The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-18 00:00:00

MARCH 18, 1854. Yituaturt. Himalayan Journals; or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Irhasia Mountains, de. By Joseph Dal ton Hooker. London: Murray. Da. Hot:mica's work, though not exclusively devoted to science, is such as might be ex pected from a traveller professedly scientific. He deals rather with nature than with men, and, in treating of natural objects, analyses more than he describes. He has observed and recorded minutely; but his observations are for the most part confined to detail, and consequently fail to leave behind a sufficiently definite impression of the general features of what he saw. We have the elevations of mountain passes carefully taken ; the various trees that compose the forests enumerated ; the geological strata of the soil examined ; the volume and temperature of rivers ascertained ; the country mapped, and its geography more skilfully laid down than it had been by any preceding explorer. This is much for oue man to accomplish with limited means and within the space of three years. If done with accuracy (and we have no reason to infer the contrary), it entitles Dr. Hooker to the thanks and respect of all who take interest in science. Universal excellence was not to be expected; nor can we complain that he who measures mountains and maps deserts does not paint one or the other in colours as vivid as those of Sir F. Head or Mr. Stephens. Moreover, though Dr. Hooker's book be on the whole more instructive than interesting, it is not deficient in the latter quality. From the faults of affectation, dwelling on trifles, exaggeration of personal incidents, and egotism generally, it is entirely free ; and there is a charm in the simplest details of a journey over country wholly unexplored, among tribes more than half barbarous, and within sight of the loftiest and least known mountain chain on the globe. In most men, however sedentary their habits, there is a latent Arab propensity—a love of nature in her wildest aspects—a sympathy with adventure as such—which is roused by a narrative like this, until, as we sit in our arm chairs, we envy the traveller, forgetting (as he, too, after lapse of time, forgets them) the innumerable hardships and annoyances which at every stage beset his path. And herein lies the charm of many records of travel which otherwise have little to recommend them. The scene of Dr. Hooker's journey was the eastern, or Nepaulese, section of the Himalaya —a tract of country of which it is not credit able to England that, after so many years' occupation of Bengal, we know very little. To the westward scarcely anything remains to discover, even from the frontiers of the Punjab to Transoxiana and the Caspian Sea. Burnes, Abbott, Moorcroft, Vigne, and many more, variously though unequally distinguished, have opened to us the rugged defiles of Afghanistan, Kashmire, Balk, Bokhara, Kliiva, and Tibet. Even the mysterious, half-fabu lous Chinese city, deep in the heart of the Tartarian steppe Yarkand, the Timbnctoo of Asiatic discovery, nay, more inaccessible still, for until now no European foot has trodden its streets, will before long open its gates to British adventure. Perhaps this rapid exten sion of our geographical knowledge in one quarter has drawn oft' the attention of the learned from Bhooto.n, Eastern Tibet, and Nepaul. Though from Calcutta to Katmanda is a ten days easy journey—though the British province of Assam stretches far north ward along the Brithinapootra river, and seems to turn the flank of the Bhootanese dominions —yet scarcely an effort has been made to penetrate that terra incognita—the Indo-Chinese countries bordering on the Himalaya. No portion of the earth's surface is more interest ing. Here arc found mountains nearly doubling the height of Mont Bla nc, reaching to a per pendicular altitude of five miles and a half, and visible at the distance of seventy measured leagues. Beyond them lies the vast plateau of Central Asia, peopled by pastoral race's living under laws peculiar to themselves, and pre serving a religion the m ost ancient (e xcep t the Jewish) which exist s amon g men. These THE PRESS. races, themselves unconquered, have estab lished their dominion from the Malaysian Islands to the borders of Siberia, and founded an empire which the present generation may perhaps see overthrown. This religion, in its popular form degraded, but pure and oven philosophical in its origin, is still professed in Ceylon, in Java, over the whole of China, in the Asiatic Archipelago, in Burmah, in Siam, and over great part of Southern India. It has outlived the Mahometan assault of Timur ; it has resisted the pacific persuasions of Christian missionaries. Its most devoted fol lowers —as, from the absence of external coin munication, might be expected—are found among the