Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-18
IN TIE HIaALAYAs.

The shadows of the clouds chase each other
over the seas of evergreen oaks. the glddy
chasms. the stealthy glaciers, the everlast-
ing SHOWS.
The chief popularity of Darjeeling, the
place from which | write, is that its depths
are almost as impressive az its nights. The
town of white bungalows is built on the
crest OF wooded ridge, some three miles
long and surrounded on the east, north
and south by gigantic ravines. As l look
downward, the stupendous slopes, covered
with tea plantations, pastures and forests,
descend, in three directions, some 5000
| feet in eleven miles. From the lowest point
the eye can reach in the valley of the Run
jeet river, below me, to the crest of Kin
chiniunga, the distance IL vertical line, Is
not less than five miles.
This scenery is probably unmatched on
the earth, though not on the moon, in which
the telescope mountains, thirteen miles
high and rolled above our heads daily, are
strangely unappreciated, aud yet are not to
be forgotten face to face with Everest and
Kinchinjunga.
The Himalayas dazzle the Swiss Alps
not into nothingness, nor out of sight, nor
into tameness but into rank of incoa-
LeetaDle lnIeFlOrltys
Tie Alps, however, have more variety
and beauty although less sublimity and
grandeur, than the Himalayas. In the out
looks from Darjeeling, while the majesties
are unapproachable by those of any other
known terrestrial view, one misses keenly
the lakes which give such charm to the
prospect from the Rhlgi, the near glaciers
and avalanches of Cnamonix and the half
mile waterfalls, the gigantic trees and the
astounding precipices of the Yosemite val
ley.
Mount Blanc is only Is $40 fest high,
while the Kinchinjunga is %, 900 and Ev.
crest %, 600. Kinchinjunga, forty miles
distant from Darjeeling, appears to be- as
it is, more than twice as high as Mont
Blanc, as seen from Geneva. Mount Blanc,
as viewed from Chamonix, is seen from a
high mountain valley but Kinchinjuugs,
as viewed from the RuDjeet, lifts itself
more than $4,000 feet above the level of
| the observer, INTO the clouds. As seen
from Senchal, six miles from Darjeeling,
Mount Everest, although it is the highest
known summit in the world, is less i'm.
pressive from Kinchinjunga, for it is $50
miles away but it's majesty, even in the
distant view, exceeds that of Monte Rosa
and Mont Blanc, as seen from the towers
of the Cathedral of Milan.
&" climbed the roofs at break of day,
sun-smtten Alps before me lay,
stood among the sileat statues
And statued pinnaeles mute a. they.
How family flushed, how phantom fair,
Was Monte Rosa, hanging there,
thousand sbadowY penciled valleys
| And snowy dels in golden air"
[Tennyson, "The Daisy"
Everest is properly described by no one
word except its native name, Deodhunga-
God hight.
Darieeling lies only some 400 miles north
| of Calcutta and has little snow but its
weather is often icy on days when the
| tropical Hooghly is enswRthed in steam
ing vapor- bath. 1t is reached by a half
days railway journey, across flat, palm.
clad, deltaic Bengal, to the Ganges a
ferry over thai broad, yellow stream,
which greatly resembles the Missouri in
the turbidness and waywsrdness of its cur
rents, and especially in the blown sand of
the flats in the bare portions of its bed at
low water; nights journey by narrow
gacge railway to Siligori, on the outer
edge of the marshes at the foot of the hills,
and then days travel by steam tramway
across the famous jungles in these marshes
and along the grsnd ascent through Teen
daria and Kurseong.
In moving up the slopes of the Himalsyas
from the Ganges plain to Darjeeling, the
fascinated traveller has an opportunity to
study the vigorous tropical vegetation at
the base of the hills the gradual change
of this into the oak forests of the middle
nights the tree ferns succeeding the palms
and the bamboos the moses festooning
both the rocks and the trees the trailing
plants choking many of the Kings of the
forest the trickling rills In the cool ra-
vines the dashing mountain brooks with
their crystal pools the far, grand outlook
over the gray, dusty plains the cleaning,
tawny rivers on their way through the
parched lowlands the numberless curves
of the iron road the audacious grades up
which the engine climbs, like thing of
life; the occasional villages of bamboo
huts the sturdy Nepalese with their broad
knives in their girdles the savage Bhoo.
tans and Tnibetans, with many of the Mon
golsn traits in their features the tea
plantations with their capacious bungalows
for the masters and rows of huts for the
coolies the small, gray, patient oxen the
rather undersized but vigorous Himslayan
ponies the prayer hags above Buddhist
villages; the slight falla of snow ; and, at
last, the bursting into view of Kinchin-
! junga itself. aud its companion giants. At
from II 600 to 10000 feet above the sea
the southern slope of the Himalayss pro-
duces fir trees, dwarf rhododendrons, aro-
matte rhododendrons, juniper, holly, cur
rants, cherries, pears, liiacs, primroses and
| - 2 ~
| oak, chestnut, olives, figs, laurel, maple,
barberry, lily of the valley and white rose !;
at from S 900 to 1000 and lower, the mag.
nolis, peach, strawberry and most of the
flowers of Germany and England at from
| 6, 1000 to 4, 600 and lower, tree fern. plan
tains, walputs and birches at from 4 600 to
600, rice, barley, buckwheat, maize, yam,
oummin, mint and rue at from 1000 to
to the plains, figs, da.es, magnolias, lotus
trees, ginger, orchids, mangoes, twelve
kinds of bamboos, and many varieties of
palms. In spite, however, of the number
and interest of the objects in view, the APP
proach to Darjeeling does not equal that of
the Yosemite valley by the Msriposa or
the Calaveras grove Of the mammoth trees !;
nor that to Chamonix from Geneva by the
way of Vevay, the Rhone valley and the
Tetenoir pass.
The Buddhist temple of the town is, on
the whole, repulsive place architecture
ally ugly and morally without dignity.
We saw in it curious Buddhist library, of
perhaps $50 volumes /; dozen or SO of I'M
tidy monks and few savage. looking wor.
shippers. In the vestibule atood praying
machine consisting of cylinder, about six
feet high, placed upright, and filed with
something like a miles length of cloth,
covered with printed prayers This is
whirled by crank underneath it, and
every revolution is equivalent to the utter
ance of all the prayers within the cylinder.
A dozen or more smaller cylinders were in
| the same vestibule; and yet smaller ones
of which purchased a specimen, were in
motion in the hands of the priests as they
walked about the temple. Prayer flags, as
seen at Darjeeling, are strips of white cot
ton, about yard in breadth and from ten
to twenty feet long, acknowledgements to
poles and covered with printed prayers.
Every motion of the flag in the wind is of
the same devotional value as would be the
utterance of the prayers inscribed upon the
cloth.
The Himalayas are one abode OF snow
and the regions around the South Pole of
the earth are another, deserving this name
| by pre.eminence. 1t is affirmed on high
authority that nnsuihle accumulation of