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SUMMARY:
The diarist camps west of Tsanang La amid continuous heavy rain, blocked by an unfordable river despite promising ground nearby. On 17 July, with Tsongpen and the coolies, they fell a fir to make a bridge, contend with sick porters and poor arrangements by Kusho (threatened with being sent back to Gyantse), note route timings between passes, and record several plant collections.

CONTENT:
Tsanang La

believe, others may explain their indifference to his face. There is nothing to be seen up here so far, but we are only at 11,000 ft. There is a small open space here, with two huts in it, one for people to stop in and one in which there is a chorten, with prayer wheels all round it. There are a lot of rhododendrons on the way here, but all over of course. A perfectly filthy day—

16th July. Camp W of Tsanang La. 4 1/2 miles. Very heavy rain all night and day without stop. The fates are much against us. Here I can see we are near an excellent place, but I can't reach it. Just ahead of us lies the main range, with a glacier coming down towards us, and within a mile I could be on excellent ground. But there is a river to cross. The rain has made it quite unfordable, and I can't get round any other way, owing to cliffs. It really is most annoying, and I think very bad luck after at last having got so near a good place. There is a lot of snow on the hills to the E of us, although they can't be very high, as we are only 11,800'.

17th July. Camp W of Tsanang La. 1 1/2 miles. Fine, with a little sun for an hour in the morning, then clouded and rain rest of day with a few fine intervals. There was still a lot of water in the river, though it was fordable. But I was a little afraid for coming back, so in the early morning Tsongpen and I felled a fir tree, and with all coolies pulling, we managed to get it across the river as a bridge. Whether it will be washed away or not remains to be seen. Four coolies were sick and did not turn up, the remainder all very against going on. I have given Kusho a severe lecture and threatened to send him back to Gyantse from Tsola. Since he has been with me, not a single coolie bundobast has been really thoroughly made. The Tsanang La was 2 days from Paha, Tsanang to Kucha La 1 day, Kucha La to Paha 2, so I ordered rations accordingly. Now I find on the third day, it will take another day to reach the La. Coolies now say four days from La to La and 5 from Paha to Kucha La. It is impossible to do good collecting under arrangements like this. We had to cut our way through forest up here today. The path is very bad indeed. Of course a lot of the day was wasted, but Tsongpen and I were out till 4.0 pm, and got a few good things. Rhod 5844 (trichocladum) is common. Rhod aff charitope 5848 local, and R. campylogynum 5847 (R. calostrotum 3855) common very small. A very nice yellow Pedicularis 5858 (Ped. megalochila La) is pretty common—the first I have noticed as being fragrant. Cremanthodium thomsonii 5809. Cremanthod. palmatum v. rhodocephalum 5852.

SUMMARY:
The diarist reports uneasiness about leopards and persistent heavy rain and mist that make seed collecting difficult around Tsari Sama and Sacua Pebo. Despite the weather, they gather significant Primula and Rhododendron seeds, note hut damage, and record that team members Cunha, Kuku, and Souypen choose to sleep under an overhanging rock.

CONTENT:
There is considerable uneasiness among the coolies about Leopards here. They have been here during the summer, but I think we are too late to be worried by them now. Anyway I take my gun, which they have great faith in.

To Tsari Sama:
11th October. Sacua Pebo. Rained all night, poured all day today, with a thick mist. A great pity the weather has broken so, as we have a lot to do here, and it is very difficult collecting, collecting many seed when so wet as this. There are several rather astonishing things. Rhod. campylogynum has thrown practically all its seed, though we managed to get sufficient as it is very common on the way here: the little yellow deciduous rhod. (R. mckenziana) has thrown all its seed and I doubt if we have any in the capsules collected (5555). So has Rhod. faucium. But we got a little Prim. morsheadiana (menantra), some P. pudibunda or flexilipes and will have a grand collection of P. odoritica (Kinga 6595). What I take to be Omphalogramma brachysiphon (6596) too has still some seed, is fairly common here. Although such a foul day, it is not nearly so cold as it was on 15th June when we were here last. That is probably due to the lack of wind. I was hoping to see the place in sun, but the hut is not visible from more than 40 yards. There is a v. small gompa here, there were two rooms when we were here last. But one has fallen down altogether. I meant all of us to be together here, but Cunha, Kuku & Souypen seem to think that wrong, and have put their bedding in the open, but under the shelter of the overhanging rock. So they will be dry at any rate. Rats bad, and probably fleas though they have not appeared yet. (Gent. lancantha sp. nov 6592, P. taylorii sp. nov 6593, Sax. probata 6594).

Tsari Sama
12th October. Halt. A perfectly fine day, with thick mist and driving rain all day long. Very hard to collect seeds and impossible to dry them. A good day would have resulted in many more seed. However we have the biggest collection of seed I have ever made, of P. odoritica, (6595) (P. chionogenes 6601). There must be a dozen packets anyway, and all are just ripe. Another good collection was the small rhodo. with large yellow flower (R. ludlowii 6600). (R. forestii repens 6598).

It is curious here that we have found no rhododendron with unripe seeds. All are fully ripe or have thrown their seed. The yellow petioled primula from the other side of the Lo La was not found: we could see no trace of its dead leaves at all. One man with us here has been round the full pilgrimage, and he tells me that from here to the second Tsukang is as