shepherds of the Tibetian and Tartarian plains. To this sealed continent we want to discover a road easier and shorter than that which would lead us eastward from Ladak ; and the road we want lies through the scene of Dr. Hooker's labours. Hence their geographical importance. He is one of the first English pioneers in this quarter. May others follow, and resemble him in energy and success. The expedition which these volumes record commenced at Calcutta in January, '4B, and ended in the spring of '5l, embracing a period of rather more than three years. The travel ler's first visit was to Benares ; thence to Dor jiling ; next westward along the eastern bor ders of Nepaul, an excursion which lasted until January, '49 ; a short tour in the Terai, or low country at the foot of the hills, occupied the rest of the winter; in May a journey into Sikkim was attempted, which ended in the detention and imprisonment of the party ; in the course of the next winter ('49-50) they' were released by the interposition of the Bri tish Government ; and the last, or third, year was taken up by a visit to Assam and Ultra Gangetic India. Dr. Hooker, iu the course of these wanderings, repeatedly ascended passes ranging from 17,000 to 19,000 feet; and when there fouud himself still nearly two miles below the level of the highest peaks ! We have said that Dr. Hooker's style is usually more accurate than graphic : he does not describe, but defines. The following pas sage, however, contains an alpine picture which it requires little imagination to realise in all its native dreariness. He is speaking of the village of Yangma, in Eastern Nepaul, lying many days' journey in the mountains, and at a height about equal to that of Monte Rosa or the Jungfrau in Switzerland : Near our camp (of which the elevation was 13,500 feet), radishes, barley, wheat, potatoes, and turnips, were cultivated as summer crops, and we even saw some on the top of the terrace, 41X) feet above our camp, or nearly 14,00 k) feet above the sea; these were grown in small fields cleared of stones, and protected by dykes. The scenery, though dismal (no juniper even attaining this elevation), was full of interest and grandeur, from the number and variety of snowy peaks and glaciers all around the elevated horizon, the ancient lake-beds, now green or brown with scanty vegetation, the vast moraines, the ridges of glacial debris, the flat terraces, marking, as it were with parallel roads, the bluff sides of the mountains. the enormous boulders perched upon them, and strewed everywhere around, the little Boodhist monuments of quaint, picturesque shapes, decorated with poles and banners, the many-coloured dresses of the people, the brilliant blue of the cloudless heaven by day, the depth of its blackness by night, heightened by the light of the stars, that blaze and twinkle with a lustre unknown in less lofty regions ; all these were subjects for contemplation, rendered more impressive by the stillness of the atmosphere and the silence that reigned around. The village seemed buried in repose throughout the day : the inhabitants had already hybernated, their crops were stored, the curd made and dried, the passes closed, the soil frozen, the winter's stock of fuel housed, and the people had retired into the caverns of their half-subterranean houses, to sleep, spin wool, and think of Boodh, if of anything at all, the dead, long winter through. The yaks alone can find anything to do : PO long as any vegetation remains they roam and eat it, still yielding milk, which the women take morning end evening, when their shrill whistle and cries are heard for a few minutes, as they call the grunting animals. No other sounds, save the harsh roar and hollow echo of the falling rock, glacier, or snow-bed, disturbed the perfect silence of the day or night. Between Sikkim and Tibet the passes are terrific ; yet a considerable trade (if the re sources of the countries be taken into account) is carried on along them. The breadth of the snowy range, in direct distance, is only 50 miles ; but to accomplish the transit four ridges must be crossed, all exceeding 15,000 feet. The utmost practicable speed would re duce the journey to ten long days' march; and for men carrying loads the expedition lasts on 255 an average not less than a month! When it is remembered that the entire circuit of Mont Blanc does not occupy a week (Dr. Hooker gays four days), a fair comparison may be in stituted between the European and Asiatic alps. Among minor obstacles to travelling in these regions is the scarcity and insecurity of bridges. Take this sample. Our author is crossing the Tak-toong, iu Sikkim, which rushes down at an angle of 15 deg., in a sheet of silvery foam, eighteen yards broad. It does not, where I crossed it, flow in a deep pulley, having apparently raised its bed by an accumulation of enormous