414 MOUNT SENCHAL. 



cantonment, soon after the first occupation of British 

 vSikkim in 1835, by the Indian Government during the 

 governorship of Lord William Bentinck, who acquired 

 it by cession from the Rajah, as a European Sanitarium, 

 in return for an annual grant in money; and from a 

 military point of view, there can be no doubt that a 

 British force occupying Senchal held an exceedingly 

 strong position, provided that Tiger Hill was duly held 

 by a small fort. Herein, we find the explanation of many 

 of the follies (or what are now reputed as such) committed 

 in former times by the selection of what afterwards proved 

 unsuitable localities from a sanitary point of view, on 

 account of their strategical advantages, or their capacity 

 for defence by a small force against superior numbers. 

 Unhappily the military records of almost every country 

 teem with similar cases, where the advantages of a 

 position in its military and medical aspects appear to 

 be in direct opposition to each other. 



At Senchal, however, these conflicting interests were 

 probably not apparent in the then state of sanitary science, 

 for nothing at first sight could appear finer than its 

 situation. It is impossible to conceive anything grander 

 than the panorama of the great Himalayan snowy range, 

 seen from these heights, from whence the mighty Kin- 

 chinjunga (28,156 feet) and many other peaks of 20,000 

 feet each, and upwards, are visible towering to the sky 

 both on the northern and the western horizon ; indeed 

 a careful examination with a good glass shows more 

 than one peak far to the N.W., and probably in the 

 territory of Nepaul, whose altitude seems (at that great 

 distance) to be quite as great as that of Kinchinjunga. 

 Then facing round the other way towards the south- 

 ward, the spectator gazes down into an abyss of 



