# Memoirs of Travel, Sport and Natural History/Chapter 8

Memoirs of Travel, Sport and Natural History by Henry John Elwes was first published in London in 1930, and edited by Edward G. Hawke
CHAPTER VIII
A TRIP TO THE SINGALELA RANGE IN THE RAINS, JULY, 1886
Elwes was never the man to waste time that could be turned to profitable account. While the Tibet expedition was waiting at Darjeeling through the rainy season, he determined to make a short collecting trip to the Singalela range. A full journal of this trip was left among his papers and is now printed as it stands. It illustrates both his keen powers of observation and his vigorous descriptive style.
As the high range of hills which divides Sikkim from Nepal on the west has been very little visited in the rainy season, I took advantage of a few days of fine weather, after a month of almost unceasing wet and mist, to visit them. Now that a good pony road has been made as far as Thallut, four good marches from Darjeeling, and comfortable rest houses arc erected at the end of each day's journey, no tents or crockery need be taken, and the traveller is sure of a dry and waim shelter at night, however wet the march may be. A few coolies to carry bedding, provisions and clothing, 'with a Lepcha butterfly catcher and plant collector, were therefore soon ready to start, and favoured by a fine morning, I got away from Darjeeling on July nth, 1886. The road along the Goom ridge lies at a level of from 6,000 to 7,000 feet for ten miles, most of which is through a dense forest of the usual Sikkim character—oaks, laurels, chestnuts and magnolias, with a dense undergrowth of maling or dwarf bamboo in many places, and a thick scrub of Rubus and shrubs in others; the ground is covered with ferns mixed with Melastomas, Begonias and several beautiful Arisæmas, with Vaccinium, Cœlogyne, Pleione, and other orchids, ferns and mosses. Many of the birds peculiar to Sikkim frequent this forest, which, being protected by Government, has not been devastated by clearings, woodcutting and burning, as many of the forests at a lower elevation have been.
Butterflies at this season are not conspicuous or numerous, but as I go along I see many specimens of a small Lethe which I do not know, flitting along the road and settling on the path, and I am able to take a good series of fresh specimens. Papilio minercus is once seen flying over the tree-tops, and single specimens of the lovely Limenitis Zayla and Pieris Horsfieldii are also taken. The latter insect seems to be peculiar to elevations of 6,000 feet and upwards, whilst its variety P. Isthiela (Buttler), as far as I have been able to see, keeps lower down. As usual in the rainy season in Sikkim, mist and rain come on in the afternoon, but I reach Jorpokri bungalow in good time and find lunch ready. In the afternoon I take a fine male of Athyma jina which settles on the path in a short gleam of sunshine, and see one or two Neptis, probably N. inara, settling on the tree-tops. In the evening a few fine moths come to the light, but not so many as usual, owing to the moonlight. Next morning I am off at six. The morning is cloudy, but clears off as I descend the dip of 1,000 feet to the saddle where the ascent of Tonglo begins, giving a beautiful peep ​of the snowy mass of Kanchenjunga. The ascent is very steep at first, and only a few Geometers settled on the rocks by the roadside to reward my search. As we got higher into the dense forest of dwarf bamboo, the timber in which is mostly destroyed by fire, I had a glimpse of an unknown butterfly, and waiting till one settles on the road, I am delighted to take the delicately marked Zophœssa Atkinsoni. Three specimens, however, are all I can get during the day, as the range of this insect seems here to be only from about 8,000 to 9,000 feet.
Turning off the ridge overlooking Nepal, the road now goes for four or five miles through a dense shady forest of smaller trees than on the Goom ridge, the undergrowth of bamboo being generally so dense that it would be quite impenetrable off the path. The beautiful long-tailed blue Magpie, Urocissa flavirostris, is seen once or twice; whilst Trochalopteron, Leiothrix, Minla of several kinds, and other peculiar Himalayan birds occasionally appear in small parties. Only one of our party has a gun, and he confines his attention to the green pigeons, which are fairly abundant. The red Monal pheasant or Tragopan (Ceriornis satyra) is also found here at 7,000 to 9,000 feet, but it is so shy and difficult to see that only in the early morning may it sometimes be shot on the path, or, when its loud wailing cry is heard at daylight, followed into the gloomy recesses of the forest.
