SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
which was our camping-ground. I had an attack of fever also by this time, and was glad to go dinnerless to bed as soon as the baggage came up. On the march that day both sides of the valley were thickly wooded, only the more precipitous rocks being bare. Geographically we had now left the middle third of Bhutan, and had entered the narrow gorge which leads upwards to the plains of Tibet. From the fort our path, which throughout proved to be quite good, led gently down to the bed of the stream, the Tchin-chhu, which, with a few occasional ups and downs, we hardly left. The thick vegetation of the previous day soon ceased, and we entered a gorge almost filled by the Tchin-chhu, and bordered by stupendous cliffs of most weird shapes, amongst which El Capitano of the Yosemite Valley would be dwarfed by the lowest of these monsters. These cliffs appeared to be formed by horizontal strata of sedimentary rocks, consisting of layers of limestone, sandstone, slate or shale of a dark blue colour, and quartzites. The towering rocks were cleft in numberless places from top to bottom, leaving narrow slits or fissures which I was told were often more than a mile long. One which I photographed extends for more than two miles before it opens out in a beautiful basin and forms one of the Thimbu’s best grazing-stations.
Through scenery like this we rode for ten miles, crossing the Tchin-chhu no less than six times. At length we left the main stream, turned to the right into an open valley devoid of trees but of great width, and, ascending gently for another two miles, reached our camp at Byaradingka, a wide maidan of the highland character so often met with. On the slopes to the west we saw several flocks of burhel, but failed to bag any. The hills here consist of dark shales, which run right up to the east foot of Chomolhari, and are very similar to those met with at Khamba-jong; while the same curious concretions are also to be found here. The only gneiss I saw was that brought down by the glaciers running from Chomolhari.
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