The Indian Alps and how we crossed them: being a narrative of two years' residence in the eastern Himalaya and two months' tour into the interior

Preface

The following pages were written principally in India, and sent home at short intervals for the exclusive perusal of a family circle. They make no pretension to a scientific character, the little band of travellers who ventured with me into the interior of the Eastern Himalaya having done so, not for the purpose of scientific research, but simply to explore an almost unknown country, and to enjoy the incidents of travel. Neither do they pretend to give any adequate conception of the magnificence of the scenery of that vast mountain region, for in truth its beauty and grandeur are alike beyond all power of description.

For the defects of this volume I may perhaps be

PRE FA CE.

allowed to plead the difficulties of a task which can never be more than imperfectly achieved ; while, in asking an indulgent judgment of the drawings from which the chromolithographs and woodcuts have been executed, I may mention that they were painted, in almost every instance, with frozen fingers, the smaller sketches being often scratched hastily on letter paper, as I sat sometimes on a portmanteau and sometimes on a tent-peg. In lajang them, before the public I have yielded to the earnest solicitation of my friends. If the perusal of these pages should prove a source of gratification to others, who, by following on paper my footsteps over untrodden paths, may be able in ever so faint a degree to realise something of the glory and sublimity of that highly favoured land, I shall not regret that I overcame the diffidence I felt in giving publication to the book.

In indicating our route into the ' interior' by a red line on the map, I have given the general bearings only of our journey. Had we taken ' observations ' at the end of each day's march, our route would have presented a zig-zag appearance, as the configuration of the mountains we had to cross sometimes obliged us to travel in a north-westerly and sometimes in a north-easterly direction. As no such 'observations' were taken, I have indicated the route in the simplest manner possible — viz. by a comparatively straight line. In computing the distance of our tour by the scale on the map, I may also mention that the elevations and depressions necessarily incident to mountain-travelling should be taken into consideration, none of which could be indicated on the flat surface of a map.

Clevedon : December i6, 1875.

Contents

CHAPTER

I . . . INTRODUCTORY ....

II . . . AWAY TO THE HIGHLANDS ! . . .

Chapter I. Introductory

There is a spot of earth, supremely blest,

A dearer sweeter spot than all the rest. — Montgomery.

O SCARLET poppies in the rich ripe corn ! O sunny uplands striped with golden sheaves ! O darkling heather on the distant hills, stretching away, away to the far-off sea, where little boats with white sails, vague and indistinct in the misty horizon, lie floating dreamily !

How exquisitely the soft neutral grey of the sea contrasts with that bit of bright sandy beach, and the crimson clover with the canary colour of the sunlit meadows ! One's sense of harmony is never ruffled or disturbed by the colours on earth's broad palette. The sky, flecked with fleecy clouds, is soft and blue.

B

^i

THE INDIAN ALPS.

Lights and shadows, ever shifting, play athwart the quivering fern-brake, just showing the first warm tinge of autumnal splendour. All nature inanimate is immersed in the semi-slumber of noontide Now and then a buttercup nods its head as though it were napping, and on a harebell stalk a butterfly poises itself, with a gentle see-saw motion, as if rocking itself to sleep. Nothing seems really awake but the bees, still buzzing about the wild flowers ; but even they are gathering no honey, as far as I can see, and are only pretending to be busy. The very rooks have ceased to whirl round those old elms yonder, and, congregated on the church tower, which seems to keep guard over the quiet dead in the churchyard beneath, are far too drowsy to enter into animated conversation. Occasionally an argumentative bird sustains a prolonged caw, but finding no one in the humour to contradict him, he soon subsides into the general stillness.

