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
kettle, and all manner of herbs collected during the day's march to
flavour his food.
My tent was made of a blanket thrown over the limb of a tree; to this
others were attached, and the whole was supported on a frame like a
house. One half was occupied by my bedstead, beneath which was stowed
my box of clothes, while my books and writing materials were placed
under the table. The barometer hung in the most out-of-the-way
corner, and my other instruments all around. A small candle was
burning in a glass shade, to keep the draught and insects from the
light, and I had the comfort of seeing the knife, fork, and spoon
laid on a white napkin, as I entered my snug little house, and flung
myself on the elastic couch to ruminate on the proceedings of the
day, and speculate on those of the morrow, while waiting for my meal,
which usually consisted of stewed meat and rice, with biscuits and
tea. My thermometers (wet and dry bulb, and minimum) hung under a
temporary canopy made of thickly plaited bamboo and leaves close to
the tent, and the cooking was performed by my servant under a tree.
After dinner my occupations were to ticket and put away the plants
collected during the day, write up journals, plot maps, and take
observations till 10 p.m. As soon as I was in bed, one of the Nepal
soldiers was accustomed to enter, spread his blanket on the ground,
and sleep there as my guard. In the morning the collectors were set
to change the plant-papers, while I explored the neighbourhood, and
having taken observations and breakfasted, we were ready to start at
10 a.m.
Following the same ridge, after a few miles of ascent over much
broken gneiss rock, the Ghorkas led me aside to the top of a knoll,
9,300 feet high, covered with stunted bushes, and commanding a
splendid view to the west, of the broad, low, well cultivated valley
of the Tambur, and the extensive town of Dunkotah on its banks, about
twenty-five miles off; the capital of this part of Nepal, and famous
for its manufactory of paper from the bark of the _Daphne._ Hence too
I gained a fine view of the plains of India, including the course of
the Cosi river, which, receiving the Arun and Tambur, debouches into
the Ganges opposite Colgongl (see Chapter IV).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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