4 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



ahead. The swamps and tall feathery jungle-grass of 

 the Terai had been passed in the darkness twenty miles 

 astern, and had given place to the dark green forests of 

 the Bhabar through which the road was cut. This great 

 belt of jungle, principally a close mass of tall evergreen 

 sal trees, extends all along the base of the foot hills for 

 hundreds of miles and ten to twenty in width, scarcely 

 penetrated except on elephants, when the jungle fires 

 have cleared out the luxuriant undergrowth which springs 

 up in the rains. It is the home of every wild animal, from 

 the elephant downwards. Troops of great white langur 

 apes, with long tails and black grinning faces and hands, 

 bound across the path and leap from tree to tree. 



The approach to the mighty Himalayas, after seeing 

 nothing but the dead level of the plains for so long, is 

 very impressive, and strikes the traveller with strange 

 anticipations. There above and before him tower the 

 great forest-clad hills. Under his feet are actual round 

 stones, which remind him of northern highlands, and in 

 the blue haze of the mountains above he fancies he can 

 see precipices of real solid rock. Beyond those distant 

 summits which rise one over another, he knows, though 

 he cannot see them, that there lies the everlasting snow- 

 clad range of the most lofty mountains in the world. The 

 snowy range can be seen only rarely from Bareilly, on 

 clear days glistening like opal among the clouds loo 

 miles away. No wonder that the natives of the plains 

 reverence, and fear to approach, these mysterious moun- 

 tains, and do not credit that any man could walk up 

 there without falling down. The inhabitants of the vast 

 plains of Bengal and the Doab have most of them never 

 seen a stone, as the level and dusty surface is all deep 

 alluvial. To those even who have lived in moderately 

 hilly countries, the sudden rise from the plains of the huge 



