George Francis White

“ From the summit of a neighbouring promontory we obtained one of those striking views which so much delight the lovers of the picturesque, but which, though they fill the bosom with strange and thrilling emotions, would be unfitted for canvass. The pure white pyramid of one of the highest of the snowy range, towering in bold relief to the clear heaven, which it seemed to touch, contrasted finely with the dark hills in front, yet with so abrupt a transition, that persons who never beheld so novel an effect, would fancy any attempt to portray it, to be some wild vagary on the part of the artist. ”

“ Every body who has visited the hills regrets the absence of those large bodies of water which alone are wanting to fill up the coup-d'œil. Illusion, however, often cheats the eye with the semblance of the element, the valleys being frequently covered with mist, which assumes the appearance of a sea, whence the higher land rises, till at length the snowy range starts up, and bounds the scene. The grandeur of these peaks, and their infinite variety, in the varying light and shade, would seem to leave nothing to wish for, did not the craving nature of man insist upon absolute perfection. ”

“ After our long sojourn under canvass, we found the houses at Mussooree, though neither so spacious nor so elegant as those at Simla, exceedingly convenient and agreeable. Upon cold evenings we particularly enjoyed a fire, the companion always so acceptable to an Englishman: it is true, we had managed to warm our tents, when fuel was plentiful, by means of wood embers, which were placed, while in a red heat, in large brass basins, and which diffused a genial glow throughout the apartment, but this contrivance lacked the blaze which the lover of the fire-side always delights to provoke. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Early in the morning, before a single sunbeam has illumined the dark deep twilight of the sky, they rise in solemn majesty, the icy outline being distinctly defined, while they stand out from the grey atmosphere around—anon a tint of amber spreads over them, and, divested of their chilling grandeur, they come out warm and glowing: again they shew like cold bright silver in the sun, while in the evening they are all crimson with the rose that flushes through the sky: a single mile, nay, even a single turn of the road, sufficing to invest them with new shapes and new peculiarities. ”

“ As the daylight advances, the whole of the chain flushes with a deeper dye, the grand forms of the nearer mountains emerge, and night slowly withdrawing her obscuring veil, a new enchantment decks the scene: the effects of the light and shadows are not less beautiful than astonishing, defining distant objects with a degree of sharpness and accuracy which is almost inconceivable: and until the sun is high up in the heavens, the lower ranges of the mountains appear to be of the deepest purple hue, while others, tipped with gold, start out from their dark back-ground in bold and splendid relief. ”

“ Many of the travellers in the Himalaya are moved even to rapture at the sight of the first daisy which springs spontaneously on their path; as an exotic in some garden of the plains, it excites deep emotion, but growing wild, spangling the meadow-grass with its silvery stars, it becomes infinitely more interesting, and the home-sick pining exile will often gather its earliest-encountered blossom weeping.
Leaving this luxuriant vegetation, we arrived at a wild spot, the summit of a ridge of peaks covered with snow ”

“ At our halting-place near the village of Ozree, on the road to Kursalee, the immense assemblage of mountains, range swelling upon range, again forcibly brought the image to our minds of the waves of a mighty ocean lashed into fury, and rearing their billows on high, until, suddenly checked by an all-powerful hand, they ceased their wrath, and, stilled into sullen majesty, became gigantic masses of earth and rock. ”

“ On one side, a belt-like range of wooded hills, backed by the more lofty Kylass towering in eternal snow, formed a part of the magnificent amphitheatre, the open valley sloping down to the Baspa, which went dashing and foaming along, swollen and turbid with the melting of the icy glaciers above. Worn out perchance by the wasteful exertions of their lungs, a sudden pause took place amongst the instrumental performers; the instant the music ceased, the dancers broke up, and the whole assembled multitude made a simultaneous rush to the spot in which the deities were enthroned ”

“ At this period the view from the Abbey is extremely circumscribed, but good fires will impart a glow of genial warmth and comfort to the weather-bound, and whenever the sky clears up, the most beautiful effects are visible in the scenery either wholly or partially unveiled by the sunbeams breaking through the clouds. A lover of nature, domiciled in one of these altitudes, will always find something to interest and engage the attention, in the numerous changes which take place in different states of the atmosphere, giving endless variety to scenery always sublime. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Emerging, we obtained a noble view of a snowy mountain, and, climbing again, entered a forest of pines which led us along a high ridge overhanging the river, and afforded at every opening the most enchanting views possible, the mountains being wooded to their summits, and shewing every rich variety of foliage as they swept along in graceful undulations, now in dark shadow, and now glittering in sunshine. ”

