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

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On leaving Saharunpore, on our march to the valley of the Dhoon, our road conducted us through the Keeree Pass; and this lovely portal to a new country gave delightful promise of the scenery beyond. The distant view which we had caught of the true Himalaya, the birth-place and abode of the gods of Hindostan, was lost, and the scene became one of the softest beauty imaginable, the devious valley winding through rocky eminences, and richly clothed with stately trees. At every step of our progress, the landscape changed its features, and, though the character remained the same, presented so great a variety of forms, of crag and precipice, wild rock, deep forest, and smiling valley, that we paused continually in delightful amazement—now recognising, with that joy which the exile alone can feel, in suddenly encountering some well-known object, points of resemblance between our northern homes—and now struck with wonder by some splendid production of an Indian soil. Here, in all its native luxuriance, may be seen the giant creeper, which, with justice, is denominated the monarch of its tribe—the scandent bauhinia. This enormous parasite winds its snake-like stem, which attains the size, and somewhat resembles the body of the boa-constrictor, round the trunk of the forest-trees, either mingling its flowers with their foliage, or flinging them from the festoons which it forms from branch to branch as it travels along. The rich scent of these superb blossoms, together with that of the baubool, filling the air with perfume, and gratifying at once the sight and smell.