path three
feet in width and often lying at an angle of 45 deg.; but there was no
danger, unless it might perhaps be from the sliding away of part of the
road, since the ponies are mountain-bred and very sure-footed. The views
were extremely grand, and the distances from peak to peak so immense
that the mind was almost lost to detail. Much of the land is cleared of
forest trees and covered with tea-plants: cinchona also is cultivated,
and with great success.

The Rungeed is a small mountain-torrent, a branch of the Peesta, which
latter empties its waters into the great Brahmapootra ("son of Brahma").
It serves as a boundary-line between Bengal and Sikkim. Crossing this
stream at a height of about thirty feet, there is a bamboo-cane
suspension bridge three hundred feet in length, which was built entirely
by the natives. It is intended for foot-passengers, and will safely
support a dozen people at a time. It consists of sixteen bamboo canes,
of the size of the finger, on either side. The bottom is formed of three
very large stems of bamboo, and a sort of wickerwork extends from these
upward to the supporting canes, which are about six feet from side to
side, and may in crossing just be grasped by the hands. The bridge has a
peculiar oscillating motion, which increases so much at the centre,
together with an up-and-down movement, that, with a sight of the
fiercely rushing water beneath, the traveler's head is apt to become
giddy.

Crossing to the other side, I met in the forests an English gentleman,
who informed me he was just returning from a two weeks' tour through
Sikkim. It was Colonel Manwaring of H. M.'s Indian army, who was engaged
in compiling under government orders a dictionary of the Lepcha tongue.
Salutations over, Briton like, he pressed me at once to drink, asked if
I would try a native beer, and upon my assenting ordered a quantity of
_chi_ (a drink made of fermented millet) from a hut near at hand. It
proved a nutritious and exhilarating though not intoxicating beverage,
and we drank it _a la_ Sikkimite, warm, through a reed a foot in length
and from a joint of bamboo holding perhaps a couple of quarts. The
colonel informed me that the Lepcha language is very copious, expressive
and beautiful, abounding largely in metaphor. The number of words is
very extraordinary, and requires a person to be something of a
geologist, botanist and zoologist--in short, to understand very many of
the sciences and not a f