MYSTERY OF THE FOREST 15 



foxes, squirrels, and bats ; birds as various as hawks, 

 parrots, and finches ; and insects from butterflies, 

 bees, and wasps to crickets, beetles, and ants. The 

 forest, we know, in addition to all the wealth of tree 

 and plant life, is teeming with animal and insect 

 life, though of this we are able to see very little, so 

 carefully do animals conceal themselves. In the 

 night they emerge, and in the morning and evening 

 there is a deafening din of insect Me. But at noon- 

 day there is a soft and solemn hush, and we are tense 

 with curiosity to know all that is going on in those 

 mysterious forest depths and up among the tree- 

 tops, so close but so impossible of access. 



The great forest is the very epitome of life. 

 Concentrated here in small compass is every form 

 and variety of living thing, from lowliest plant to 

 forest monarch, from simplest animalcule to 

 elephant, monkey, and man. There is life and 

 abundant life all about us. But it is not the noisy, 

 clamorous, obtrusive life of the city. It is a still, 

 intense life, full of untold possibilities for good or 

 harm. And herein lies its mystery : we see much, 

 but we feel that there is infinitely more behind. 



Of this life of the forest in all its richness, in- 

 tensity, and variety we shall come to know more as 

 we ascend the Teesta Valley till it reaches the 

 snows, and tropical plant and animal life changes 

 first to temperate and then to arctic forms. But 

 first we must note some beauties of the valley itself. 



The valley of the great Teesta River, the valleys 

 of its tributaries, the gorges through which the main 

 river and its tributaries rush, the cascades pouring 



