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
104 SIMLA TO KHAMBA JONG
soak through everything, for there was not only the rain
beating down from above, but the penetrating mists
creeping in all round. But I could not be depressed by
mere rain, however much. The road passed through a
forest of unsurpassable beauty. Chestnuts, walnuts, oaks,
laurels, rhododendrons, and magnolias grew in great mag-
nificence, and among them Himalayan kinds of birch,
alder, maple, holly, apple, and cherry. Orchids of the
most brilliant varieties I could have gathered in basketfuls.
The perpetual moisture and the still atmosphere nourished
the most delicate ferns ; while the mosses were almost as
beautiful, and hung from the trees in graceful pendants,
blending with the festoons of the climbing plants.
After riding for some miles along the ridge, we de-
scended towards the Teesta River, and again met with the
magnificent tree-ferns, palms, bamboos, and wild bananas.
We passed by several flourishing tea plantations, each
with its cosy, but lonely, bungalow, surrounded by a
beautiful garden. By the roadway caladiums of every
variegated colour brightened the prospect. But as we
descended the atmosphere grew more oppressive and
stifling, till when we reached the Teesta itself, which here
lies at an altitude of only 700 feet above sea-level, the
atmosphere was precisely that of a hothouse. The
thermometer did not rise above 95°, but the heat was well-
nigh unbearable. Perspiration poured from every pore.
Energy oozed away with every drop, and the thought of a
winter amid the snows of Tibet became positively cheering.
It was a curious beginning for such an expedition as was
to follow, but the Indian officer has to be prepared to
undergo at a moment's notice every degree of heat or
cold, of storm and sunshine, of drought or deluge, and
take everything he meets cheerily as in the day's work.
We were now in Sikkim proper, the thin wedge of a
valley which runs from the plains to the watershed of
the Himalayas, and separates Nepal from Bhutan. For
luxuriance and for variety of vegetation, and of animal,
bird, and insect life, it must, I should say, be unequalled
by any other country in the world, for it lies in the
tropics, and rises from an elevation of only a few hundred
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