But see ! the upland there to westward, bathed in a flood of ambient light an instant ago. Is immersed in sombre shade, as a cloud floats lazily between It and the sun ; and, hidden before, now bursts into view, as if by magic, a thatched cottage, the one salient point of the whole landscape. Within the doorway the movements of the cotter's wife may be seen, at some occupation, and a little picture of rural contentment and quietude has been created In a moment. She comes out, and a charming woman she proves to be — charming, that is to say. In an

INTROD UCTOR V.

artistic sense — somethino- orange about her neck, and wearing a madder-coloured gown, whilst a small red-andwhite child toddles after her. She has evidently come out to feed the pigs, by the clamour they make at her approach, and there is no need to ask the hour, or note that the sun is at its meridian ; for, entering by the wicket, comes the goodman home for his mid-day meal, and from the steeple, surmounted by its weathercock, which gently swings from side to side, the clock strikes twelve, its cracked bell the one bit of discord the ear needed to make the harmony complete.

Why at this Instant does the bright blue ribbon round the neck of my little Skye terrier sitting beside me look out of ' keeping' ? Why does his sharp civilised yap-yap grate on my ear, as he gazes beseechingly in my face for a token of permission to be off to worry the pigs ? Why would a female rustic in ragged attire, sitting on a sunny bank, be more in harmony with nature than one wearing the ' last sweet thing ' in hats, its feather just at the particular pose of the year eighteen hundred and seventy — no matter what ? Is there no affinity between Mother Nature and the wearers of purple and fine linen ? Must we be sons and daughters of the soil to render us one kin ? There is poetry in that ragged time-worn thatch, with its tufts of weed and moss growing out of every available cranny ; there is poetry in the cotter's wife and her little red-and-white child ; there is poetry even in those squeaking and

THE INDIAN ALPS.

excited pigs, quarrelling greedily over their 'wash.' Then why not In me and my Skye ? In what consists the picturesque ?

Such questions as these I used to ask in the golden days of childhood, and on one occasion received a severe snubbing from my governess, who, shaking her head ominously, predicted I should grow up to be a visionary creature not fit for this world, bidding me the rather be practical and get on with my geography. For in those days of my non-age nature was ever a delight to me, and I could draw a landscape pretty accurately, the trees it may be too much like Dutch toys, and the perspective somewhat startling ; for has not one of those brilliant productions been preserved by loving hands through all the vicissitude of the chequered past, wherein I am represented in conventional pinafore standing at a window listening to the warbling of a sentimental bullfinch as big as myself? But the 'three r's ' were an abomination unto me, and geography the very bane of my existence. How little I thought then — ah me ! how little any of us think in that Paradise of childhood, when our future lives are to be ' so happy,' where the paths are to be hedged with thornless roses and the flowers to be all ' everlastings,' none to be gathered by the reaper Death — how little I thought, I repeat, in those days whilst she endeavoured to impress upon my unlistening ear the position of the Himalayan mountains, that in after years I should climb their heights and be

INTRODUCTORY.

able, as now, to recall to mind visions of fairer scenes and fairer skies than even that on which my eye is resting, and behold such grand things in God's beauteous earth, of which man in his philosophy never dreamt.

But are there scenes more fair than those in our own dear land ? Well, perhaps not fairer, for nature is sweet in her homely English garb. I love these scented meadows in the glorious summer time ; I love these rounded hills and sloping pasture-lands, telling of centuries of peace and plenty ; but there are scenes which to look upon make man humbler, and, I think, the better ; and even as I sit here quietly drinking in all this placid, tranquil beauty, I am seized with a spirit of unrest, and long to be far away and once more in their midst. Would you see Nature in all her savage grandeur ? Then follow me to her wildest solitudes — the home of the yak, and the wild deer, the land of the citron, and the orange, the arctic lichen, and the pine — where, in deep Alpine valley, rivers cradled in gigantic precipices, and fed by icy peaks, either thunder over tempest-shattered rock, or sleep to the music of their own lullaby — even to the far East, amongst the Indian Alps.

Dahin ! Dahin !

Goethe.

THE INDIAN AIPS.

