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
TROPICAL SCENERY 105
feet above sea-level to a snowy range, culminating in a
peak 28,178 feet in height.
The valley bottom was narrow, and the Teesta
River, 100 yards or so broad, dashed down over great
boulders and beside precipitous cliffs with immense
velocity. Both the main and the side valleys were very
deep, the slopes steep, and the whole packed with a dense
forest of rich and graceful and variegated foliage. Tropical
oaks of gigantic size, a tree with a buttressed trunk grow-
ing to a height of 200 feet, sal," sago-palms, bamboos,
bananas, bauhinias, took," screw-pine, and on the ridges
Pima excelsus. An immense climber, with pendulous
blossoms, and which bears a fruit like a melon, was very
prevalent, and aristolochias, with their pitcher-like flowers,
orchids, and ferns. 'Tropical profusion of vegetable
growth was nowhere better exemplified. But almost
more remarkable were the number and the variety of the
butterflies. I counted seventeen different species in a
couple of hundred yards, some of the most exquisitely
beautiful colouring, flashing out every brilliant and
metallic hue ; others mimicking the foliage, and when at
rest shutting their wings together, and exactly resembling
the leaves of a tree. Less beautiful, but equally abundant,
was the wealth of insect life. And here with a vengeance
was the thorn which every rose possesses. Midges,
mosquitoes, gnats, every conceivable horror and annoy-
ance in this particular line, was present here ; also beetles
in myriads ; some spiders, too, of enormous size ; cock-
chafers and cockroaches, winged ants, and, in addition to
all these insect pests, the countless leeches on every leaf
and every blade of grass. It is indeed a paradise for a
naturalist, but only for such a naturalist as has his flesh
under due subjection to the spirit. And such a naturalist
was the great Sir Joseph Hooker, the friend of Darwin,
who first explored this country in 1848 and 1849, and who
is even now living amongst us.
The stillness of these parts I have already referred to.
There is seldom a breath of air stirring, and one feels in a
gigantic hothouse. But it is not noiseless, for, apart from
the roar of the main river as it , dashes impetuously
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