SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
powerful that they were able to uphold the mountain, and that their spirits still have their dwelling-place somewhere in its icy fastnesses. On the east was a well-wooded but rather steep valley, down which we had to descend by a very rough precipitous track, which at first, owing to the snow, could hardly be called a road; it, however, improved by the time we reached a small open glade called Damtheng, though the frozen snow still made our footing insecure. Soon after we were met by the Tongsa Donyer, who accompanied the Tongsa Penlop to Lhasa in 1904 and was formerly the Donyer of Angdu-phodang; he brought the usual scarf and murwa in the name of the Tongsa, and informed me he had been detailed to accompany me during my stay in Bhutan and to arrange for the comfort of my party, and these duties he carried out most satisfactorily. From Damtheng, after crossing a good bridge, we slightly ascended before reaching Tsangpa-pilam where the traders’ branch road to Phari joins that from Hah-la, and where we found three small but excellent riding-mules, which proved most useful and satisfactory animals, sent by the Paro Penlop, in charge of the Paro Gorap (gatekeeper).
The road now became quite good, and about midday we rode into Damthong (10,400 feet), where we found a zareba of fresh pine boughs encircling a well laid-out camp. Words fail me to describe the beauty of the scene. Grassy glades, gently sloping, opened on a series of wide valleys in the far distance, while on either side and at our back was a deep fringe of fine trees of every age, from the patriarch of the forest down to young seedlings. The Bhutanese seem to have acquired the secret of combining in forests self-reproduction with unlimited grazing, for from the time we left Rinchengong we passed through forests which, without exception, were self-reproducing. When we were comfortably settled in our tents the Tongsa and Paro officials, accompanied by the Hah Zimpon and Nerpa, brought us a further salutation from the Penlops, in the
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