Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/191

Rh  is always advised to pass it by day-light — a proposal which in all probability he will be glad to accede to, unless familiarity with tigers and wild elephants has bred in him a due contempt for such road-fellows. This makes Dárjiling not a very easy place to get at, and it has the additional disadvantage of being exceedingly wet and cold during the south-west monsoon — that is to say, from any time in the end of June till the beginning of October; but, notwithstanding these drawbacks, it recommends itself to the tourist who does not care to attempt tent-life in the mountains, on account of its magnificent view of the Himáliya, and its vicinity to the very highest peaks of that mighty range. Gaurisankar, or Mount Everest, the culminating point of the earths surface, and which rises to the height of 29,002 feet above the level of the sea, is in Nepal, and is not visible from the hill-station we speak of; but it can be seen, when weather allows, from an elevation only a day or two's journey from Dáirjiling. Kanchinjanga in Sikkim, however, which is the second highest peak in the world, and rises to the height of 28,150 feet, is visible from Dárjiling; and no general view of the Himáliya is finer, more characteristic, or more impressive, than that which we may have from the Cutcherry hill at Dárjiling, looking over dark range after range of hills up to the eternal snows of Kanchinjanga, and the long line of its attendant monarchs of mountains. Unfortunately Gaurisankar, the loftiest mountain of all, is out of the reach of nearly all travellers, owing to our weakness in allowing Nepal to exclude Enblishmen from its territory; but if any one is very anxious to try Chinese Tibet, he will find one of the doors into it by going up from Dárjiling through the protected state of Sikkim; but whether the door will open at his request is quite another matter, and if he kicks at it he is likely to find himself suddenly going down the mountains considerably faster than he went up them. Verbum sat sapientibus; but if one could only get through this door, it is a very short way from it to Lassa, the capital of Tibet, and the residence of the Grand Lama, which, possibly, is the reason why it is kept so strictly guarded. Gaurisankar, and the highest peaks of the Himáliya, are on the border between Nepal and Tibet, and form a group somewhat obtruding from the line of the main range. it is provoking that the weak foreign policy of the Indian government — a policy, however, which has been very much forced upon it from home — should allow the Nepalese to exclude English travellers from their territory, while at the same time we treat the former as friendly allies, and heap honours upon Jung Bahadur. To take such a line is always regarded in the East as a proof of weakness, which indeed it is; and the best commentary upon its effects is the belief, everywhere prevalent in India, that the Nana Sahib is, or for long has been, the protected guest of the Court of Katmandú. This policy places about five hundred miles of the Himáliya out of the reach of the English traveller, though these five hundred miles contain the culminating point of the whole range, the most splendid jewel in the Stony Girdle of the Earth. There is another stretch of five hundred miles to the east of Nepal, occupied by Bhotan, in which also no European can travel owing to the character of the inhabitants and of the government; so that it is only in the little narrowed strip of Sikkim that one can get up at all to the main range of the eastern Himáliya; and thus we are practically shut out from a thousand miles of the Himáliya from a thousand miles of the noblest mountains in the world, overlooking the Gangetic valley and the conquered provinces of British India. It follows from this that the traveller who wishes to enter among these giant mountains, and is not content with a view of them such as we have of the Oberland Alps from the summit of the Righi, must of necessity betake himself to the western Himáliya. It is true he may go up the Sikkim valley from Dárjiling to the foot of Kanchinjanga, but he is then confined to the narrow gorges of the Testa and the Ranjit. Moreover, it is only in summer that one can travel among the higher ranges, and in summer Sikkim is exposed to almost the full force of the Indian monsoon, which rages up to the snows of Kanchinjanga with a saturated atmosphere and the densest fogs. Pedestrianism and tent-travelling in such circumstances are almost out of the question; and as it is only when the traveller can get a snowy range between himself and the Indian monsoon that he can travel with any comfort, or even with safety, among the Himáliya in summer, he must perforce betake himself to their western section, if he desires to make acquaintance with the interior and higher portions of that mighty range. LIVING AGE.VOL. X.480