An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

I190 B O OTA N.except when it was nearly verlical : many a withered pine impendedfrom their cliirs, and, forsaken by the principle of life, rattled its drybranches together, when agitated by the wind. Here was a solitude !uninterrupted, Ibelieve, by any animated being, brute or human; andthe swiftness of the river, I am sure, bade defiance to the eftbrts of anyof the scaly tribes. We were inclosed in these gloomy wilds for thespace of about four miles, when we found itnecessary to dismount, andclamber up an immensely high and rocky mountain, which frequentlyobliged us to have recourse to our hands and knees.I was astonished,at the end of our journey, to see the Tanguns and all our baggageup with us, before it was dark, notwithstanding tlie difficulties ofthe way.These rugged and impracticable ways, certainly lessen theimportanceof those military posts, we so lately passed, Dukka-jeung andParo. The Booteeas cannot possibly have a better security, than insuch a chain of inaccessible mountains, and in the barrenness of theirfrontier.We crossed the Patchieu, which was now considerably diminished,for the last time, over a wooden bridge.Bridges, ina country composed of mountains, and abounding withtorrents, must necessarily be very frequent; the traveller has commonlysome one to pass in every day's journey.They are of differenlconstructions, generally of timber;and, if the width of the river willadmit, laid horizontally from rock to rock. Over broader streams, atriple or quadruple row of timbers, one row projecting over the other,and inserted into the rock, sustain two sloping sides, which are united