Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/272

 CHAPTER LIV.

PICTURESQUE SCENES IN THE HILLS.

Jerrīpānī—The Cicalas—View from the Pilgrim's Banglā—A Fall over a Precipice—The Glow-worm—Wild-beast Track—The Scorpion—Mules—Karral Sheep—Wet Days—Noisy Boys—Conical Hills—The Khuds—Earthquake at Cloud End—The Waterfall—Fall of a Lady and Horse over a Precipice—Kalunga—General Gillespie—The Kookree—The Ghoorkas—The Korah—The Sling—Ben Oge—Danger of Exposure to the Mid-day Sun—An Earthquake—A Spaniel seized by a Leopard—A Party at Cloud End—A Buffer encounters a Bear—Hills on Fire—Botanical Gardens—Commencement of the Rains—Expedition to the Summit of Bhadráj—Magnificence of the Clouds—Storms in High Places—Danger of Narrow Roads during the Rains—Introduction of Slated Roofs in the Hills.

1838, April 17th.—Started on my gūnth, the day being cloudy and cold, to make a call some miles off down the hill, at Jerrīpānī. The elevation of Jerrīpānī is much less than that of Landowr, and the difference in the vegetation remarkable: here, the young leaves of the oaks are just budding,—there, they are in full leaf; here, the raspberry is in flower,—there, in fruit.

"The clematis, the favoured flower, That boasts the name of Virgin's Bower,"

was at Jerrīpānī in beautiful profusion, sometimes hanging its white clusters over the yellow flowers of the barbery. The woodbine delighted me with its fragrance, and the remembrance of days of old; and the rhododendron trees were in full grandeur. Near one clump of old oaks, covered with moss and ivy, I stopped to listen to the shrill cries of the cicala, a sort of