Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-03-30

with Not 8 Mile of Straight Track.
DARJEEL1NG, INDIA,
Feb Is, 1900
Completing a very uncomfortable sojourn
in Calcutta by visiting the blood stained
altar of Kali, whom, as the wife OF the
God silva, the natives worship and make
hundreds of sacrifices daily before her
altar. paving a few pennies for the privi-
Iege of bringing a young kid to be behead-
ed as fitting atonement for their trans
gressions, engaged one of those lnimlta-
BILE Indian railway compartments for OAR
feeling.
Day travelling is not exactly uncomfort-
able except that the heat is most often
unmerciful in its persstency and on tins
particular run of about 70 miles TO the
banks of the Ganges river it was hardly
representative rairoading In a tropical
land.
Crossing the sacred waters of the Ganges
river in the evening on an opened-deck
steamer, where we had dinner, we tied up
to a floating wharf after steaming over
circuitous course of about three miles
necessitated by the numerous sand bars
and temporary islands. Here we climbed
the dusty banks of the river in company
(onlv in appearance) with about 200 native
night. In the native cars, as is customary
men and women grew hoarse expressing
their rights and seemed to think their abil-
itv to get immense bundles of luggage
through the door secured them the undis-
putable privilege to occupy two seats, or
some, barred from entering, owing to the
tangled mass of humanity, bedding and
portable cooking utensils, insisted upon
locating themselves within as their hus-
bands or wives were in the shuttle and
separation was not to be quietly argued
But in the first class compartments,
where the seating capacity is limited to
four persons, and where reservation OF
whole compartment can be secured on "a
hours notice, nothing but the luggage nee
essary for the night is wisely allowed to
further cramp the unwasted area OF floor
room, Two long leather seats on either
side of the compartment, and two similar
drop shelves over these and the windows
furnish the car and an oil light inserted
through the roof at sunset can be dimmed
by drawing a black cloth over the project
ing glass to stimulate sleep.
To travel in India without a complete
outfit of blankets and pillow is to say you
can comfortably sleep on the floor and en-
Joy rest in collar, for the seats are en-
phatcally unimpressionable and IT you're
ignorant of the custom you're as apt to
find your companion for the night as limit
ed in his superfiuous supply of bedding as
you are to endure wretched night in
draught. But this run from the Gauges
to Suragii, where you arrive at about seven
in the morning, is a veritable climatic sur
prise. It's a transition you're not uucon-
scious of and in IL hours you have left the
IF
gers from sunstroke to find overcoats and
superimposed blankets quite urgatory pro-
tections.
Forgetting with ease the inertia cultivat-
ed few hours previous in the sizzling city
of Calcutta, spirited activity and an in
ternal application of station boiled coffee
and overlooked questionable fresh eggs,
with a few acceptable additions from the
orchard give the body relief sufficient to
make the tortures of the night vivid in
memory. With just time enough to ques-
ton your power of endurance and allow
you to speculate on the advantages of
freezing to death and undergo plague of
inspection, we boarded our a by open OBJ
servation car with four chairs, seemingly
bound for theArctics and surely refrigerat-
ing hearse which in appearance greatly ag-
gravated my already benumbed physique.
This little train of 10 cars drawn by a
powerful engine on a two-foot gauge start
ed on its daily run at s A. NJ. aud by $40
we began to ascend the southern slopes OF
the Himalaya mountains, than which the
world has no grander, and from among
them Mount Everett raises its snowy head
29,002 feet above the sea. Through the
widest of vine-tangled jungles and few
varieties of immense tropical growths this
in re
ascent Rugged the rocky slopes and we
whirled around the sharpest of turns at
the rate of about 10 miles an hour.
Wonderful as was the power of those
little locomotives to dash up grades and
around the acutest corners with such a
loaded train, the remarkable engineering
is not only treat in itself, but also unpar-
alleled in its uniqueness
In the 80 miles of track there is probably
not more than a mile of straight rail and
where some inconv enient grades are over
come by making double VS., requiring q
reversal of the engine, other oppositions in
nature are conquered by making complete
double circles within space of 100 feet.
Along the entire route are little populated
quarters where families of mountaineers
make their temporary huts and find ready
employment as railway employees. Those
near the base of the mountains have typi-
cal Indian features, but further up in the
higher attitudes inteTmarriage and assimi
lation gives them a marked resemblance t.
the distant type found in Darjeeling, the
Iibetans. In appearance these people
who hold the plateau of Tibet just over the
other side of the mountains, are quite like
the Northern Cinnamon and surely foster
most of the habits of the more eastern
celestials in wearing the queue, leggeneC
history and religion is distinct enough tC
allow of only the remotest relationship
which was possibly an ancient migration
of the Cinnamon westward.
But to continue up the steep overgrowr
sides of the younger range, the vegetation
becomes gradually changed Entering the
regions of frequent mists, where clouds
find rest in the night, the rich growths are
completely covered and festooned witt
long swinging tassels of moss and few
trees common only in the temperate zones
begin to appear. In fact, you are so intent
watching the never ending surprises il
the scenic panorama constantly spread ou
before you that you are soon in the realm
of the pine and where few hours ago
wealth of Towering trees lined the track
now a stunted forest or vast stretches
of open grass-fields suggested the increas
ed elevation.
1t was most always the case that when
ever the top of one Of those naked peak
was not shaded by some loftier neighbol
there was a great tea plantation of hun
dreds of acres covering it and these tel