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20   boa-constrictor to the dangerous cobra, abound. Among the venomous reptiles there are many varieties of huge lizards, and alligators of enormous size swarm in the streams and marshes. The feathered tribe, from the magnificent golden eagle to birds unknown in ornithology, are also numerous; while insects, infinite in variety, infest these regions in endless myriads.

The malarial climate of the Terai, however, is so deadly to Europeans that they are prevented from tarrying in its fever-breeding jungles. Were it otherwise, sportsmen in search of big game would astonish, with their “bags,” the most ardent hunters in any part of the world.

Behind the Terai are the lower hills and their subsidiary dells, also covered with evergreen woods, and timber of such gigantic size that the very sight of it fills one with astonishment beyond conception, — trees of from twenty to thirty feet in girth, and, although centuries old, upright as pillars, straight as darts, and growing to a height of two hundred feet or more. Beyond, stretching like a huge irregular barrier, rise the noble Himalaya, and the lofty and fantastic peaks of the mountains enveloped in everlasting winter. To associate tropical India with the North Pole would seem ridiculously fictitious; nevertheless there, before our very eyes, tower the ice-bound giants of wonderland, which even in the height of summer freeze all the day through, despite the sun, and look down from their perpetual frozen abode upon the poor broiling creatures on the fiery plains below. While farther