Part 9 - Primula observations and travel from Lanyong toward Molo via Tse La and Nagu Chu

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SUMMARY:
The diarist describes abundant Primula species on swampy valley slopes and notes that by October seed and leaves were scarce due to yak grazing. On June 19th they returned to Lanyong, then departed for Molo via the Tse La, later traveling down the Tsangpo valley to Mayu and making difficult river crossings (including by skin coracles and a log raft) before proceeding up the Nagu Chu valley toward the Tam La over the Himalayas.

CONTENT:
there are two huts & a small monastery. A few men
from Lanyong had just arrived, with their yaks for the summer -
On the swampy slopes in the valley bed were masses of most beautifully
coloured primulas - P. alpicola in several and a P.
sikkimensis subsp in every conceivable colour. One of these was
constant in colour down the rocky sides of cascades, until the
rich & marshy flat yak pasture was reached. Here it broke out into
all colours & shades. I marked many for seed collecting in
the Autumn, but in October I could hardly find a seed & indeed I
could hardly see a Primula leaf - all had been grazed by yaks.
On June 19th we were back in Lanyong, which we left then,
bound for Molo, by a different route, over the Tse La, 15000'.
I had time to visit two other valleys before we all met at
the end of July, so went down the Tsangpo valley to Mayu on the
R bank of the Nagu River - All these rivers from the Himalayas
running N. to the Tsangpo were by now in spate.
Bridges in every case had been carried away by flood water &
we had some difficulty in crossing, clear days sometimes fording, sometimes by
the skin coracles called Kowas and sometimes by a heavy

Waterlily 5749 unmanageable craft called a 'tru', which consisted of three or
Smilacina 5756 four long logs tied together. Crossing a rapid river by 'tru' was
Lil. giganteum 5743 a full day's business: first it was towed some hundreds of yards
Smilacina 5754 upstream, where it was loaded till the logs were awash. Then two men
Rhod. floribunda would paddle frantically with sticks making a yard across for every
Magnolia globosa twenty yards they were carried down stream. Just after crossing the
Nagu Chu in this way, the weather cleared after three days we had
sunshine. I went up the Nagu Chu valley to a pass at over the
Himalayas called the Tam La. The ascent, until within a mile
of the pass was very slight & for miles we plodded through
swamps. Then reaching the Main Range suddenly on the third
short day's march, the path climbed abruptly to a knife edge