The tea thus obtained should then be thoroughly dried and stored up ready for packing into bricks. For packing, the tea should be separated into quantities of 4% pound English, and sprinkled with a little rice water, i. e., the water which has been used for the first ebullition of rice, the kanjee-panee of Bengal. It is then forced down into wooden moulds by means of a crow-bar acting as a lever, or a press somewhat in the style of a letter copying press. After a little while the bricks are taken out of the moulds and allowed to dry under shelter. When perfectly dried, each brick of tea is wrapped up in double sheets of oiled paper, and they are packed by fours into mats of split bamboos ready for despatch. There are 5 standards or qualities of brick-tea prepared for the Thibetan market, sorted according to the more or less perfect degree of fermentation and the greater or lesser admixture of wood with the leaves. The staple brick or 3rd standard called Guié-pa by the Thibetans and Pa-chang Kin by the Chinese is by far the most generally used in Thibet, not only as beverage, but as a staple of trade and as the common money of traders, and it is therefore most important that tea of that quality should be made up of the exact weight. Although the Indian Rupee and local coin are much used, men still bargain in Thibet by stipulating so many bricks or packets (of four bricks) of tea. They : "This sword has cost three bricks; this horse is worth 20 packets" and even the wages of workmen and servants are reckoned in so many bricks or packets of tea. Bricks of that standard are never weighed but counted while tea of other standards of quality, inferior and superior, is weighed and not counted, when used as a medium of exchange. The Guié-pa is made of leaves with a few tops of small branches, well fermented and of a dark yellow colour. This description has been recast from the Abbé Desgodins' pamphlet on tea with his kind permission, and I would take this opportunity of recording my sincere acknowledgments for the valuable information derived from him either in personal converse during our two visits to Pedong, or from his valuable French book on Thibet, or his pamphlet on brick-tea to which I would refer the planter for a more complete description of the four other standards of that tea. Fr. Desgodins' long experience and thorough knowledge of Thibet, China and Sikkim makes him the highest living authority on those countries, and it is much to his credit and large-hearted desinterestedness that he is always ready and willing to impart his immense fund of knowledge to whoever it may be in any way advantageous. It is a grave error on the part of Government to have, in the recent treaty about Thibet, yielded to China in the matter of their demand for the exclusion of Indian tea from Thibet for a period of five years, and it is remarkable also that that is also practically the duration of the commercial convention, if it can be so-called, which was signed at Darjeeling on the 5th of December last. At the same time the manufacture of brick-tea is yet in its infancy in our gardens, and there will be a sufficient débouché for all that we can produce in that period for local consumption among the native population in the Districts of Darjeeling, British Bhootan, Independant Sikkim and Nepal, as well as on the markets of Oodalguree and Sudya in Assam; then at Nyneetal, Simla, Rampoor in Bushire and Central Asia; while at the expiration of the 5 years our Planters will probably be in a position to compete advantageously with the brick-tea from Ta-Tsien-loo. It has been computed that Thibet can easily absorb 8 lakhs of Rupees worth of Indian brick-tea, and this market, at our very doors, is one which ought not to be lightly neglected or abandoned, without a struggle, to our wily Chinese competitors. I shall refer again to that convention in another Chapter and give, in Appendix IV, the text of the original convention of the 17th of March 1890, and of the additional articles signed on the 5th December 1893, which form part of it. During that period of 5 years also, the tea will become known to Thibetan travellers who visit the border districts for trade, or other purposes, and a demand will set in from Thibet as soon as its importation is allowed. It is probable that some of the tea will be smuggled in by Thibetan travellers, especially of the best qualities, for tea is the aristocratic beverage in their country. "Come and drink tea" is the equivalent of "come to dinner" with us, and smuggled goods, with the zest attached of an official prohibition, are appreciated in all countries and especially among the Mongolian races, as we have seen, in the case of opium in China, in olden times. Should any tea so smuggled be confiscated at the frontier, it will, according to the custom of the country, be sold for the benefit of the Custom-House officers, and that will be an additional advertisement. It is a far cry form Ta-Tsien-loo to Shigatze; and Thibet must eventually take its tea from the nearest and best market which is India. The open trade will follow smuggling, and it will do so as soon as open trade is permitted on reasonable terms. At