As I ascend to 8,500 or 9,000 feet I come to a very small break in the forest, where some Potentillas and other herbaceous plants are growing on a bank, and the sun now becoming warm, I begin to get my butterfly net into use. Zophœssa jalaurida and Lethe maitrya are the two first insects I take. Both of them, strange to say, were first taken by Mr. de Nicéville together on the Jalauri pass in the Simla hills; though very abundant on the Singalela range from Tonglo to Sandakphu at 9,000 to 12,000 feet, they are seldom or never seen in collections made at Darjeeling. They both fly rapidly, on cloudy as well as sunny days, settling on bamboo leaves on the path and on rocks, where they apparently roost at night and may often be bottled without difficulty like moths. Now a splendid green Papilio Krishna settles on a bramble flower, and is secured by a rapid sweep of the net, though it is not now in perfect condition. Sinchul, the hill close above Darjeeling, seems the best locality for this grand insect, which has been abundant this season in May and June, while the female, which I have never seen in any collection in Europe or India, has been taken this year on Tendong by Mr. Moller's native collectors. Argynnis Childreni also appears, but flies too fast to be caught, as well as a few Neope putala; these have very much the same habits as the other Satyridæ, which seem to be almost the only butterflies in any number flying between 8,000 and 11,000 feet, in the outer hills at least. Continuing the ascent, which at last becomes steep but everywhere quite easy for ponies, we at last, at a little over 10,000 feet, come out on the top of Tonglo, where Rhododendrons, Birches, Viburnum, Mountain Ash and some Araliaceæ are the most noticeable trees. We find a nice little bungalow close to a small marshy flat covered with Iris Clarkei which at this season is in full flower. Arisæma Griffithi, whose great purple and flesh-coloured spathes are now over, and other Aroids and herbaceous plants cover the ground, ​which in many places is swampy or covered with bamboo scrub. The coolies begin to come in, as heavy rain comes on, and in a couple of hours a comfortable dinner is ready by a warm fire of rhododendron wood; for though at this season the nights are never cold, and the sun in the day oppressively hot when it shines through the mist, which almost always rises from the valleys by 10 or 11 a.m., yet a fire after dark is always comfortable. As it gets dark, the moths begin to come into the verandah in some numbers, and for an hour or so, before the moon rises, I have enough to do, to net, bottle and pin the numerous and beautiful species which occur here. Many of them are of the same genera as our English moths, but in every genus, as is the case also among the birds and plants, there are one or two more species of surpassing beauty, and some of the Bombyces and Geometers are among these. As they have never been systematically collected here or at other high elevations in Sikkim, I preserve all I can get on this and succeeding nights, and as a rule I find that on wet dark nights I get a large number, whilst on clear moonlight nights very few come to the light.
On the following morning we start as soon as possible for Sandakphu, a march of fourteen or fifteen miles entailing descents which probably exceed 2,000 and ascents which exceed 4,000 feet. This march should not be attempted in winter unless the coolies are started at the latest by eight o'clock, as the last ascent of 500 feet to the bungalow is very trying in cold frosty weather, and the road, though fairly good, is up and down all the way. After a couple of miles along the spur, which rises again beyond Tonglo, the road descends along the east side of a steep mountain covered with a dense dripping forest. Along the side of the road I collect the seeds of the beautiful and distinct Primula imperialis, which flowers in March when snow and frost often prevail. As we descend to the low saddle about five miles from the bungalow an occasional spike of the giant lily may be found in the dense tangled forest, whilst Polygonatum, Roscœa, Pleione humilis, Vaccinium ferus and many other beautiful plants cover the trees. It must not be supposed, however, that flowers ever make a great show in these Sikkim forests. Except when the Rhododendrons, which are now all over, flower, there are but few conspicuous or showy forest plants, though at all seasons some curious and beautiful flowers can be found. Butterflies also on this range are very few in species, and in the whole of this march of sixteen miles I saw not a single specimen of the Lycœnidæ and only one little black Hesperid. Lethes, Zophœssas, Neope, are the only visible butterflies of the forest, though as we ascend to the more open hills, at about 14,000 feet, a few Colias Fieldi, a single Raphicera Moorei, and an occasional Pieris canidia are taken. The run of the Himalayan mole now and then crosses the path, but not a single mammal of any kind is seen, though a few Goral, or Himalayan chamois, and an occasional bear, are to be found on this range when the shepherds, who at this season occupy the best pastures, are absent. The curious cat-bear (Ailurus fulgens) also inhabits the forest at 7,000 to 10,000 feet, and is sometimes shot or snared by the native shikaris.
