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0133 India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1
India and Tibet : vol.1 / 133 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000295
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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