2 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



reo-ions of Northern Burma and the Chinese 

 borderland. 



Viewed from the south the Himalaya seems to rise 

 like a sheer wall direct from the alluvial plains of 

 India. The snowy range is visible from a great 

 distance. On a clear day the white outline of the 

 peaks can be seen over a distance of 1 50 miles, and 

 a conspicuous summit may display its white crest 

 against the sky at more than 200 miles away. This 

 prospect over so vast a distance is visible only on the 

 clearest day. Otherwise the mountains are concealed 

 from view. The atmosphere is so often permeated 

 with a fine dust that the vision of distant objects is 

 obscured, and the Himalaya then appears, not as a 

 white glistening line of snow, but as a gloomy uninvit- 

 ing mass hidden in a veil of dust and not unlike a 

 bleak headland appearing through an ocean mist. 



On approaching nearer to the mountains their lines 

 grow more firm, their summits more distinct. From 

 the level plain we seem to gaze upon a rocky wall. 

 We are too close beneath the mass to see the suc- 

 cessive ranges rising in ascending slopes, and the 

 confronting barrier of the lower hills conceals the 

 scene of chaos that lies behind. The mountains seem 

 to stand like a sheer precipice towering above an 

 alluvial bed, and to limit the broad expanse of plain 

 with an almost perpendicular wall. It is the sudden 

 contrast between plain and mountain that is the 

 striking feature in the landscape. Their junction 

 more resembles the face of a great cleft than the 

 denuded slope of a gentle fold. The contrast is 

 abrupt. The eye moves unchallenged over the vast 

 expanse of plain till it meets the sheer Himalayan 