It has been said that nothing can be more grand and majestic than the Alps of Switzerland, and that size is a phantom of the brain, an optical illusion, grandeur consisting rather in form than size. As a rule it may be so ; but they are ' minute philosophers ' who sometimes argue thus. Not that I would disparage the Swiss Alps, which were my first loves, and which, it must be acknowleged, do possess more of pichiresqtte beauty than the greater, vaster mountains of the East ; but the stupendous Himalaya — in their great loneliness and vast magnificence, impossible alike to pen and pencil adequately to pourtray, their height, and depth, and length, and breadth of snow appealing to the emotions — impress one as nothing else can, and seem to expand one's very soul.

We were sitting at dinner one evening beneath a punkah in one of the cities of the plains of India, feeling languid and flabby and miserable, the thermometer standing at anything you like to mention, when the

' khansamah ' (butler) presented F with a letter, the

envelope of which bore the words, ' On Her Majesty's Service;' and on opening it he found himself under orders for two years' service at Darjeeling, one of the lovely settlements in the Himalaya, the 'Abode of Snow ' — Him, in Sanscrit, signifying ' Snow,' and alaya * Abode ' — the Imatis of the ancients.

Were the ' Powers that be ' ever so transcendently gracious } Imagine, if you can, what such an announce-

INTRODUCTORY.

ment conveyed to our minds. Emancipation from the depleting influences of heat almost unbearable, for the bracing and life-giving breezes which blow over regions of eternal ice and snow.

But even in these days it is wonderful to what an extent ignorance prevails about the more unfrequented parts of India ; for it is not generally known, except as a mere abstract truth, that in this vast continent — associated as it is in the purely English mind with scorching heat and arid plains, stretching from horizon to horizon, relieved by naught save belts of palm -girt jungle, the habitat of the elephant, the tiger, and the deadly snake — every variety of climate may be found, from the sultry heat and miasma of the tropical valley, to the temperature of the Poles.

Is not India, indeed, almost exclusively regarded as a land of songless birds arrayed in brightest plumage ; of gorgeous butterflies and 'atlas' moths; of cacao-nuts, and dates, and pines more luscious than anything of which the classic Pomona could boast ? — a land also where snakes sit corkscrew-like at the foot of one's bed, and wild beasts take shelter in one's ' bungalow ' ; and where her Majesty's liege subjects, whose fate it is to be exiled there, are exposed to the alternate processes of roasting under a tropical sun, and melting beneath a punkah ?

To the feminine mind, again, is it not a land of Cashmere shawls — ' such loves ' — and fans, and sandalwood boxes, and diaphanous muslins ? — presents sent over at too Infrequent intervals from uncles and cousins, about whom, vegetating in that far-off land, there is always a halo of pleasant mystery, and arriving, redolent of ' cuscus ' and spicy odours and a whole bouquet of Indian fragrance, which wafts one away in spirit across the desert and the sunlit ocean to that wonderland in an instant.

A region there is, however, of countless bright oases in these vast plains, where the cuckoo's plaintive note recalls sweet memories of our island home, and mingles with the soft melody of other birds ; where the stately oak — monarch of our English woods — spreading its branches, blends them with those of the chestnut, the walnut, and the birch ; where in mossy slopes the ' nodding violet blows,' and wild strawberries deck the green bank's side, like rubies set in emerald. I allude of course to the noble snow-capped Himalaya, the loftiest mountains in the world, with whose existence everyone is acquaintv;d, but about which brains even saturated with geographical knowledge are yet as ignorant, so far as their topographical aspect and wondrous hidden beauty are concerned, as they are about the mountains in the moon.

Along this chain, at elevations where the temperature is similar to that of England, numerous sanataria lie nestling, enfolded in their mighty undulations, and dwarfed by the vastness of the surrounding peaks into little toy-like settlements. These are convalescent dep6ts for our British soldiers, and refuges for Indian society generally ; for all who are able migrate from the plains to these cool regions during the fierce heat of summer, to reinvigorate themselves in the delicious climate.

The most beautiful of all these sanataria, as far as scenery is concerned, though by no means the largest, is Darjeeling, or the 'Holy Spot' — the Sceptre of the Priesthood — -as its name signifies in the Thibetan language ; and to this fair Eden — oh, joy ! — we are to proceed without delay.

THE INDIAN AIPS.

