FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE HIMALAYAN FOREST 5 



mountains of the Himalayas, with slopes and buttresses 

 extending seventy miles from the summit, seeming like 

 a great wall rising straight up from the plain, as the first 

 view breaks suddenly on the sight, is mysterious and 

 impressive, and hard to realize. 



Let us sit and wonder at this scene in the verandah 

 of the friendly rest-house which a parental Government 

 has erected at Kaladungi (' Black Forest '), where neces- 

 sary refreshment is supplied at a trifling expense. Fresh 

 eggs and crisp chapatis are not bad fare, and the flavour 

 and aroma of hill tea that comes straight from the Kumaon 

 tea gardens, with sweet goat's milk, are not to be surpassed. 



The group of chattering kahars, or dooly-bearers, who 

 sit near the verandah, smoking their hubble-bubbles, 

 squatting on their heels wrapped in brown blankets, as 

 if it was freezing, reminds one that these tired, half-naked 

 and very starv^ed-looking natives of the fever-stricken 

 Terai are waiting for their backshish, and anxious to re- 

 turn to their villages some twenty miles distant. Soon 

 they are dismissed with a rupee among the lot, to add to 

 the six annas each man has already received from the 

 chaudhri, with perhaps the usual deductions. They are 

 bad specimens of a nimble-footed and wiry race being 

 decimated at this season by Terai fever, and cannot com- 

 pare with the Rohilkhand kahar, who can do his sixty 

 miles at a trot and eat only once a day. 



Soon it is time to be stirring, as to-night we shall sleep 

 7,000 feet above the sea, in the beautiful sanatorium of 

 Naini Tal. 



A hill pony of the Bhotia race, sturdy and shaggy and 

 about thirteen hands high, is ready for the ascent ; and 

 paharis, or hill coolies, are started by the chaprasi in 

 charge, carrying the bedding and light baggage. The 

 ser\^ants, horses, and heavy baggage will arrive some days 



