Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: 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 — Volume 1: 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
assigned to him by the Nepalese Government: he sent the usual present
of a kid, fowls, and eggs, and begged me to express to Dr. Campbell
his desire to return to his native country, and settle at Dorjiling.
The scenery of this valley is the most beautiful I know of in the
lower Himalaya, and the Cheer Pine (_P. longifolia_) is abundant,
cresting the hills; which are loosely clothed with clumps of oaks and
other trees, bamboos, and bracken (_Pteris_). The slopes are covered
with red clay, and separate little ravines luxuriantly clothed with
tropical vegetation, amongst which flow pebbly streams of transparent
cool water. The villages, which are merely scattered collections of
huts, are surrounded with fields of rice, buckwheat, and Indian corn,
which latter the natives were now storing in little granaries,
mounted on four posts, men, women, and children being all equally
busy. The quantity of gigantic nettles (_Urtica heterophylla_) on the
skirts of these maize fields is quite wonderful: their long white
stings look most formidable, but though they sting virulently, the
pain only lasts half an hour or so. These, however, with leeches,
mosquitos, peepsas, and ticks, sometimes keep the traveller in a
constant state of irritation.
However civilised the Hindoo may be in comparison with the Lepcha, he
presents a far less attractive picture to the casual observer; he
comes to your camping-ground, sits down, and stares with all his
might, but offers no assistance; if he bring a present at all, he
expects a return on the spot, and goes on begging till satisfied.
I was amused by the cool way in which my Ghorka guard treated the
village lads, when they wanted help in my service, taking them by the
shoulder, pulling out their knives for them, placing them in their
bands, and setting them to cut down a tree, or to chop firewood,
which they seldom refused to do, when a little such douce violence
was applied.
My object being to reach the Tambur, north of the great east and west
mountain ridge of Sakkiazung, without crossing the innumerable
feeders of the Myong and their dividing spurs, we ascended the north
flank of the valley to a long spur from Tonglo, intending to follow
winding ridges of that mountain to the sources of the Pemmi at the
Phulloot mountains, and thence descend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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