint, and every one who enters gives it a turn, which is duly registered. by the ringing of a small bell, presumably to call the ut-tention. of the powers above to the prayer.
'The lamas are for the most part well-fed, cheery-looking men, dressed in lon, gowns of coarse red woollen cloth, an appear to lead a comfortable and' lazy life, though on one occasion one of them (probably a novice) ottered his services to as a coolie to carry some of my bag-and was quite contented to take an nary day's pay at the end of the march. The laymen do not appear to have a great respect for their priests; in fact, 1 once saw them make fun of a lama and his holy drum in the most irreverent fashion, but the Bhotiya will make fun of anything, and enjoys the simplest joke immensely.
Both sexes seem to mix on very equal and there is no seclusion of the women, who take a large share in all manual labour and will carry as heavy loads as the men. In fact, they are the more industrious, laziness being the besetting sin of the Bhotiya. Never in a hiurey himself, he cannot understand euch an idea in any one else, and. is by no means an task, when travelling, to get your camp struck and under way in the morning. The ingenuity which every one displays in finding excuses for not starting just yet is marvellous, and even when fairly on the road the smallest obstade is a pretext for putting down their loads and having a smoke and a chat. This, in a country where the roads are mere tracks and landstips are common, makes travelling slow; but the -Bhotiya is 60 good-humoured and jolly that it ie impossible to get angry with him, and if a real difficulty prevents itself he will rise to the occasion, and work like a horse,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.