88 FLORA OF THE 



as we think them to have been. They did not seem to 

 venerate things that were unworthy of veneration. 



It is well for us now to look upon the Himalayas 

 as caused by the cooling and shrinking of the earth, 

 producing corrugations (and such corrugations !) of the 

 earth's crust, not unlike the corrugations of our shrivelled 

 skin in old age ; and that ice, torrents, and wind, etc., 

 have denuded their corrugations and fashioned them 

 as we see them now. I say all this is very well for 

 us now, and appears simple enough. 



But let us, in imagination, go back ten thousand 

 years, or more, and see those primitive explorers 

 toiling up those eternal and stupendous mountains. 

 They toil over hills and along valleys, behold torrents 

 here, forests of unknown trees there, smashings of 

 peaks, through frost and lightning, and so forth. They 

 see the end of their journey up among the clouds. 

 They climb into the clouds and lose all sight of the 

 earth they left behind, and finally, in their search for 

 God, they reach the eternal ice. On the fringe of 

 this eternal ice they behold gigantic trees emerging 

 out of the rocks, and of astonishing height, reaching 

 further up into the clouds, and of astonishing thick- 

 ness, such as no one had before seen — these must be 

 the oldest trees in creation! — their cone-like fruits lying 

 scattered on the ground. 



Is it in the least to be wondered that those un- 



