Peeps at Many Lands-India

HIMALAYAS

and a half miles, towards the sky. Of these two mountain giants Mount Everest, though the highest measured mountain in the world, presents the less imposing appearance. This is because it lies so far in the inte

EMPLE, AMRIT

prospect, a most sublime and splendid view. The traveller who climbs the flanks of this great mountain will pass through belts of vegetation reminding him of every zone on the earth's surface. He begins his cli

cooler, and the vegetation of temperate zones begins to appear. On the border between the two zones grow splendid tree-ferns, rhododendrons forty feet high, a

and other well-remembered plants and shrubs. Deep ravines score the flanks of the hills, and down each ravine dashes a brimming torrent, tossin

climbs, and at last the belt of forest is left behind. He is out on the upper pastures beneath the open sky; he has gained the Alpine region of the Himalayas. Fields of flowers run upwards-of poppies, of edelwe

famous as a tea-growing centre, and Darjiling is approached by a mountain-railway. The latter is a triumph of engineering, so cleverly does it twist an

Indian plains. The first station is some 300 miles from Calcutta and the sea, yet less than

andscape of snowy mountains in the Himalayas. Kanchanjanga is the chief figure in the glorious panorama of snow-clad heights, but Everest can b

nd their praying-flags, long poles of bamboo from which flutter strips of cotton cloth, on which prayers are written. The b

n the middle and combing it down on either side; Bhutras, the women some of them rather pretty, with necklaces, carrying a silver charm-case and with large ear-rings, and the men with pigtails; Nepali women, wi

ich makes the growing of these precious leaves a dangerous task. For the Terai is fearfully unhealthy. Down from the broad flanks of the great range rush a thousand torrents. They overflow their banks and soak the whole country until it is a huge swamp. Then there is a very heavy rainfall, amounting to 120 inches in a year, and this further saturates

me through the region did much towards purifying the air; but firing the jungle is

like a great bed of huge cabbages. Among these bushes groups of coolies, both men and women, are very busily at work, for there is plenty to do, not merely in gathering the leaves, but in keeping the bushes fre

ain. The coolies at work among the plants are gaunt, thin, miserable-looking figures. This is not to be wondered at when their occupation is considered, exposing them as it does to attack after attack

aves are spread out on shallow canvas trays, and left all night to wither. Next morning the leaves are put into the rolling-machine, and after half an hour's rolling they come out in a huge wet mass of leaf. This mass is br

t is dried by hot air, and after that it enters a huge sieve, where the first rough division of the crop is made into large and small leaves. The next sorting is by hand, when nimble