Himalayan Journals Volume 1

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt: ... Khawa, in a deep gorge. It formed a grand stream, larger than the Teesta, of a pale, sea-green, muddy colour, and flowed rapidly with a strong ripple, but no foam, it rises six feet in the rains, but ice never descends nearly so low, its breadth was sixty to eighty yards, its temperature 55 degrees to 58 degrees. The breadth of the foaming Khawa was twelve to fifteen yards, and its temperature 56.5 degrees. The surrounding vegetation was entirely tropical, consisting of scrubby sal trees, acacia, Grislea, Emblica, Hibiscus, etc., the elevation being but 1300 feet, though the spot was twenty-five miles in a straight line from the plains. I camped at the fork of the rivers, on a fine terrace fifty feet above the water, about seventy yards long, and one hundred broad, quite flat-topped, and composed of shingle, gravel, etc., with enormous boulders of gneiss, quartz, and hornstone, much water-worn, it was girt by another broken terrace, twelve feet or so above the water, and covered with long grass and bushes. The main road from Ilam to Wallanchoon, which I quitted on Sakkiazung, descends steeply on the opposite bank of the river, which I crossed in a canoe formed of a hollow trunk (of Toon), thirty feet long. There is considerable traffic along this road, and I was visited by numbers of natives, all Hindoos, who coolly squatted before my tent-door, and stared with their large black, vacant, lustrous eyes: they appear singularly indolent, and great beggars. The land seems highly favoured by nature, and the population, though so scattered, is in reality considerable, the varied elevation giving a large surface, but the natives care for no more than will satisfy their immediate wants. The river swarms with fish, but they are too lazy to catch them, and they have seldom anything better to give or sell than sticks of sugar-cane, which when peeled form a refreshing morsel in these scorching marches. They have few and poor oranges, citrons, and lemons, very...