88 KINCHINJUNGA 



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smaller, more varied in kind, of a brilliant green, 

 and contrast with grey limestone and red sandstone 

 rocks. Still, even of the forest between Kurseong 

 and Darjiling, Hooker says that it is difficult to 

 conceive a grander mass of vegetation — the straight 

 shafts of the timber trees shooting aloft, some 

 naked and clean with grey, pale, or brown bark ; 

 others literally clothed for yards with a continuous 

 garment of epiphytes (air-plants), one mass of 

 blossoms, especially the white orchids, coelogynes, 

 which bloom in a profuse manner, whitening their 

 trunks like snow. More bulky trunks bear masses 

 of interlacing climbers — vines, hydrangea, and 

 peppers. And often the supporting tree has long 

 ago decayed away and their climbers now enclose 

 a hollow. Perpetual moisture nourishes this 

 dripping forest, and pendulous mosses and lichens 

 are met with in profusion. 



For this forest life, however, we cannot at 

 present spare the attention that is its due, for we 

 want above all things to see the mountains on the 

 far side of this outer ridge. Tropical forests may 

 be seen in many other parts of the world. But 

 only here on all the Earth can we see mountains on 

 so magnificent a scale. So we do not pause, but 

 cross the ridge and come to the slopes and spurs 

 which face northward, away from the plains and 

 towards the main range of the Himalaya. 



Here is situated Darjiling, which ought to be 

 set apart as a sacred place of pilgrimage for all the 

 world. Directly facing the snowy range and set 

 in the midst of a vast forest of oaks and laurels, 

 rhododendrons, magnolias, and camellias, the 



