Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/86

 most primitive form, will minister to our needs.

Morning dawns on the water-logged rice fields of Behar, but, raising our eyes from the endless acres of swamp, they linger for a moment on the rampart of forbidding mountains, and then, above these, hanging like a delicate border of creamy-white lace, the range of eternal snows leaps into view.

So sings the poet, but in our case the sensation is the reverse, as nothing could be more exhilarating after a prolonged sojourn in the low-lying country of Bengal than the first view of this ice-bound region. Extending from extreme east to west of the horizon, as the sun mounts higher the many miles of snow-capped peaks scintillate under its rays; from the low level of the plains the height and dignity of this great white barrier, when in sight, appears even more stupendous than from a nearer elevation. And there, far away in the eastern flank, is one small peak almost