magnified by the cold grey mist, they must seem transformed into an army of mysterious spirits—so pale and dreamy, appearing and disappearing amid the vapours like gigantic blue phantoms.

But to-day the forest was all bathed in sunshine, and the glowing light shone on great red stems and glossy layers of green, studded with paler cones, and the air was scented with the breath of wild flowers, and resinous fir-needles. Presently the hillwomen assembled from far and near, with their little ones, to inspect the first white woman-so still called from courtesy, though in truth retaining small claim to such a distinction !—who had penetrated to their fastnesses. Some of them were strikingly handsome, with very fair complexions, and masses of beautiful dark hair; having moreover calm, thoughtful faces, that agreed well with the deep, dreamy eyes of these children of the forests.

As usual, we could fraternise only by signs, for I hardly knew a dozen words of Hindustani, and not one of the semi-Thibet patois spoken in the hills. But though we could not exchange ideas, the human courtesies are always easily understood, and the novelty of watching a sketch being made, and the pleasurable alarm of looking through my opera-glasses, was sufficient attraction to keep them happy for some hours. As to my watch, it had unfortunately ceased to tick, a matter however of very small importance, where the position of the sun and its lengthening shadows were an allsufficient guide for such vague laws of time as those we owned.

These lassies, thus assembled in picturesque groups around the little temple, afforded a good standard of size, whereby to judge of the real magnitude of the stately giants which overshadowed them. At first the mind could hardly take in the possibility of anything much grander!

Yet I suppose that scarcely one tree in that group could have much exceeded thirty feet in girth; so that, in the wonderful scale of Creation these are, after all, mere pigmies compared with some of the mammoths of the New World-the stupendous cedars of California.1

1 For notes on the glorious Californian forests, see Granite Crags, by C. F. Gordon Cumming. Blackwood and Son.

Yet while I am driven to confess that my dear cedars of Kunai cannot claim a foremost rank among the giants of the tree world as regards actual size, I do maintain that no group more stately and majestic ever ruled in the broad greenwood, in any corner of the globe, and many a time they rise before my memory as a vision of beauty that sadly dwarfs the smaller growth of other lands.

It was quite distressing to have to turn away again, but the afternoon was drawing on, and the long steep descent proved fully more difficult than even the morning's climb, so that the snows were sunset-flushed, and the valley bathed in purple evening light, long ere we reached the pleasant bungalow, where an evening of rest, and of music, proved even more acceptable than usual.

From Kilba we were sorely tempted to diverge, and explore the lovely Baspa Valley, at least as far as the village of Sangla, where the climate in summer is said to be quite delightful. It is beyond the influence of the rains; and for months together we might there have found the bliss of one long summer's day, feasting on the grapes which abound throughout the Koonawar district, and which are fine and of excellent flavour. They are of many varieties, some of which are made into wine; others dried and exported to Thibet.

The Baspa Valley is about sixty miles long, and mostly is richly cultivated, or else is green pasture land, with rivulets, flowers, and fruit trees. The valley is sometimes wide, sometimes narrow, dotted with most picturesque villages. The hills are clothed with cedar, walnut, pine, and birch, above which rise the glittering snowpeaks. A rise of 8,000 feet brings you to the source of the river, near which there is no wood, only a wide grassy valley, with grassy hills on either side, and the snow-ridge appearing just above.

Many pleasant plans were discussed for exploring this paradise. Could we have lingered for one blissful month, our homeward march would have been quite delightful, as we should have altogether missed the rains. However, having already obtained a short extension of leave, there was no possibility of extracting more; so with sore reluctance we turned from all this unattainable beauty to face the wet world which we knew awaited us within a couple of marches.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHILDREN OF THE MIST.

Unprotected Females" in Ramnee Forest-Fleas !-Noise-Himalayan Collie Dogs-A Dear Dog-Life in the Forests-Thunder-storm-Mists -Locusts-Scarlet and Crimson Grain-fields-Rough Night QuartersKotghur Mission Station-Orchard-Wild Flowers-In Hatto ForestSimla in the Rains-Leeches-Start to Spend a Month at MassourieJourney to Umballa.

