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0130 India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1
India and Tibet : vol.1 / 130 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000295
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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