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HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



lowest, comparatively near, is dark, and clothed with 

 forest ; the next, loftier and more distant, stretches 

 steep and bare ; while behind it towers the long white 

 wall of the range of perpetual snow. 



The sunrise at this season of the year is a beautiful 

 spectacle. First the atmosphere above the snow assumes 

 a rosy tint ; the tint deepens, and occasionally beams of 

 light issue from it and spread high into the firmament. 

 Next the sun appears ; the higher peaks for an instant 

 glitter like crystal ; then they and the entire line of 

 mountains disappear in a luminous mist. The mist 

 fades as the sun mounts higher, and presently the lower 

 mountains and the white, snowy range come clearly into 

 view. 



The other morning the sunrise was peculiarly beauti- 

 ful ; the beams of light stretched over the entire heaven, 

 and met again on the opposite horizon ; and at the 

 point where the beams met there was the same rosy 

 tint in the sky as at the point above the mountains 

 from whence they issued. The effect was that of a 

 double sunrise : a sunrise to the east over the Hima- 

 laya and a second sunrise over the boundless plain to 

 the west. 



The similar appearance of a double sunset is not at 

 all unfrequent during the rainy season ; but this of a 

 double sunrise is of extreme rarity. It is so rare, that, 

 except on this one occasion, I never beheld it ; and 

 yet, during my long residence in India, I must have 

 seen the rising of the sun many thousand times. 



The especial beauty of this sunrise was the breadth, 

 the brightness, and the many tints of the beams of 



