John McCosh

“ Towards sunset the north wind regains the ascendancy", the nimbous clouds are once more beat back to the plains, the lost sun comes out in glorious majesty, illuminating every rock and every ridge with golden light and purple shade, tinting the clouds and the sky in such gorgeous colours as to drive the landscape artist to despair. ”

“ There is no denying that Medical certificates have been abused; that the confidence of the surgeon has been abused; and that certificates have been obtained by plausible pretences, or by exaggerated statements, or by id-founded apprehensions, when in reality there was no occasion for the patient to leave his station. Still, when the public service does not suffer, indulgence is commendable rather than too strict an interpretation of general orders. ”

“ Few scenes in nature can surpass the variety of the sublime and beautiful during one single day. At sunrise the Dhoon is seen, expanded 3 or 4,000 feet below, like a boundless meadow, dappled with forests and fertile fields, cut into sections by numerous rivulets, with every tree and every house distinctly marked. ”

“ I am not prepared to prove the frequency of insanity in India compared with that of Britain, but I am convinced that the climate and mode of life strongly predispose to that most dreadful of all disorders, and I would dissuade every one with any strong hereditary tendency, from settling in the east. When an officer unfortunately becomes insane, he is immediately put under careful surveillance, and sent either to the asylum in Calcutta or to Europe ”

“ A summer residence in these hills is quite delightful compared with the fiery ordeal of the plains. The climate is indeed European, even Italian. In the hottest weather the thermometer rarely rises above 76 in the shade, and frost and snow prevail in the winter; a fire in one's room is at all seasons agreeable, two or more good English blankets on one's bed, and personal clothing as warm as one would wear at home. ”

“ There at Chini,in the midst of the most sublime scenery in the world, at an elevation of 5 or 6,000 feet above the sea, with a summer mild enough to bring grapes to perfection, and a winter cold enough to produce snow and ice, with little fog, no periodical rains and moderate showers at all seasons; in that happy land a climate appears to have been found, with every peculiarity desirable for European invalids. ”

“ These Hill Stations are the brightest spots in our Indian service, the oases in the desert of our tropical exile, the lands of promise in the wilderness of our weary wanderings, where one and all at some period of their pilgrimage hope to resort to, as a refuge in time of trouble. ”

“ India,of all countries in the world, must demand a band of trained nurses for private houses. In England disease is mild, and every man, but the most solitary, possesses kind and earnest private relations to soothe his sufferings in the dark hour. ”

“ Beyond it appears the Sewalic range, the cemetery of an antediluvian world, exhumed by Cauteley and Falconer, those eminent geologists, who have reversed the order of the march of intellect, and directed it to an era anterior to man's existence, when the mammoth and the mastodon were the monarchs of the world, and the solid rock that now encases their bones, was a plastic mass of mud. Beyond the Sewalic range the fertile plains of Upper India may be traced to an immense distance ”

“ A commanding officer, an adjutant and several officers doing duty reside on the hill. A limited number of invalids is every year sent up by different regiments in the adjoining provinces, where they reside one or two years, and in most cases return to their duty effective men. Of the comparative advantages of Missourie and Landour,much may be said on either side, there is more society, more gaiety, less rain, less fog, and less lightning at Missourie. At Landour there is more retirement, a cooler temperature and more sublime scenery, and if on duty there, rent-free quarters ”

“ When misplaced censure, or unmerited disgrace, or pecuniary loss, or blasted ambition, or disappointed love, or hope long deferred, or death of kindred or consort have disquieted the soul, and steeped the senses in melancholy and despair, when the appetite refuses sustenance and the couch affords no repose, when the mind preys on the body, and the body preys upon the mind, and health, like a shuttle-cock, is bandied from the one to the other, finding a resting place in neither ”

“ When an officer is at an outpost, a trip on the river, a month or two's sojourn at a large station, or a visit to the Sand-heads, will often set him on his legs again;the sequestered life he led being the origin of the disease, and the pleasures of society being the best remedy for the effects of monotony. ”

“ When the Surgeon thinks it advisable to recommend change of climate to a patient, he must make out a statement of the case according to rules laid down in the medical code; and forward this to his commanding officer, with a letter calling for a medical committee to report upon the case; and should the committee concur in the opinion of the regimental-officer, the patient forwards the statement through the commanding officer to the Commander-in-Chief, and the recommendation of the committee is invariably complied with. ”

“ The rainy season has its peculiar drawbacks. Few invalids reside there in winter. The climate of the plains is far superior. The 15th of April is the best season to repair to the hills; the 15th of October to leave them.
I am of opinion that all the Sanitaria on the Himalayah are pitched at too high an elevation, viz.:—7 to 8,000 feet;and that a much preferable climate is to be found at from 5,500 or 6,000. Tempted by the low temperature of the higher sites, their founders seem to have overlooked their inconveniences;their excessive rain, and fog, and severe winter. ”

“ In one summer's day one may taste of the climate of every region of the globe. One may start at early dawn with the heat oppressive, the thermometer at 100, and ascend before dark to the freezing point ”

