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0127 India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1
India and Tibet : vol.1 / 127 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000295
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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