"To roam at large among unpeopled glens
And mountainous retirements, only trod
By devious footsteps: regions consecrate
To oldest Time! and while the mists
Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes
And phantoms from the crags and solid earth,
. . . And while the streams

Descending from the region of the clouds
And starting from the hollow of the earth

More multitudinous every moment, rend

Their way before them-what a joy to roam
An equal among mightiest energies!"

OUR next camping-ground was in the dark forest of Ramnee. Thither the would-be sportsmen had preceded us, in search, as usual, of those mythical bears. We two ladies preferred remaining a few days longer at Kilba. When, however, we judged that it was time to follow, we started one afternoon for Ramnee. On arriving, we received a message that the gentlemen had prolonged their hunting expedition, and had gone for some days to higher ground.

I believe that in our innermost hearts we were both very much delighted at the novelty of finding ourselves thus literally "unprotected females" in this wild place; so on the morrow we pitched our tiny tent (we had but one) on an open space in the heart of the great forest. On the night of our arrival we and our coolies were so weary that we dispensed with even the exertion of unpacking the tent, and made the best of a room in a wretched old bungalow. Luckily the night was dry, as we could see a foot of star-lit sky at intervals through the shingle roof! But oh!! the fleas the starving host of fleas ! "No sleep till morn, when flesh and hunger meet!" We reminded one another of the gentleman who complained to his landlord of the bugs in his lodgings. The host indignantly asserted that there was not a single bug in his house. "Right you are," was the reply, "for they are all very much married, and have large families!"

Assuredly the fleas of Ramnee had multiplied as miraculously as those other nice insects in the Egyptian plagues. Like them, they invaded all our property, and though on the morrow we rose up in haste and pitched our tent as far off as we dared, hoping to shake off all memory of our miserable night, our tormentors migrated in our baggage, and formed a flourishing colony in our new abode! We dared not move our tent farther from the servants' fire, for fear of the leopards, which abound.

Another crook in our lot was the incessant noise. We had imagined that here at least we should surely be allowed to revel undisturbed in the blessed stillness of the mountains, but, as usual, we were doomed to disappointment. Hundreds of wild Paharis were at work in the forests all round us; while others were hammering away early and late at a new bungalow, which was to be the home of the Officer of the Forests, who was one of the shooting party. In truth, all our visions of the grand stillness of these ancient forests had long ago been dispelled. Wherever we went, Sunday and week-day alike-from early dawn till deepening twilight-the unvarying noise of the axe, the crash of trees smashing over rocks far down the khad, and the incessant

monotonous chant and refrain of the coolies as they work, greeted our wearied ears, varied by the barking of dogs at night, or the Hindoo chatter and hubble-bubble, which seem never to cease. So we were fain to spend much of each day in a nook close by the stream, whose ceaseless noise, in some measure, drowned the human voice.

The forest in which we now were, much resembled that of Poindah, the tall tapering spires of morinda, rye, and kindred pines greatly predominating over the deodar. One dark hill towered behind another, all pine-clad, and beyond lay the Shatool Pass, where the sportsmen were encamped; a pass just the height of Mont Blanc, but overlooked by one great peak towering five thousand feet higher.

"A peak of dread

That to the evening sun uplifts

The griesly gulfs and slaty rifts
Which seam its shivered head."

A magnificent crown to this savage forest scenery, a crest where oft-times the eternal sunshine rests steadfastly, while dark clouds gather round its base, and the voice of rolling thunder whispers of the raging storms that have shattered so many of the grand old trees, and of the wild winds that have uprooted others, leaving the depths of the forest strewn with priceless timber, rotting where it fell.

The rocks hereabouts include granites of divers colours; also mica schist, which we were told is full of garnets. We did not care, however, to add our hammering to the various distracting noises; but rather loved to sit in idleness beneath green leaves, sometimes watching the great logs gliding down long grassy slopes from the crags above, right down to the river, sometimes content with merely watching the light drapery of mist, the silvery cloud that sometimes

"Lost its way between the piney sides of this long glen;"

and that curled and twined in and out among, the dark trees, as though it could not escape.