Читать книгу Views in India, chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains онлайн

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The northern part of the district of Saharunpore lies within the influence of the hills, and rain occasionally falls throughout the year along the Sewalik range, at the distance of a few miles; but notwithstanding that it is traversed by streams which take their rise from springs in these hills, it suffers from want of water; and there is every reason to believe that Artesian wells might be formed with great success, and much advantage to the district.

The city of Saharunpore is of very ancient date, but possesses few or no remains of interest: a fortress strengthened for the purpose of resisting the incursions of the Ghoorkas, and a religious institution in the neighbourhood, being the only places worthy of a visit, with the exception of the botanical garden, which forms, indeed, its principal attraction. Though not so great a pet of the government as the Calcutta establishment, the garden at Saharunpore is kept in excellent order, the most being made of the comparatively small sum allowed for its maintenance. Common report states, that this useful and ornamental work owes its existence to the family of Zahita Khan, a former chief; but it must have undergone great changes since its early formation, being laid out in serpentine walks, which, with their flower-borders, and shrubs of foreign growth, render it truly English in its aspect. Divested of the formality which characterises native plantations, the garden at Saharunpore may be said to combine all the advantages of a highly embellished pleasure-ground with the interest of the nursery, and on this account to excel many of the most celebrated specimens of landscape-gardening at home. There are rides and drives through this beautiful enclosure, which, being secluded, and free from ​dust, become the favourite places of rendezvous for the European residents of the station. Amongst the splendid creepers, denizens of a tropic clime, arising in verdant pomp, there is a more humble stranger, the ivy, which grows with the utmost luxuriance, and by its association with home scenes, the ancient village church, and old baronial hall, awakens a thousand tender recollections in the breast of the traveller: here, too, is to be found the violet, betraying itself by its delicious odour, and bringing with it thrilling remembrances of our loved and distant native land. Amid a large collection of hill trees and shrubs, which shew the possibility of inuring the hardy denizens of the north to the heat of the Indian plains, there are splendid specimens of the flora of Hindostan. The plants are generally cultivated in the first instance at Mussooree, a station in the hills, and the experiments made at Saharunpore have been confirmed at Bareilly, where a fir-tree may be seen thirty feet in height, together with the walnut, cherry, barberry, hawthorn, and apricot, which grow without much care being taken in their cultivation. Bareilly, however, seems to possess a soil peculiarly favourable to foreign products: it is celebrated for the excellence and abundance of its strawberries, a fruit which, though growing freely in some parts of India, cannot always be cultivated with success.