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

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The elevation of these low hills, composing, as it were, the outworks of the Himalaya, varies from five to nine hundred feet above the plains, and about two thousand five hundred above the level of the sea. Geologists describe them as being composed chiefly of sandstone of different degrees of destructibility, of indurated clay, and beds of rounded pebbles and gravel, circumstances which characterise them throughout the range, from Hurdwar to its termination. The thick forest and brushwood are full of peacocks, and, amid game of less importance, the tiger is to be found, while hares, and the black and gray partridge, literally swarm in the neighbourhood. There are two halting-places in the Keeree Pass, one the Mohun Chokee, at the entrance, and the Shoupore Chokee within the pass, which extends to a length of upwards of six miles. Our party consisted of several persons, and we had with us a numerous cortege, comprising horses, elephants, and bullocks, for the conveyance of the baggage; our encampment, therefore, was extensive and picturesque, and rendered animated by groups of our people assembled ​round their fires, the horses and elephants picketed under the trees, with the bullocks reposing on the ground. In looking out on this scene, we all experienced an exhilaration of spirits which the cool and bracing air, and the anticipation of pleasures still to come, were so well calculated to produce. It is not, however, at all times and seasons that travellers journeying through these low passes, of which there are several, to the Valley of the Dhoon, can rejoice in the climate; for at some periods of the year, few can encounter the malaria, which comes laden with jungle fever, with impunity. Vegetation, in the thickly-wooded regions which form the outer belt of the Himalaya, riots in the strength given to it by the extensive swampy places which intersect the forests, and the exceeding heat of the solar rays. Nurtured in this hot and damp atmosphere, the coarser weeds and grasses exhale a rank steam, which impregnates the whole air, warning the traveller to pass onward without delay, and to guard by every means in his power against the attacks of the insidious enemy. Unfortunately, it is at the most deleterious season of the year that the sportsman, in India, is tempted, by the abundance of the nobler kinds of game, to try his fortune in these pestiferous jungles. The ardour and excitement of the pursuit, the active employment of the mind, for ever upon the alert to make the most of some favourable circumstance, and the unyielding spirit which defies all hazards, and seems to delight in danger, certainly in many instances prove great preservatives. An old sportsman, one who has survived his early training, enduring, without the natural consequences of fever and ague, long field-days against the tiger in the hottest weather, may set all the physical ills which flesh is heir to at defiance; but there are many who break up in this dangerous attempt, some speedily finding a grave, while others return home with impaired health or ruined constitutions. Three young officers returning from a tour of pleasure in the hills, and incautiously exposing themselves to the malaria of the forests, which skirt their bases, were struck down with fever, and, though living to reach a spot where medical aid could be obtained, speedily fell victims to their temerity.