Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
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Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
In the afternoon, I examined the conical hill, which, like that near
Rotas, is of stratified beds of limestone, capped with sandstone. A
stream runs round its base, cutting through the alluvium to the
subjacent rock, which is exposed, and contains flattened spheres of
limestone. These spheres are from the size of a fist to a child’s head,
or even much larger; they are excessively hard, and neither laminated
nor formed of concentric layers. At the top of the hill the sandstone
cap was perpendicular on all sides, and its dry top covered with small
trees, especially of _Cochlospermum._ A few larger trees of _Fici_
clung to the edge of the rocks, and by forcing their roots into the
interstices detached enormous masses, affording good dens for bears and
other wild animals. From the top, the view of rock, river, forest, and
plain, was very fine, the eye ranging over a broad flat, girt by
precipitous hills;—West, the Kymore or Vindhya range rose again in
rugged elevations; South, flowed the Soane, backed by ranges of wooded
hills, smoking like volcanos with the fires of the natives;—below, lay
the bed of the stream we had left at the foot of the hills, cutting its
way through the alluvium, and following a deep gorge to the Soane,
which was there hidden by the rugged heights we had crossed, on which
the greater part of our camp might be seen still straggling
onwards;—east, and close above us, the bold spur of Mungeesa shot up,
terminating a continuous stretch of red precipices, clothed with forest
along their bases, and over their horizontal tops.
From Sulkun the view of the famed fort and palace of Beejaghur is very
singular, planted on the summit of an isolated hill of sandstone, about
ten miles off. A large tree by the palace marks its site; for, at this
distance, the buildings are themselves undistinguishable.
There are many tigers on these hills; and as one was close by, and had
killed several cattle, Mr. Felle kindly offered us a chance of slaying
him. Bullocks are tethered out, over-night, in the places likely to be
visited by the brute; he kills one of them, and is from the spot
tracked to his haunt by natives, who visit the stations early in the
morning, and report the whereabouts of his lair. The sportsman then
goes to the attack mounted on an elephant, or having a _roost_ fixed in
a tree, on the trail of the tiger, and he employs some hundred natives
to drive the animal past the lurking-place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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