Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/269

 been equally confined in the plains; and instead of sitting by a roaring pinewood fire in a snug room, they would be stretched on a couch fanned by a punkah, overwhelmed with heat and dust, and perspiration, with no hope of relief for many months. But every dark cloud has its margin of silver;and a week or two of dismal weather is generally followed by some glorious breaks. There is generally a lull at sunrise or sunset;presenting a panorama of dissolving views that no power of the pen, or the pencil, could describe. I might throw out a few general hints for the invalid during his stay in the hills; but shall content myself with only one; and that is to put himself, immediately after his arrival, under the advice of the medical officer of the Sanitarium; there being one or two appointed for the express purpose of attending visitors.

9. DARJILING.—Darjiling, the most eastward of the Sanitaria of Bengal, is in the Sikhim country, (lately absorbed,) in N. lat. 27° E. long. 90°. Distance from Calcutta about 370 miles. elevation 7,220 feet above the sea. Range of thermom. 29° to 74°. Annual fall of rain 128 inches,(enormous.) Its aspect is to the north; the view of the snowy range from it is very magnificent, and the highest mountain in the world, Kun-chinjunga, 28,000 feet high, is about 50 miles direct distance.