THE SYLVAN WONDERS OF SIKKIM 89 



Spanish conquerors, and with these, plantations of the American 

 ;iL,^ave, whicli, among other uses, provides the Mexican with his 

 favourite beverage. The oaks acquire a sturdier growth ; and 

 at an elevation of about eight thousand feet, the dark forests 

 of pine announce that he has entered the tierra fHa, or cold 

 region, — the third and last of the great natural terraces into 

 which the country is divided. 



Loaded with vapours, the prevailing southerly sea-winds, 

 after crossing the dead level occupied by the delta of the 

 Granges and Burrampooter, strike against the mountain-spurs 

 of Sikkim, the dampest region of that stupendous chain, 

 i and, expending their moisture on their flanks, clothe them 

 : with a thick mantle of verdure to an enormous height. 

 ; The giant peaks of Donkiah, Kinchinghow, and Kinchinginga, 

 the third great mountain of the world (28,178 feet), equalling 

 i in height more than two Mont Blancs piled one above the 

 other, and as far as we know, only surpassed in altitude by the 

 Korakorum (28,278 feet) and Mount Everest (29,002 feet), 

 form the culminating points of this magnificently wooded re- 

 gion, and look down upon the dense forests which, varying as 

 they rise, extend between the plains of Bengal and their own 

 perpetual snows. 



The railway from Calcutta to Kadjmahal on the Ganges 

 * has placed the wonders of Sikkim within easy range of the 

 ; traveller ; for as the foot of the Himalaya is not much more 

 ! than a hundred miles from the capital of our Indian empire, a 

 few days' travelling suffices to reach the Sanatorium of Dor- 

 ' jiling, which, at an elevation of 7000 feet in the Sikkim moun- 

 tains, greets the European with the bracing coolness of his 

 native land. 



The distance from the Bengal plain to Dorjiling is hardly 

 more than eighty miles, and about as much from Dorjiling 

 to the regions of perpetual snow ; so that in a very short time 

 the botanist is here able to wander through every zone of vege- 

 tation, and through every variety of climate, from the heat of 

 the tropical plain to the confines of perpetual winter. 



Dark green forests, of an exclusively tropical character, cover 

 lie valleys and declivities to a height of from 4000 to 5000 



