eadow of buttercups and daisies, or a bank of primroses, or a wood
carpeted with bluebells, or a hillside with heather, or an Alpine slope
with gentians and ranunculus. I had been told that in Persia in
springtime the valleys of the Shapur River and the Karun are covered
profusely with lilies, also the forests of Manchuria in the
neighbourhood of the Great White Mountain; but until I crossed the
Jelapla and struck down the valley to Yatung I thought I would have to
go West to see such things again. Never was such profusion. Besides the
primulas[10]--I counted eight different kinds of them--and gentians and
anemones and celandines and wood sorrel and wild strawberries and
irises, there were the rhododendrons glowing like coals through the pine
forest. As one descended the scenery became more fascinating; the valley
narrowed, and the stream was more boisterous. Often the cliffs hung
sheer over the water's edge; the rocks were coated with green and yellow
moss, which formed a bed for the dwarf rhododendron bushes, now in full
flower, white and crimson and cream, and every hue between a dark
reddish brown and a light sulphury yellow--not here and there, but
everywhere, jostling one another for nooks and crannies in the rock.[11]

[10] Between Gnatong and Gautsa, thirteen different species of
primulas are found. They are: _Primula Petiolaris_, _P. glabra_,
_P. Sapphirina_, _P. pusilia_, _P. Kingii_, _P. Elwesiana_, _P.
Capitata_, _P. Sikkimensis_, _P. Involucra_, _P. Denticulata_,
_P. Stuartii_, _P. Soldanelloides_, _P. Stirtonia_.

[11] The species are: _Rhododendron campanulatum_, purple flowers;
_R. Fulgens_, scarlet; _R. Hodgsonii_, rose-coloured; _R.
Anthopogon_, white; _R. Virgatum_, purple; _R. Nivale_, rose-red;
_R. Wightii_, yellow; _R. Falconeri_, cream-coloured; _R.
cinndbarinum_, brick-red ('The Gates of Tibet,' Appendix I., J.
A. H. Louis).

These delicate flowers are very different from their dowdy cousin, the
coarse red rhododendron of the English shrubbery. At a little distance
they resemble more hothouse azaleas, and equal them in wealth of
blossom.

The great moss-grown rocks in the bed of the stream were covered with
equal profusion. Looking behind, the snows crowned the pine-trees, and
over them rested the blue sky. And here is the second reason--as I am
determined to be logical in my preference--why I found the valley so
fascinating. In contra