“ Throughout its whole mountain course, this fertilizing river constantly presents some beautiful or inspiring scene, its banks, though rocky and precipitous, and of the wildest character, being diversified with splendid foliage, while in some places the smiling stream glides along the bases of green slopes, rich with cultivation, and of the brightest verdure; and continually crossed by ravines, beautiful valleys may be approached on either side, teeming with every product that nature has given for the use or the enjoyment of man. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The pass threaded, we mount some steep and rocky pathway, and, gaining the summit of a ridge, look down for several hundred feet upon a tangled scene, trees scattering themselves between the rocks, and an impetuous torrent running through them with dash and foam; anon, we emerge into green and smiling pastures, enamelled with flowers and shaded by fruit-trees, and showing some interesting memorial of the ingenuity and industry of man, such, for instance, as the bridge at Bhurkote, which is, in its way, a perfect specimen of the architecture of the Himalayan engineers. ”

“ The sighing of the wind through the trees, the call of a bird, or the murmuring of some far-off stream, alone breaks the solitary stillness, until, while absorbed in the sublime reveries which the scene is so well calculated to produce, we are suddenly startled by the crack of a rifle, fired by the most determined of the sportsmen at some wild animal, presenting itself in too tempting a situation to be resisted. ”

“ The traveller in the Himalaya must accustom himself to the most dangerous and slippery bridges imaginable: habituated from their infancy to the sight of the steepest precipices in the world, the mountaineers are indifferent to circumstances which produce giddiness in the heads of those who have hitherto traversed comparatively level ground. Strange to say, the cattle of the mountains, guided by some extraordinary instinct, can make their way in safety over the frail and crazy bridges which at some places span rapid streams, and at others are thrown across deep ravines. ”

“ It is impossible, in fact, to travel through the Himalaya, without perpetually recurring to the rich and changeful hues of its skies; every day some hitherto unnoticed state of the atmosphere producing some new effect, and calling forth the admiration of the most insensible beholder. This is particularly the case at dawn; for while the lower world is immersed in the deepest shade, the splintered points of the highest range, which first catch the golden ray, assume a luminous appearance, flaming like crimson lamps along the heavens, for as yet they seem not to belong to earth ”

“ English sportsmen often obtain a fair shot, but the natives have another and surer method of securing the game. No sooner is a musk-deer espied, than the people of the nearest village are made acquainted with the circumstance, and the whole population are aroused by the intelligence, and convey it with extraordinary celerity to their next neighbours. The country being up, a cordon is formed round the destined victim, heights are climbed which appear to be perfectly impracticable, and men are to be seen perched like eagles upon the steepest points and pinnacles. ”

“ If time and opportunity permit, we may find our cold partridges at breakfast embedded in savoury jelly, formed of the head and feet of the animal that feasted ourselves and our followers the day before; wherever there are eggs, there are omelettes; our soup is flavoured with fresh herbs and roots; and sometimes, when our spirits have failed at the too strong chance of being obliged to rest content with a cake of meal for breakfast we have been most agreeably surprised by a broiled jungle-fowl appearing on the table almost by magic. ”

“ From another point the eye embraces that splendid range of mountains, through which the sacred river forces its impetuous course, now fretting along a narrow channel which it has worn amid the rocks, and now flinging itself down in glittering volumes from height to height, until, at length emerging to the view, it is seen winding and wandering along the level country, a thread of silver which the eye follows till it is lost in the distance. ”

“ The crowd and confusion of buyers and sellers, the native groups in every imaginable costume, some shining in cloth of gold, and surrounded by followers splendidly arrayed, others less expensively but picturesquely dressed, and many half naked, or wildly clad, all mixed up with priests, soldiers, and religious mendicants, half beggar, half bandit, with here and there a cluster of Europeans mounted upon elephants, exhibit all together a concourse which no other place in the word can shew. ”

“ An acquaintance with a tithe of the horrors, the shocking waste of human life, the fearful sum of human suffering, produced by the most barbarous as well the most inconsistent religion which the distempered imagination of man has ever framed, suffice to call forth melancholy feelings in the breast of the Christian spectator, as he gazes upon the bright waters, subjected to so many and such dreadful pollutions. ”

“ Janghera, thus happily placed between the rugged scenery of the upper provinces, and the smiling landscapes of Bengal, partakes of the nature of both: the Ganges spreads itself like a sea at the foot of the rock, which on the land-side overlooks a wide expanse of fertile country, having for a back-ground the low ranges of hills which separate Behar from Bengal. ”

“ Those who have brains and nerves to bear the frightful whirl, which may assail the steadiest head, plant themselves on the bridge that spans the torrent, and from this point survey the wild and awful grandeur of the scene, struck with admiration at its terrific beauty, yet, even while visions of horror float before them, unable to withdraw their gaze. ”

“ In passing through a village, the women will frequently bring out, unasked, milk and fruit for the refreshment of the travellers; and although, according to the custom of all semi-barbarous countries, they are looked upon with great contempt by the other sex, we found them generally more intelligent, as well as more communicative, than the men; and they are certainly quite as industrious, taking their full share, or even a greater proportion, of the manual labours of the field. A love of flowers seemed to be the most elegant taste manifested by the people of these hill-districts ”