Chapter II. Away To The Highlands

And so it came to pass one stifling evening, the sun setting a disc of fire, that two figures might be seen, not descending a hill on ' white palfries,' but stepping into a prosaic 'dinghy,' to be ferried across the Hooghly, a branch of the Ganges — a muddy river truly, but all a-glow now with the sun's crimson dye, which has kindled the dome of Government House and the many cupolas and spires of the fair City of Palaces almost into a blaze.

Away down the river noble ships ride at anchor, waiting for the morrow's tide to bear them over its treacherous and .ever-shifting sandbanks to the distant sea. Looking towards the city, forests of Stately masts from every port under heaven tower skywards, and along the Strand a dense throng of carriages may be seen moving slowly, as the denizens of the proud metropolis, released from their closed houses — from which every particle of the outer atmosphere has been excluded throughout the livelong day — take their ' Jiawcl khaiia^ which, literally translated, means ' eat the air.' From the beautiful ' Eden Gardens ' the sound of the band, borne on the sultry breeze, comes wafted towards us ; while at the many ' ghauts ' numerous figures are seen standing on the steps or in the sacred waters, salaaming to the Day-god as he sinks to rest. Bathing is a religious ceremony with these children of the East — a process said to wash away sin ; but, as a rule, they economise time by cleansing their linen and their consciences together, and may generally be seen alternately salaaming and scrubbing away at their 'chuddahs' as they stand waist-deep in the mystic flood.

Noisily settling themselves to roost in the tall pepul trees that fringe its margin, are enormous bald-headed adjutants ; whilst others still linger about the steps, balancing themselves on one leg, their long pouches dangling in the air, as they gravely watch the proceedings of the bathers. Loathsome vultures flutter uneasily 'neath the palm fronds, uttering every now and then a shrill moan, as though possessed with the unquiet spirit of the Hindoo which but a day or two ago tenanted the body they have just left, stranded somewhere down the river's banks. From the jungle a mile or two away comes the wild jackal's cry, answered by another herd more distant still, as they call each other to some unholy feast. The Mahomedans bury their dead, but there was a time, not so long ago either, when the bodies of the 'mild Hindoo,' except those of high caste, were

THE INDIAN AIPS.

invariably thrown into the river ; but cremation of some sort is now, I beHeve, the custom amongst Hindoos, if not actually enforced by law, although frequent evasions of it still exist.

In the days I speak of, the statement that the living were left on the banks to die or be washed away by the tide was no Eastern fable, for I have myself often seen the sick carried along on ' charpoys ' (bedsteads) in the direction of the sacred river, moving as they went.

But let us quit such painful scenes. Already merrily gleam the thousand lamps which surround the white palaces of the King of Oude's zananas, like a necklace of diamonds, casting their reflection in the water. In little inlets — arms of the river — all amongst the dark trees, fires are burning, indicating the existence of boats moored there, in which swarthy boatmen are cooking their evening meal. Here and there a tiny light may be seen floating down the river ; and you may be sure, though you cannot see them in the gathering darkness, that rustic houris — whose beehive dwellings are hidden in the thick jungle — are standing or kneeling on the slimy brink, watching with eager prayerful eyes the fortunes of the little bark ; for these superstitious people seek therefrom the foreknowledge of events. If it float on out of sight still burning, well is it for the object of their wishes ; but should it go out — by no means unfrequently the case — the contrary is augured. These lights, floating star-like on the dark waters, and seen from the suburban

AWAY TO THE HIGHLANDS f 13

bridges at all hours of the night, are to my mind the one poetical feature of this eastern city.

Ferried across to the measure of our boatmen's ' barcarolle,' we reach the opposite shore just as the steam-ferry draws up to the pier ; and there is no time to lose, for the express is waiting its arrival.

* Can't get in there, sir; that is reserved accommodation for ladies,' shouts the station-master from the other end of

the platform, on F 's following me into the luxurious

first-class carriage, fitted with berths for night travelling. As there happens to be no other lady passenger, however, he is permitted to remain ; and to prevent molestation at either of the subsequent stations, he at once lies down, and covering himself with shawls and other articles of feminine attire, hopes thus to elude detection.

