MY FIRST MISSION TO BHUTAN
tank, and seats, but as his ryots objected to the expense he contented himself with levelling a large space and planting the rows of fir-trees where our tents were pitched, and it certainly was a most charming spot. I went down to the bridge so well described and illustrated in Turner’s narrative. It is wonderful how the mountain rivers of Bhutan, in direct contrast to those of neighbouring Sikhim, seem to keep in one channel. No alteration of the streams seems to have taken place since Turner’s visit a hundred and twenty years ago, yet there are no sufficiently solid rocks nor guiding works to retain it. In Sikhim I could never foresee the vagaries of the different rivers, which would often suddenly leave the main channel in times of flood, and later, on subsidence, take an entirely new course. I tried to get a little historical information from the lamas who came to see me here, and who appeared to be a little more intelligent than those I had hitherto met, but it was no use. I could not even get a list of the Shabdung Rimpochis or Deb Rajas for the last forty years.
On leaving Angdu-phodang on a lovely morning we followed a bridle-path very slightly ascending up the right bank of the Tang-chhu for about six miles. On the opposite bank of the river the house belonging to the ex-Poonakha Jongpen was pointed out to me. He fled to Kalimpong, and afterwards died at Buxa. High up above the road was Chongdu Gompa, the summer residence of the Poonakha Jongpen, on a beautiful cultivated site. At Chapakha we crossed the Ba-chhu (5000 feet) by a good bridge, and a stiff climb of three miles brought us to Samtengang, where our camp was pitched in the midst of pines, just above a wide grassy maidan, with a small lake to add to its picturesqueness. The early part of the day had been hot and not very pretty, but after passing Chapakha the new ridge gave us a succession of level grassy plains.
It was while on the next day’s march that I had the misfortune to lose my little Tibetan spaniel Nari, who had been my companion on many wanderings in Sikhim, in
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