430 THE SACREDNESS OF HIGH PLACES. 



so serious, increased as they are almost sure to be by 

 the monsoonal rains. The eastern rivers of India, in 

 Bengal, and elsewhere, are of course affected in the same 

 way, and during the height of the monsoonal rains 

 the Ganges and the Brahmaputra sometimes resemble 

 arms of the sea. 



In many places among great mountains the ceaseless 

 thunder of these mighty torrents, may be heard echo- 

 ing among the hills with a volume of sound which 

 fills the mind of the listeners with awe and wonder, 

 and though their deep and sullen roar may be some- 

 what diminished by night, it often remains so loud as 

 to banish sleep from the eyes of those unused to it 

 to others again it sounds Jike the voice of precious 

 music to the ear, and seems to be continually telling 

 of the greatness and sublimity of Nature, which is 

 nowhere more apparent than on the ocean or among 

 great mountains. 



In the East, high mountains are almost universally 

 regarded as sacred places. In India this is specially 

 so among persons of the Hindu religion, who hold 

 the sources of the sacred river Ganges, where it rises 

 amid the Himalayan snows, in the deepest reverence. 

 The true source of this river is deemed by them to 

 be a point near Gangotri (situated in about Lat. 30 

 55' N., Long. 70 56' E.) * 10,300 feet above the level 

 of the sea, where it issues from an ice cave, at the 

 foot of a Himalayan glacier, f One of the best de- 

 scriptions of this spot is to be found in the sporting 

 tour of Colonel Markham, 32nd Regiment, made through 

 this district about 1853, who says, 



* Index Geographicus of Lat. and Long, compiled for Keith Johnston's 

 Royal Atlas, 1864. 



f See Encycl. Brit., Vol. x., p. 68. (Art. " Ganges. ") 