Leaving all signs of the great metropolis behind, we are soon whirling through rural Bengal : and what a deadly looking swamp it is ! Through rice fields, stretching away into the distant horizon ; by morass, and fen, and sedgy pool, till the whole country seems under water ; by clumps of waving palm trees, standing out black against the afterglow like funereal plumes ; till evening at length gives place to night, and all colour fades save in the West, where a narrow blood-red streak, like the reflection from a hundred monster furnaces, still lingers in the heavens, and we reach Serampore.

The official looks in, apparently regarding the lanky figure opposite me with some suspicion. He is no doubt up to these little subterfuges, but he passes by notwithstanding ; and I have just made up my mind that we are to be left undisturbed, when he returns, and this time stands upon the step and looks in.

' Is that a lady opposite you ? ' he enquires.

' A lady ? Well, no ; not exactly ! The fact is, it is

my husband,' I am obliged to confess at last, as F ,

moving slightly, lets the shawl slip with which I had endeavoured to conceal him, thereby betraying an unmistakably masculine boot.

' Then you must come out of this carriage, sir.'

* I can't,' replies F , with some degree of truth ;

' my wife 's an invalid, and I cannot leave her.'

' Can't help that, sir,' rejoins the uncompromising station-master. ' There 's a carriage here, where you can both travel together ' (holding the door of one of the general first-class carriages open).

At this juncture, having heard the altercation, the guard appeared, and, master of the situation, addressing

F with a significant look, said : ' Come into this

carriage, sir ; ' and aside, ' I'll make it all right at the next station.'

Upon which F retired for the present, soon to

return in triumph for the remainder of the night, when he subsided into sound sleep till peep of day, by which time we reached Sahibgunge, and our railway journey was completed.

Here we were told by an oleaginous native func-

AWAY TO THE HIGHLANDS ! 15

tionary, who gave us the information as though it were a matter of no consequence whatever — which nothing ever seems to be to these phlegmatic people — that all our baggage had been left behind, adding that a luggage train left an hour or two after the express, by which he thought it likely they might forward it, in which case we should get it in the course of the day. At this

announcement F growled out something that I did

not catch ; perhaps it was a benediction, perhaps it was not. At any rate, it was already too hot to think of getting into a' passion ; for, early as it was, the sun had sent upwards his avant-guard of crimson cloud, bearing, as on ensign armorial, all the blazonry of his pomp and splendour, and a curtain, like cloth of gold, suddenly spread itself over the Eastern sky, as it does only in these latitudes.

Now this non-arrival of our effects would have obliged us to stay at Sahibgunge all the next day — one of the most execrable places in the Mofussil of India — had we not brought a trustworthy servant with us, the steamer by which we were to cross to Caragola leaving hours before the baggage-train would be due. But we are able to depart, fortunately, committing our belongings to his charge, and leaving him to wait their arrival, and follow with them the next day.

The sacred river from this point looks like a broad lake, with low sand-banks here and there, like little flat islands, just peeping above the water. Reaching the i6

THE INDIAN ALPS.

Steamer, we find that, being the only passengers, we are to have it all to ourselves ; and at ten o'clock, casting off her moorings, we are afloat for the first time upon the sacred Ganges.

Sitting under the awning we watch the various boats float by : some like immense hay-stacks rowed by twenty men ; others with clumsy square sails, and thatched huts on their decks, containing merchandise from Nepaul ; whilst light little dinghies, with sails set to the wind, bob up and down as they get into the swell of the steamer, and seem to be curtseying to us as they pass.

