, 1888-03-30
INDA's SUMMER RESORT.
HiGhest Railroad Station In the Old
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

Highest Railroad Station In the Old
Observation-Disclosures.
At 4 o'clock we had reached an eleva-
ton of over 7,400 feet, the highest rail
road station in the Old World. A rapid
descent of 500 feet brought us to Oar
jceling, three miles further on. This is
a very picturesque town, with pretty
houses, all in gardens, scattered along
the steep side of a sort of amphitheatre,
looking down over n deep valley and
over slopes of tea gardens. Over the
valley in front of the town rears a sue
cession of mountains, 5000, 10, 900 and
$1,000 feet high, with magnificent sky
lines, and further over and beyond them,
forty-tive miles away, lifts mighty Kun
chinjinEa, %, 1876 feet high, and, next to
Everest, the loftiest peak on the globe.
DarJeeling is a summer resort for the
Europeans of the plain, the summer home
of the lieutenant governor of India and
governor Of Bengal, and a sanitarium for
- T.. troops. On the top of the
above it 1000 feet, is a barrack
and hospital. In the town is a bazaar, in
which on Sunday we saw a most inter
esting mass of 5000 or 9, 200 people from
Nepaul, Sikkim, Bhootan, Thibet and
Darjeeling proper. IL was one of the
regular set of fairs for trading, and was
food for several days study. Unfortu-
nlNrly, however, we saw it only on its
last day, but also its best. Trade was
going on in sheep, goats and ponies from
Bhootan and n few from Thibet. People
were there from Sikkim with maize,
peas, oranges and grain; people from Ne
paul with knives and produce of several
sorts.
The stocks were small, frequently only
so much as the dealer had brought on
his back over the mountain passes. One
had two or three bushels of Indian corn,
u poor article. Another n like quantity
of beans or millet. Here was a woman
who had travelled for two or three DAYS
with two bushels of oranges hanging
from her forehead. She had climbed a
pass 5000 feet high and slept in the cold
open air on the bare ground. She was
happy when she sold her stock out at
retail and received three rupees, or $1.05.
There was a man who had journeyed in
the same way from just under Mount
Everest, n five or six days journey. His
stock was four Roman nosed sheep and a
half dozen Nepaulese knives. The sheep,
which had been the pack horses for his
knives and ~provender, are worth three
RUPEES each and the knives one. The
dealers were generally squatted on the
ground, with their little stores in baskets
or N mats before them. Their worldly
wealth was small, but yet they had a
contented look.
1t made me-, on arrival, almost blush
to permit a good looking, soft eyed girl
to take my sachels from the station to the
hotel. One of these makes my arm ache
to carry it 100 or so yards, yet this little
girl swung two from her forehead,
climbed himbly the high hill to the hotel,
a few hundred yards off, and was per-
fectly satisfied when 1 gave her two an
nas-or less than five cents. There are
many fine rides in the neighborhood of
DarJeeling-one through a dense forest
on n steep mountain side gave us q fine
insight INTO the growth of these ATTITUDES.
So close and dense are they the sun never
pe%netrates to the ground, and that a stick
of wood never dries. The rainfall there
is about 1875 inches a year; the soil is as
rich as loan can be made, and the forest
vegetation is astonishing. l regret that
l have not time to describe it to you.
We, however, had come to see mighty
snow clad mountains, not to revel ia
vegetation nor to delight in forest clothed
valleys and vine covered slopes.
We reached Darjeeling exactly twenty.
four hours after leaving Calcutta. The
gray and green mountains around were
visible, but thick clouds shrouded the
snow clad frozen heights. Our landlord
said it was rapidly turning colder, and
the morrow would be bright. We went
to bed to hope and dream. 1 was
awakened just before 8 by the mournful
bowling and queer chattering barkings of
jackals close to my window. 1t seemed
to me there was a pack, but l nave an
indistinct recollection that where two or
three of these brutes are gathered to-
gether much noise is there with them. l
went to the front of the house, and be-
fore me rose the viceroy of mountains
mighty Kunchinjinga. His glaciered
peak caught the pale rays of the declin-
ing morn and sent them back as if from
a rugged mass OF cold, FURNISHED silver.
Grand and gloomy, he pierced the sky, a
sceptered monarch. To his right and to
his left stood his royal aids, each succeed
ing one n little lower than the last. For
half a hundred miles these royal attend
ants stood in grand array, each a king
and crowned in silvered diadems. l
could scarcely tear myself away, but
looking to the north L saw a clear sky
over the lofty foot hills, and had reason
to think the monarch of all was I'M
clouded. Garter Harrison in Chicago
Mail.