boulders; and a plank bridge was thrown across it, against whose slippery and narrow footbaards the water dashed, loosening the supports on either bank, and rushing between their founda tion-stones. _ My unwilling guide bud gone ahead with some of the coolies: I had suspected him all along (]kris unjustly) of avoiding the most practicable routes ; but when 1 found him waiting for me at this bridge, to which he stucastically pointed with his bow, I felt that had he known of it, to have made difficulties before would have been a work of supererogation. He seemed tothink I should certainly turn back, and assured me there was no other crossing (a statement I afterwards found to be untrue) ; so, comforting myself with the hope that if the danger were imminent Meepo would forcibly stop me, I took allay shoes, and walked steadily over : the tremor of the planks was like that felt when standing on the paddle•box of a steamer, and I was jerked up and down, as my weight pressed them into the boiling flood, which shrouded we with spray. I looked neither to the right nor to the left, lest the motion of the swift waters should turn my head, but kept my eye on the white jets d'eau springing up between the wood work, and felt thankful when fairly on the opposite bank: my loaded coolies followed, crossing one by one without fear or hesitation. The bridge was swept into the Lachen very shortly afterwards. - - The climax of peril and difficulty was reached in the ascent of the Donkia pass (18,500), which gives entrance to Tibet from the south. No verbal description can do jus tice to the sublime barrenness of this extraor dinary spot, which is admirably represented in a lithographed view : Before leaving, I took one more long look at the bound less prospect; and, now that its important details were secured, I had leisure to reflect on the impression it pro duced. There is no loftier country on the globe than that embraced by this view, and no more howling wilderness • well might the t'ingtam Soubah and every Tibetan describe it as the loftiest, coldest, windiest, and most barren country in the world. Were it buried in everlasting snows, or burnt by a tropical sun, it might still be as utterly sterile ; but with such sterility I bad lung been familiar. Here the colourings are those of the fiery desert or volcanic island, while the climate is that of the poles Never, in the course of all my wanderings, had my eye rested on a scene to dreary and inhospitable. The ' cities of the plain " lie stink in no more deathlike sea than Cholamoo lake, nor are the tombs of l'etra hewn in more desolate cliffs than those which think the valley of the Tibetan Arun. From hence Kinchinjunga (28,000) was clearly seen ; and an unknown range far to the northward, of greater apparent height. As far as could be judged, the country in that direction is rocky, salt, and uninhabitable by man or beast. According to the native ac count, there are two passes of greater altitude than Donkia which must be crossed to reach it. Headache and nausea are felt at these heights, but none of the severer symptoms sometimes described by travellers, such as bleeding at the nose, ears, and eyes, which Dr. Hooker evidently regards as imaginary. Dorjiling, our author's headquarters in most of his journeys, is likely to become a place of importance. As a sanitarium its value is very great to the parboiled inhabitants of Calcutta, and it is more accessible than Mussoorio or Simla:— The statistical tables afford conclusive proofs of the value of the climate to Europeans sufferiog from acute diseases, and they are corroborated by the returns of the medical officer in charge of the station. With respect to its suitability to the European constitution I feel satisfied, and that much saving of life, health, and money would be effected were European troops drafted thither on their arrival in Bengal, instead of being stationed in Calcutta, exposed to disease, and temptation to those vices which prove fetal to so many hundreds. This, I have been given to understand, was the view originally taken by the Court of Directors, but it has never been carried out. I believe that children's faces afford as good an index as any to the healthfulness of a climate, and in no part of the world is there a more active, rosy, and bright young community than at Doijiling. It is incredible what a few weeks of that mountain air does for the India-horn children of European parents: they are taken there sickly, pallid or yellow, soft and flabby, to become transformed into models of rude health and activity. • • • • • The following summary of hospital admissions affords the best test of the healthiness of the climate, embracing, as the period does. the three moat fatal months to Euro pean troops in India. Out of a detachment (105 strong) of H. 24.80 th Regiment stationed at Dorjiling, in the seven .46