Valley of Myong
Octob[er] 31 [1848] Dear H[odgson]*1.
I closed with you this morning intending to send the Chaprassie*2 back forthwith, but he expressed a wish to stay a day, & so I took him on here. We left our ground at 10am & followed the course of the Myong, along as pretty a water as you would care to see, full of fish & big stones, a very bosky*3 stream, too with some good plants in its banks -- After a mile or two the path left the river and wound amongst & over many hillocks, all clayey & steep, sparingly wooded & dry for this part of the world, their bases only forest-clad. Tot calles tot paths*4 I thought & exactly as in New Zealand so varied & picturesque is the scenery & so much resemblance between the surface of this country & that: we only want the innumerable stockade forts of New Zealand to make this quite like that. -- & procured a

a good many new plants, none very remarkable, but all of rather a drier type than Sikkim ones. Some Cheer pine (P[inus]. Longifolia)*4a called "Sulla Ka rukh" (so I catch it) by the sepoys was typical of the stiffer soil -- a small chestnut (also found below D[arjeeling]) was very abundant, the nut more like an little acorn very sweet & good. There are few villages, & all small, the largest called Prahmu[?] was passed to the left, & it had but few houses. After the many ups & downs we trended N[orth]. towards the hilly mountainous N. slope of the Myong valley & arrived at our camping ground by the banks of a large river (affluent of the Mylong) which comes down as an impetuous torrent & is very steeply enclosed by hills. There is a little cultivation above, chiefly of rice, & the scenery is exceedingly beautiful, though so confined, not so much Bamboo nor so heavy a forest as in analogous situations in Sikim[sic], but

trees of lighter colour, more varied and graceful outline & far more pleasing to look at. The torrent is crossed by a Sanga*5 over which we go tomorrow & thence due N[orth]. amongst the mountains. The blocks of rock in its bed are enormous & the brawl stunning -- I am more than ever convinced that I am right in calling the Sikim[sic] forest sombre and lumpy & that it is more the scenery of a uniformly damp & misty region than I expected in the Himal[ayas]. How I wish you were with me to fight out the point, though. I think you would require little persuasion. -- Here there is no predominance of one or two trees as at analogous levels in Sikim[sic], consequently less richness of vegetation, but I think more variety. More species and fewer specimens. We had rain all the morning, quite enough to to[sic] be uncomfortable but hardly [1 word smudged, illeg.] to duck till 1 pm. when it fell in earnest by which time we were under cover, for owing to the

necessity of getting Ghurkha coolies we must not proceed too fast; indeed the Havildar wants me to wait here all tomorrow for the said coolies, but I cannot consent & have told him to send 2 sepoys ahead & leave 2 here to collect coolies; so that we shall go on overtaking them collected ahead & be overtaken by what may be got hereabouts -- anything is better than standing still & I am well sick of this showery outer region. We have not seen the sun today, for which I am sorry as I want my position having heard had no land-mark since leaving Darjeeling. & the road is too winding to guess the direction of any one's days day's march with confidence, there being no Sun. to guess go by. The fog is so thick in the hills & the sky so universally overcast that I fear I have little prospect of fine weather till I am well inland. I send all my hitherto collected plants

in by the Chaprassie for Hoffman*6 to see dried; they are packed too close & with too little paper between, but I cannot afford at this early date to send home more paper than is absolutely necessary. The vegetation about me here is the same as yesterday but more of it. Tomorrow I hope to change the scene materially & daily after that (how glad I shall be to sight the snow again). The elevation is a little lower but no great difference -- No Tree-fern, or Plantain & but few palms, all of which are much more consistent to with the excessive damp & uniform climate of Sikim[sic] than this prettier country. We only want sea here to make this valley the famous Bay of Islands in New Zealand of which I am constantly reminded especially (amongst plants) by the prevalence of the Bracken fern, which is common at D[arjeeling] but does not feature as here[.]

Natives are plenty & we have seen groups of Lepchas passing by en route from Ilam to their own country, generally over the Singalelah [Singalila] ridge. If it were not for that confounded habit of standing by & staring, & not offering to help, however much help is required, I would unequivocally praise the Ghurkas, but the said habit is so unEnglish & unsailor like that it frets me more than I can tell: had I come earlier to this country I might have borne it, even perhaps with the Bengalee, who has no earthly quality to recommend him to the casual observer but I am sorry to see it in the Ghurkha, who has so many prominent good points. The Lepcha always jumps to help -- & so perhaps would these if one went the right way about shewing one's wants, or asking; but there is a conventionality in the relations of all the rest of mankind, as affecting wants and needs & which the Havildar does not share. & this is the most conspicuous of all features, that of lending a ready hand -- I wish I could teach them "bis dat qui cito dat".*7 I do not refer to the sepoys who

are constantly active & helpful: but the country people who flock round our encamping. & whose cooking you must take from their gridle if you want the loan of it. This frets me sadly. I write very shortly to Campbell by this as I have little time just now & I suppose you see him now every day -- I will send him a long screed anon tell him.
Ever your affectionate | J. D Hooker.[signature] *8 Hooker
No. 3 Nov 4
N.B. another No. 3 mixed with private matters penes nos[?]

No 2. B.H. Hodgson*9