IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
FIRST VIEW OF HIMALAYAS 101
the first thrill of my new adventure, and I forthwith
drank in greedily every new impression.
All around in the plains there was rank, dank,
depressing vegetation. Unwholesomeness exuded from
the soil. Putrefying pools of water lay about on every
side. The whole air was thick with fever. But those
high heavenly mountains carried hope. As the train
progressed, the lower hills "—themselves 7,000 or 8,000
feet in height—came into sight. Eventually we reached
their base, and left the ordinary train for the little mountain
railway which ascends to Darjiling. And now, indeed,
were charms on every hand. The little railway winds
its way upward through a tropical forest of superb
magnificence. The orchids could almost be plucked from
the miniature carriages. The luxuriant vegetation nearly
met over the train. Immense tree-ferns and wild bananas
shot up beneath the overhanging arches of the dripping
forest trees. Wreaths and festoons of vine, convol-
vulus, and begonia stretched from bough to bough.
Climbing bauhinias and robinias entwined the trunks and
hung like great cables from tree to tree. Bamboos shot
up in dense tufts to a height of 100 feet. Refreshing
streams dashed foaming down the mountain-side. Glorious
waterfalls here and there thundered over steep cliff's.
And through all the diminutive train panted its way
upward—by zigzags, by spirals, through tunnels, across
dizzy bridges, along the sides of cliffs—but only too slowly,
for, glorious as was the tropical forest, I thirsted for the
sight of Kinchinjunga, which we should get when we at
last topped the ridge and reached Darjiling.
Alas ! when we at last reached the summit, all was hid
in cloud. Fresh from the steamy plains, we shivered in the
damp mists, and when we reached Darjiling itself rain was
descending in cataracts. It was depressing, but it had the
advantage that it enabled me to recuperate a little from
the hot, trying railway ,journey through the plains of
India, and be all the more fit therefore to thoroughly
enjoy and appreciate the great view when at last it should
be revealed.
Many times afterwards I saw it, and each time with a
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