present, although the treaty is liable to revision after 5 years, it has been attempted by the Chinese representatives to handicap the future by a stipulation that it shall then be admitted on payment of a rate of duty not exceeding that at which Chinese tea is imported into England. This would be a strong hindrance if not altogether prohibitive, but this is a stipulation altogether opposed to the trading traditions of the Thibetans who are free traders par excellence. Chinese tea enters Thibet free of duty and why should not Indian tea. This is a stipulation which, if Thibet is allowed to have a voice in the matter, will not be maintained after the 5 years are over, and there is no reason therefore why the manufacture of brick tea should not continue to receive the attention which it is already beginning to attract. Another plant we observed in the Pashok Gardens was the mulberry tree, to be found also in a wild state on the hill sides. The long rainy season so fatal to silk worms would render it impossible to exploit the multivoltine silkworm of Bengal, but the univoltine bombyx mori, yielding cocoons three times as rich in silk as the Multivoltine and of better quality, would thrive and pay well as an annual crop, provided that the silkworm eggs be sent to pass the hot months and to hibernate in such a place, for instance, as Gnatong. Experiments on those lines are already being made at the Government Cinchona plantations by Mr. Gammie, and at Kalimpong by native christian cultivators. "La soie c'est de l'or" is an old saying that has been realised in all silk producing countries for the wealth it brings to all concerned; and this rich produce is one which we should add also to the long list, making up the hitherto undeveloped wealth, of the Sikkim Himalayas. Morning was now far advanced, our train of coolies had started in advance and we had reluctantly to take leave of our host. So we shouldered our guns and with the ponies following at a little distance we plunged again into the Forest road for another attempt at a little Shikar. The results were as disappointing as they had been the day before. We had to reach Kalimpong early, if possible, and we could not follow into the jungle the game that we started. A couple miles down from the factory we passed the Travellers' Bungalow, and, at a discreet distance from it, a little pavillion with a few rustic seats commanding a view of the meeting of the waters of the Runjeet and the Teesta. I do not know to whom we owe this charming rest harbour, perhaps to the Lieutenant-Governor, to whose good taste we are indebted for the Rissoon Forest Bungalow and for many good things in Darjeeling, but it was pleasant to rest there in the solemn silence of the forest, heightened rather than disturbed by the soft murmur of rills and springs and the languid call of birds overhead, with just sunshine enough struggling through the leaves to point the green undergrowth with silver sheen. Then, through the trees in the valley below, we gaze on the green crystal stream of the Runjeet and the stronger murky current of the Teesta, meeting and floating down side by side as two lovers might, for a long, long way, until their waters shall finally mingle and be one, the mighty Teesta of the plains to be lost in in its turn in the mightier Berhampootra. Time is not wasted in a half hour's contemplation of such a scene. The Travellers' Bungalow below Pashok is feasible as a two days pic-nic or Honeymoon ramble from Darjeeling, and the pavillion, as a weird, unmatchable trysting place, seems built for two, to echo in fit adaptation of the song of the Bard of Erin: Sweet vale of the Teesta! How calm could I rest, In thy bosom of shade with the friend I love best; Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease, And our hearts like the waters be mingled in peace. ج CHAPTER III. BRITISH BHOOTAN. Down to the Teesta-Forest produce-Road-cess and Excise-PakdundeesThe Suspension Bridge-Orange groves-British Bhootan-The treaty of December 1865-Exclusion of tea from British Bhootan and Sikkim-The old road and the new-First view of Kalimpong. Connais tu le pays on fleurit l'Oranger Le pays des fruits d'or et des roses vermeilles MIGNON. With many a twist and turn by the road, on by stiff descents in very jungly pakdundees, sometimes through long patches of tea cultivation with a hedge of gigantic cactus some ten feet high on each side of the road, sometimes through the thick forest, our objective is now the Teesta itself. Forests in the Darjeeling District and British Bhootan, were it not for the belt of unhealthy Terai jungle at the foot of the hills which forms. part of the Division, would be the paradise of the Forest Department. The wealth of growing timber is great: Sal, Sissoo, Toon, and at the higher elevations, oak, wild chestnut, yew, mountain ash, larch, pines and other trees abound, while, of minor produce, bamboos, oranges, honey and wax, gums and rosins, gutta percha, wood for fuel, thatching grass and grazing rents, form part of the produce collected and disposed of by the Forest Department which has its head-quarters at Kalimpong. These districts contribute a very considerable proportion |