“ There was formerly a good hotel at Darjiling, but it has lately been given up from want of visitors, and the only public accommodation available is the staging bungalow. Houses equal to the demand, furnished,may be got for rent,but supplies of all sorts must be provided from Calcutta by the residents themselves.
The rains and fogs are excessively heavy, much more so than farther westward. They are almost incessant during June, July, and August, as much falling each month as thirty inches. Severe frost and heavy snow prevail in winter. ”

“ But let not the invalid rush to the hills unprepared for fatigue or inconvenience. A long dawk journey is not the only difficulty to be encountered:for when he has got to his destination, he will find many others he did not calculate upon. Even in a good hotel he will not be much at his ease: the want of baggage, of servants, of little domestic comforts, so essential to a man in delicate health, he will at first greatly miss ”

“ The best conveyance for' a lady or an invalid up the hill is a jampan, a sort of covered chair, supported upon two poles, and carried by four or six men, two or three in front and behind. The dandy is fit only for people in robust health;and consists of a sort of hammock strapped to a pole twelve or fourteen feet in length, on which the traveller sits with his arms resting on the pole, and his feet dependent. ”

“ Missourie is not far distant from Merut, and the journey can be made in two or three nights dawk. Before reaching the hills, the Sewalic range must be passed through by a very tedious road up the stony bed of a torrent,requiring alone three hours to accomplish it. There-after the Dhera Dhoon must be crossed ten or fifteen miles in breadth,in the middle of which is the station of Dhera. Should the invalid feel fatigued, he will do well to halt a day or two at one of the very good hotels here,he will find the temperature very pleasant, and may consider himself out of the heat of the plains. ”

“ Government are most liberal upon this point;nor is this inconsistent with the good of the service; for an officer returning from sick leave is,in nine cases out of ten, a more efficient man than if he had remained lingering off and on the sick list in the plains with his regiment, where his duty was merely nominal. ”

“ The slopes of these hills are studded with neat and commodious villages, tenanted by a primitive population in easy and comfortable circumstances; its uplands are sprinkled with numerous flocks and herds, and where the surface admits of being cut into terraces, with a command of water for irrigation, fertile crops of grain are produced. The greater part of European fruits and flowers grow spontaneously: the blackberry, the raspberry, the gooseberry and the currant;the cherry, the nut, the chesnut, and the walnut ”

“ SANITARIA.— I come now to treat of medical certificates, and the different plans resorted to by European officers when change of air is thought advisable. To an invalid labouring under chronic disease, and exhausted by slow but long-continued fever, change of air, as it is commonly called, brings about the most wonderful effects. ”

“ I have witnessed that lady still young, accomplished and beautiful, throwing aside the luxuries that she was born and bred to, roughing it in a ward of a public hospital, and superintending the wants of the sick and wounded soldier at Balaclava, and gladly bear testimony to the intrinsic value of such ministration. ”

“ The temperature at that height is quite low enough to answer all the purposes of a sanitarium; the clouds that brood on the higher spots rarely fall so low, he rains are much lighter, and the winter most enjoyable. I will grant that a month previous to the rains and a month thereafter, the higher stations have the advantage, but as a residence throughout the year, the lower ones are decidedly preferable. ”

“ Nor are any further steps taken till the patient sinks into hypochondriasis; till the overstretched mind threatens imbecility; or till the moral shock recoiling upon the corporeal frame, gives rise to symptoms of acute disease, that bring the unfortunate man to the margin of the grave, from which nothing but a long residence in his native country can rescue him. ”

“ The tops of the rocks have been cut away, or their ribs have been scooped out into flats, to obtain foundations for the houses; and fine roads of many miles in extent have been blasted and cut out of the solid rock at immense labour and expense, affording the most picturesque views ”

“ Of these stations it may be said, that man has done every thing for them, and nature very little; they do not contain an acre in all, of level ground, and not a bit of good building stone. At Missourie there is no timber within twenty miles, fit for carpentry, and few trees of any sort; with naked limestone rocks sticking out every where, very little soil fit for vegetation, and no water within 300 feet or more of the ridge. ”

“ Its rivers are worthy of the mountains that give them birth; roaring, raging, impetuous, irresistible floods;dashing over precipices, and cutting through rocks; at one place breaking into streams, where one might fish for trouts ”

“ Almorah stands on the summit of a range of mountains considerably lower than its neighbours, at an elevation of only 5500 feet. The country within six or seven miles of it is quite naked, the forests having been cut down for firewood during centuries gone by,but the station is well planted by the householders. The soil is generally unfertile, and crops are rare. ”

“ These stations are situated on a narrow ridge of mountains, with numerous offshoots and eminences, on the summits of which a house is generally built. A great proportion of the houses are built upon terraces cut out of the solid rock; the eaves of the back of the house being lower than the bank. ”

“ Almorah has further the advantage of government bungalows in different directions, towards Loohooghaut four marches distant, and Petoraghur seven marches, where the invalid can find change of air and change of scene, advantages not to be overlooked, when the monotony of life renders time heavy on hand. ”

“ Early in the morning, he should go on to Rampore to breakfast, where there is a good hotel, and having written to the postmaster there, to have bearers ready, he may be up at Missourie in four or five hours either by pony or jampan. A stranger on arriving at Missourie,is very ill off for accommodation. ”