The Coolidge examiner., 1932-07-15

faces its lake, bears a tablet desig-
mating the vicinity of the famous
Calcutta Black Hole episode.
The Madam, Calcutta's Mall"
with its race track, cricket fields
and gardens, is the rendezvous for
sport lovers and promenaders. In
the evening the who's who" Of
Calcutta are there. Colorful Indian
rajahs with their servants In ma
tive costume, wealthy natives and
government officials, both British
and Indian, rub elbows on the walks
or swiftly pass In their foreign cars
with chauffeurs whose costumes and
uniforms represent myriad styles
and colors Of the East and West.
Fort William occupies much of
the river side of the Madam. Near
by are the Eden gardens. In the
southeast corner Queen Victoria has
been memorialized by a magnificent
building in Italian Renaissance. Its
central dome of pure white marble
came from the same quarries from
which the marble for the Tai Mahal
was hewn. The white marble pal
ace of the governor of Bengal, over
looking the Maidan from the north,
was the residence of the Viceroy be-
fore the capital was removed TO
Delhi in 1912. This and the pala-
tial residences, clubs and public
buildings along the Maidan's east
ern side. gave TO Calcutta the name
'The City Of Palaces"
Darjeeling, nesting among the
foothills of the Himalayas, Is Ben
gals summer resort. Like Simla,
700 miles farther west, and Srina-
gar in Kashmir, Darjeeling is a god
send TO perspiring Europeans who
must spend the hot period In India.
But II is more than a cool retreat:
il is a matchless observation post,
when the clouds permit, for the
mightiest mountain scenery that the
world affords. Forty-five miles to
the northward, across deep chasms
and beyond tier after tier of foot
hills, rises Kinchinjunga, 2S,156
feet high, buttressed by half
dozen peaks from 10000 to $4,000
feet in altitude.
Perched on a Ridge.
Darjeeling stands on a sort Of
stage before and above which sweep
the amphitheater slopes of Hima-
layan heights. The town is perched
on and astride a steep ridge that
rises about 1000 feet from the Ben
gal plains. On the side toward the
mountains the ridge drops away for
approximately 6,OO0 feet, forming
what might, in American termin-
ology, be called "the Grand Canyon
of the Ranjit"; but whose heavily
forested slopes and tropically luxu-
riant floor earns in India the more
poetic name of "Vale of Ranjit."
Darjeeling has characteristics un-
like those of most towns. It can
hardly be said to have streets. Most
of the buildings face on paths or
walks which run along the main
ridge and out on to it's minor spurs,
or work their way by serpentine
routes to other paths that cling to
the steep sides of the slopes. Steps,
too, serve in place of roads, connect
ing terraces that rise one above the
other. One of the few carriage
roads is a driveway that skirts the
lower end Of the main ridge and
leads below to the suburb Lebong
and its barracks for British soldiers.
The villas, bungalows, shops,
government buildings, hospitals,
churches, schools, barracks and ma
tive huts that make up Darjeeling
and its suburb form pendant COM
munities, like giant saddle-bags
thrown over the ridge. Dwellings
are scattered down the slopes for a
thousand feet, the ground floors of
one tier on a level with the roofs
of the next tier below.
The center Of Darjeeling is OBJ
servatory Hill, knoll on the crest
of the ridge. Topping the knoll is
Buddhist monument and surround
ing it is small forest of stats
from which prayer flags fiutter their
supplications. From the benches
near the monument one may sit,
when mist and clouds do not inter
fere, and take advantage of OAR
feelings best view of mighty Kin
chinjunga and its fellows. But often
the vigil is fruitless. 1t is only
for relatively brief periods during
the spring and early winter that one
may be sure of long, uninterrupted
views of the towering granite and
ice walls and snowy slopes to the