The birds which frequent this range are a mixture of those curious ​Himalayan genera which frequent the bamboo jungle at 9,000 to 12,000 feet, as Ixulus, Minla, Proparus, Trochalopteron, Suthora, etc., with European genera such as Certhia, Sitta, Parus Nipalensis, P. Æmodius, P. dichrous and other tits. Quietly riding along the road I see a small party of that curious bird, Heteromorpha unicolor, and a pair of the rare and delicate Suthora fulvifrons are creeping amongst the bamboos in company with the extraordinary scimitar-billed Xiphirhynchus superciliaris; the two first with bills of remarkable shortness, and the latter with the longest bill of any Passerine bird found in India, though all three frequent the same sort of ground and seem to live on the same food. After ascending to 11,000 feet we come on the first stunted silver firs, Abies Webbiana, the only conifer which is seen on this ridge. A short descent of 500 feet then brings us to a saddle where a small patch of ground is covered with a curious and to me unknown dwarf Roscœa, whose roots I hope to introduce into English gardens. Another dwarf arum with huge flowers is scattered among the herbage and will, I hope, accompany the Roscœa, together with a large-flowered Fritillary and a remarkable Trillium, the only representative of its genus in the Himalaya. A stiff climb up to Sandakphu lands us on a charming fir-clad knoll, from which on the Sikkim side you look down, when the mist allows you, on a great valley filled above with virgin forest of firs, and gradually descending into the same kind of vegetation through which we have been ascending. On the Nepal side a broken country of forest-clad hills, with their lower spurs cleared by cultivation, is unknown to European travellers; beyond there is, when clear, a grand view of the finest and highest range of mountains in the world, extending from distant Everest in the north-west, Kanchenjunga right in front of us, and far away to the north and north-east by the many snowy peaks of Donkia and Kanchenjhau, gradually lowering down to the here comparatively trifling elevation of 17,000 feet in the eastern range of Cho-la. But for this we must wait for one of those rare mornings which allow this unique view to be seen in all its glory. As I saw it on a frosty night by the light of the full moon in January, 1881, I do not think there can be any view to surpass it. And though on this occasion we only got a partial view above the sea of clouds which invariably accumulate during the night in the hot valleys of Sikkim, yet the sight was alone well worth a journey of double the distance, and must be left to those more skilled in word-painting than myself to describe.
The coolies drop in by degrees, tired with their long march, but only one seemed the worse for it, and he, a half-clad, half-starved Nepalese boy, is soon recovered by a warm night's rest, and a dose of that invaluable medicine, Chlorodine. The night as usual is wet but not cold, and the wind which blows softly from the north-west in the morning has nothing sharp or biting in it.
FIG. 5. KANCHENJUNGA FROM THE SINGALELA RANGE.
​The road continues for eight or ten miles beyond Sabargam, passing another rest house at Phallut. Instead of returning by the Tonglo road an agreeable and interesting route may be taken to Darjeeling by continuing along the ridge to the Islumbo pass, so called in Hooker's Himalayan Journals, but now known as the Chiabunjun or Singalela pass, which descends by a steep track, passable for ponies in the dry season, to the monasteries of Pemiongchi and Sanga Chelling, and so to Darjeeling, either by crossing the Little Rangit and going along the high forest-clad ridge between it and the Tista and descending by Namchi, or by the route described by Hooker along the Little Rangit valley. As, however, our plans did not allow this, and I had previously made a trip in the reverse direction, I returned from Sabargam to Sandakphu, rain coming on in the afternoon. The weather during our trip was either unusually fine, or the amount of rainfall on this range was not so great as at Darjeeling, for we never during the seven days of our stay on Singalela had heavy rain till late in the afternoon, and the nights were only partially wet, giving us on two occasions fine though not cloudless views of Everest and Kanchenjunga.
