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

194 BOOTAN.A little beyond Gassa we were struck witli a very singular appearance.A breach in the opposite mountain discovered a most beautifulvalley, which at once surprised me by itssudden burst upon the view,and forcibly excited a desire of closer examination.But the immensechasm between prohibited the attempt ;yet I could plainly trace thepracticability of climbing to it by a zig-zag narrow path. The mountainsrose with steep sides, towering to a prodigious altitude, andbranching into many heads. This, in particular, as if compressed,and flattened about a third part of its height, displayed a plain ofwide extent, covered with the finest turf, and intersected, as theBooteeas informed me, by a large brook: and here, they said, wasthe favourite resort of the herdsmen with their droves, at this seasonof the year.The Patchieu was now seen to shape its contorted course,deep in the division between the mountains, dashing from one side ofthe rock to the other; sometimes pouring a smooth transparent bodyover huge stones that lie across its course, and sometimes dashing a perfectcataract. It seemed greatly diminished in size; but the numerouscurrents that flow down every division of the mountain, and join itinits way, swell it, before it finds the bottom, into an immense torrent.Travelling on, we inclined towards the right, and came to a sortof break in the ascent ; a hollow, formed by the coinciding slopes ofmany heads of the mountain. We were met here by the Lama ofPhari, who had advanced thus far, and pitched some tents for ouraccommodation, which we entered about four o'clock, after a long andtiresome ascent of ten hours, though the distance we had travelledwas little more than twelve miles.