Gerardii). Its stem is of the most silvery white, like that of a very smooth birch, and its cones are full of oblong seeds which are obtained by half roasting the cone. They are very nice and nutty, though generally rather charred in the process of extraction. This tree abounds here, and runs up as high as the birch and juniper level. Then come the slopes of short green grass, which some one has compared to the twilight, gleaming softly between the broad expanse of dark forest gloom, and the dazzling dome of snow, which glitters in the eternal sunshine; not a bad threefold description of the great, grand mountain, from the very base of which we looked up, feeling ourselves such insignificant pigmies as our glance travelled upward, past great walls of black rock, and green glaciers, and sharp pinnacles of dark crag, right up to the summit of the great mountain mass, which towers to a height of 21,000 feet; a mountain "Whose head in wintry grandeur towers And whitens with eternal sleet, While Summer in a veil of flowers Is sleeping rosy at his feet." Pigmies though we were mid scenes of such stupendous grandeur, we were very happy in the little white tents on those glorious moonlight nights of never-to-be-forgotten beauty. And all night long, great fires blazed to scare away the leopards, which we knew abounded, and though unluckily we never had the luck of seeing them, we knew that they were none the less prowling silently round the camp, ready to make short work of the dogs should they venture only a few yards into the darkness, and so give their watchful foe a chance of making a sudden spring, and taking them unawares. The servants revelled in the warmth of the great cheery bonfires, and lay close round the fire curled up in their blankets, and all was very peaceful and still. When our eyes could spare time to gaze earthward, they had the joy of resting on many lovely wild flowers-specially abundant were the deep blue gentians. I am told that about one march further, we might have seen handsome wild hollyhocks, crimson and deep mauve. Kansum pass, we HIMALAYAN EDELWEISS. 445 Moreover, had we gone on to Spiti beyond the should have found the edelweiss growing so abundantly, that in places it literally covers the ground, and travellers sometimes select camping-grounds where their tents are furnished with a thick carpet of these much-lauded woolly blossoms. It was with unutterable regret and many a lingering backward look towards all the unexplored beauty we were about to leave (more especially that lovely group of peaks up the valley), that we were forced to bid adieu to beautiful Rarung, and turn once more towards civilisation. Happily, however, we had not got there yet; and still allowed ourselves some pleasant days in the happy valley. Even here, however, some rain contrived to come, making it a great matter of exultation occasionally to find that some huge stone had so poised itself above the roots of some great cedar-tree as to form a natural sketching tent just in the right place! We had now added considerably to our anxieties by having adopted a large family of young chicor, little baby partridges; which we hoped to be able to rear and take home. I need scarcely say, that one after another died, and our little nursery was sadly reduced ere we reached Simla. However, they amused us considerably, being beautiful little creatures. To avoid too closely retracing our steps, we determined to cross the Sutlej at Urni, and explore some of the grand primeval forests which are all too quickly disappearing before the ruthless British axe. We had been promised a welcome from Mr. Paul and his sister, who had made their pleasant home in this wilderness, and who had undertaken to have the jula or rope-bridge put in good order for our benefit. We were therefore considerably dismayed when the mate, that is, the head man of the village, assured us that there was certainly no jula at Urni, and the nearest was three miles down the river at Chergaon, and utterly unsafe; the last person who had attempted to cross by it, the previous week, having been drowned. Of course the servants were terrified, and the coolies vowed they would not risk their lives. However, we had too much faith in our friends to believe in the unsoundness of the bridge, and (tantalizing as it was to look down on their bungalow at Kilba1 just opposite to us) we started on a very rough three miles' scramble to Chergaon, where, sure enough, we found a most horribly unsafe jula-four ropes, quite decayed, stretching from rock to rock, while far below raged the turbid river, swollen by the mass of melted snow, and tossing up angry waves, whose spray, blending with the heavy morning mist, made the farther bank almost invisible. It was evidently impossible for us all to cross, and the question was how to get a message sent to Kilba for new ropes. While we were anxiously discussing the knotty point, one of our party, an officer of the 60th Rifles,2 having made up his mind that the ropes would bear his weight, and that in any case it was fairer to risk his own life than that of a servant, had quietly taken his place in the coil of rope, which was the only seat provided, and gave the signal to the men on the other side to draw him over. We could not hear their voices for the raging of the flood, but they wrung their hands, and evidently implored not to be compelled to obey, while the coolies round us added their protestations as to the imminent danger of the proceeding. However, British sangfroid had made its calculations, and in another minute the little coil of rope, containing the plucky atom of humanity, was trembling in mid-air, the mad river boiling and foaming below, and any accident involving certain death. It was a moment of breathless anxiety when a hitch in the rope kept the coil poised in mid-air for some seconds before it could be dragged up to the rock, and with thankful relief we could just discern through the mist a dozen strong arms out-stretched to draw it in. We knew it would be several hours before the new ropes could arrive, so made up our minds for a quiet picnic, and having now time to look around us, we were much struck by the 1 The Sutlej at Kilba is 6,000 feet above the sea-level. It descends 1,000 feet ere reaching Wangtu, where its elevation is about 5,000 feet. 2 Lieut. O'Brien. |