Then leaning over the steamer's side, In fancy I travel onwards far far away along the course of this mighty stream, even to its birthplace in eternal snow, whence, issuing beneath a low arch among the glaciers, it is first seen trickling over its narrow bed, worn deep in solid granite, at so great an elevation that the more ignorant of its worshippers believe it descends from paradise itself. Amongst a people of so lively an imagination and extravagant sentiment, endowing as they do so many things inanimate with form and life, it is no wonder that they should have idealised that which brings with it, as from the very heavens, not only fertilisation to these parching plains, but so many other blessings. Accordingly there is a whole world of fables believed in by Hindoos concerning this holiest of rivers, with which the most ancient of all classic lore is connected, and they worship it under the imagery of a goddess whom they call Gunga, the daughter of Himavat ; the sublime and lofty solitudes of the Himalaya, like Mount Olympus to the Greeks, being the very home and centre of their mythology. The Hindoos were in a high state of civilisation when Europe was still lying in deepest slumber ; for it must be remembered that Hindustan was the cradle of the arts and sciences, and these people — 'Niggers,' as I have often heard them contemptuously called — were in possession of both, when even the Greeks lay in obscurity, and the Britons, too oft their despisers, were — humiliating thought — barbarians !

When the sun gets vertical, the captain kindly places

D his cabin at my disposal — the only one in the steamer — where, weary of my night's travelling, I remain till it begins to set behind the crimson horizon. And what a sunset ! turning the fleet of little boats moored along its banks — for we are gradually nearing Caragola — into jewelled caskets. Far out in the stream a boat is crossing the sunlight, looking black and weird, with a man sitting at its prow, who, for aught that he looked like, might have been Charon himself, ferrying the spirits of the departed over Styx.

Dinner is provided on board, after which we again go on deck, and see the moon rise, a full round orb, bridging the river by a band of tremulous silver light. Southwards the bold outline of the Rajmahals is seen.

AWAY TO THE HIGHLANDS ! 19

quite respectable hills, which by courtesy one might almost call mountains, after living long in the plains. They cast a reflection deep and sombre on the broad expanse of water, in the shadow of which a ship is anchored — a mere toy it looks from this distance, its solitary light burning pale and cold. A flight of wild ducks skims past us, and over the still waters comes softly a boatman's song, ' La — ilia — ilia — la,' rising and falling in musical but pathetic cadence.

Chapter III. * The Government Bullock Train.'

And now, how can I describe the old-world style of locomotion, still existing in the nineteenth century, on the * Grand Trunk Road ' in this magnificent Dependency, ' the brightest jewel,' &c. &c., for we have reached a shore where the shriek of the locomotive is never heard.

Having left the steamer on our arrival at Caragola, and crawling up the steep incline knee-deep in sand, we find a ' hackery ' awaiting us, covered by a rough tilt — a sort of gipsy arrangement — to which are yoked two small bullocks ; the whole thing of a kind which you feel sure must have been in use in the time of the Pharaohs, the wheels of almost solid wood rolling round with a reluctance and squeak that is positively maddening. This goes, laughable as it may seem, by the dignified and euphonious appellation of the ' Government Bullock Train.'

All is ready for departure, for they had seen the steamer, a little black speck in the horizon, two hours ago. We mount our chariot therefore and start at the magnificient pace of a mile and a half an hour. The rules are, I believe, that they shall not be required to go faster

' THE G VERNMENT B ULL OCX TRAIN.' 21

than three miles an hour ; but as they never by any chance arrive at this alarming speed, the prohibition is scarcely necessary.

A lantern suspended from the tilt sways to and fro,

the tassel of F 's smoking-cap, doing likewise, keeps

time with it ; the body of the driver, sitting astride the pole to which the bullocks are attached, sways backwards and forwards too, with the regularity of a piece of mechanism, as he pokes and pushes first this bullock and then that, varied only, alas ! by screwing their tails round and round in his endeavours to get them on. Besides this, the goad, a short stout stick, is often called into requisition, answering the double purpose of poking and striking, the latter accomplished in successive thuds on their poor lean backs, and accompanied by an amount of jabbering persuasion inconceivable to anyone who has not travelled under the Jehuship of an Asiatic, the former making one's very heart sick, and the latter beyond everything annoying to the ear. But nothing makes the slightest impression upon them. By all these combined efforts they are simply kept in motion, and I soon grow stoical in the matter, and learn to believe that without them they would not move at all.