Charles Granville Bruce

“ Thence to Jongri, a tiresome road and a tiresome jungle; a two days' hard march, and unfortunately for us a damp one. The forest fires had extended even so far as these remote hill-sides, and we had very hard work cutting a way through fallen trees. The road in some places can hardly be distinguished at the best of times, at least this is true of the short cut by which we were going, but when covered by trees fallen from above and in places still alight, it added considerably to the trouble of getting through. ”

“ Girls of the Gurung tribe The studied isolation of Nepal, which allows no European to travel in the country except by special leave by the one main route to the capital itself, is a political move, and from whatever cause arising, which need not be discussed here, is, I go so far as to say, of distinct advantage to us, since it keeps a simple people removed from modern influences. ”

“ Lepcha Man, Sikhim Nepal itself, for an extremely mountainous country, is very thickly populated. So much is this the case, that at least 40,000 Goorkhas have overflowed from the eastern provinces into our district of Darjeeling and into semi-independent Sikhim, and immigrants continue to come into the latter district. In Sikhim, in the western portion, the Goorkhas completely outnumber the original Lepcha inhabitants as well as the now dominant Thibetans, although they really take little, if any, part in the governing of the country. ”

“ A Public House, Sikhim Colonists always want quick returns with little labour, but why is a country, from which fine agricultural results might have been expected, allowed to be so ruined? Putting aside this consideration, travelling in Sikhim, when the weather is at all propitious, is delightful. To the mountaineer, no district offers so many chances, not only of really good mountain exploration, but also of obtaining that most irritating and annoying thing, a record. It is an expensive district, and supplies are supposed to be difficult to obtain. ”

“ I never saw a terraced area; corn is grown on newly burned ground, without labour or difficulty. This waste is awful, not only of timber but of soil, and the results, when this system has continued for some time, is not only a waste of most valuable forest, but that the hill-sides are actually falling down, slipping into the valleys in fact I consider the authorities are themselves responsible for this condition. ”

“ A Limbu, Eastern Nepal No more exciting journey could have been taken, nor is there in any part of the great Himalaya range such a promising region as the whole of the Nepal kingdom for the organisation of exploring and mountaineering expeditions. ”

“ The lower valleys are thickly populated, grain can be easily purchased, and in the upper valleys are everywhere sheep and half-bred yaks. The peasants of the upper valley are mostly Sherpa Thibetans; in fact, a good many of the porters employed by Messrs. Rubenson and Monrad Aas were Sherpas from the actual Dudh Kosi, a branch of the great Kosi river, which rises in the lower slopes of Everest itself, All the higher valleys have excellent porter material, but the clothing of the different districts varies considerably. ”

“ But what glories are contained in this Himalayan region from the border of Kumaon to Bhootan; the last great piece of true exploration left in India proper. Think of Nepal and its great rivers, the Karnali, the Kali, the Tirsuli, the Tamba, Dudh, Sun Kosi, and the Arun Kosis. All unknown as far as Europeans are concerned. ”

“ Sikhim travel is always fascinating, if one does not mind the continual ascents and descents. On the direct road to Jongri the ascents alone amount to 26,000 feet, in what ought to be six not very severe marches. ”