The return journey to Tonglo need not be particularly described, though several fine plants and insects not observed on the outward route were obtained. Among them I may mention a very fine yellow Gentianlike plant, three or four feet high, with flowers as large as a small teacup, and a curious large-flowered Chirita or allied plant, found high on Tonglo. Abundance of the beautiful delicate little Pleione Hookeri grows on the rhododendrons and other trees at about 10,000 feet for some miles on the road; and two of our prettiest garden shrubs in England, Leycesteria formosa and Hypericum patulum, were both abundant on the east side of Tonglo at 9,000 feet.
On ascending the high bare ridge about two miles north of Tonglo, on one of the days of our stay there, I was delighted to see one of the finest and most unique butterflies in the world, Teinopalpus imperialis, generally known among Darjeeling collectors as the Sinchul butterfly. As I do not think its habits have been described, I will say a few words about it. The genus is monotypic among the Papilionidæ, and the insect is a splendid mixture of green and gold with long pointed tails on the hind wing. It appears to be confined to the forest-clad tops of the outer hills of Sikkim, having, to my knowledge, only been taken on Sinchul, Tonglo, and Tendong at from 6,000 to 10,000 feet. The male flies on sunny mornings in June and July, with a very strong sailing and somewhat jerky flight, between nine and eleven o'clock, and settles occasionally on stones or trees, generally out of reach of a net; but, being bold, it may often be attracted within reach by a bait. The female, however, which probably remains in the dense forest at the tops of the trees, is hardly ever seen, and as far as I know, only six or seven specimens have ever been taken, though very high prices are offered by collectors. Indeed, to take a female of the "Sinchul wallah" is looked on by the numerous professional butterfly catchers in Sikkim as the height of success. The mod plant and larva, formerly unknown, has now been discovered by Knyvett, who found the larva feeding on Daphne nipalensis.
​The three nights of our stay in Tonglo on the way back were even more productive of moths than at first, and yielded a rich and varied collection, some of the insects being of large size and splendid colouring. The heat, however, of the sun, even at this elevation, is so great, and the absence of cold winds at night so marked in the rainy season, that the climate is well suited to nocturnal insects. A curious red flying squirrel (Pteromys magnificus), two feet in length, was brought in by one of the forest guards during our stay here, giving another of the numerous instances of the prevalence of tropical forms at high elevations in Sikkim. The trees at 6,ooo to 7,000 feet are now becoming gay with the flowers of a large yellow epiphytical Roscœa, which I believe to be Lutea. There is another much smaller plant of the same character growing with it, or perhaps 1,000 feet lower down, called also R. Lutea by some; flowering a month earlier, it has now bright red berries enclosed by blue capsules, and differs in this respect so much from Roscœa that it must, I think, be placed in another genus.
The absence of any catalogue of the Sikkim monocotyledonous plants, however, makes it impossible to name them with accuracy except at Kew, though the approaching completion of the Flora Indica will soon, it is to be hoped, enable all the beautiful Scitamineæ, Orchids and Aroids of these hills to be named as certainly as those orders which have already been described in that invaluable work. The return journey to Darjeeling was marked by no incident of importance. A splendid fresh female of Papilio muciercus was captured on the road at about 8,000 feet, showing that there are two broods of this fine forest insect. A single male of the lovely and very local Raphicera satricus was also taken at about the same level. On the whole, I think that I never enjoyed a more pleasant or profitable week's excursion in any part of the world with so little fatigue or inconvenience.
Some of the new Lepidoptera taken by me on this trip were described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1887; some in a catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Sikkim in the Transactions of the Entomological Society for 1888, pp. 269–465; and a large number of moths in a list of the Heterocera of Sikkim which Mr. Duthrie and I commenced in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Sir George Hampson described the greater part of the moths in The Fauna of British India; and the collection which I afterwards disposed of to Lord Rothschild contained the types of about 350 species which were added to the Indian list of my collection.