Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/503

Rh bandy with four bullocks, waiting to carry us to the higher regions towards which we had so long been wearily journeying. It was two in the afternoon, and the thermometer stood at 93°; but, under the shelter of a little hut by the road-side, we changed our light garments for woollen clothing, to be ready for the cooler atmosphere above us. Transferring the luggage from our transit bandy to three coolies' heads, we gladly commenced the ascent.

The mountains rose eight thousand feet in height, clothed with wood and shrubbery, and broken by deep ravines, down which ran mountain streams. The hill-sides were on fire. Long lines of flame stretched hundreds of feet upwards, and columns of smoke rolled on high to mingle with the cloudless blue of the skies. It seemed a great altar sending up its incense before God its Creator.

The road, starting at the base of the hills, crept along the declivity awhile, then turning, zig-zagged its way up the face of the mountainside; reaching a deep-setting ravine, again it wound its upward course with a brawling brook far down the precipice on its right, and the steep mountain rising high on its left. Sunset found us about half-way up the pass. The road