FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE HIMALAYAN FOREST 7 



undergrowth. The sunny sides of the ravines bristle with 

 cactus-hke prickly stems of the five-sided euphorbia.* 

 Cultivation in terraces appears in the valleys, where rice 

 has been grown, and villages of stone-built houses roofed 

 with shingles are occasionally met with. The inhabitants 

 are of a new character, being Kumaon paharts, or hill-men, 

 a hard-working and wiry race. Near the villages are 

 plantain groves laden with spikes of fine fruit, and lemons 

 and pommeloes adorn the gardens. Apricots, ginger, 

 and oranges are also grown. The zamindars, or land- 

 owners, are better clothed and healthier-looking than 

 those of the plains, but goitre is not infrequent. The 

 lower villages are mostly deserted in the hot weather, 

 and the families move higher up. Charcoal-burning is 

 largely practised ; and the smelting of iron, which is found 

 in the hills, has long been an industry, as shown by aban- 

 doned smelting furnaces and limekilns rudely built of 

 sandstone. 



A strange queer bird frequents these lower forests, 

 called the rhinoceros hombill.f He flaps along from tree 

 to tree, as big as a goose, with dull yellow and black 

 plumage, short wings, like a huge magpie, and long tail, 

 making a panting sound like the piston of an engine ; 

 but his huge head, with Israelitish expression, is his most 

 remarkable feature, and the great yellow and scarlet 

 knob on his hooked bill gives him a top-heavy appearance. 

 He hghts on a bough as if he had never done so before, 

 and balances himself with difficulty, only saving himself 

 from falling by jerks of his ugly tail. He looks down at 

 an intruder with a cunning expression in his small beady 

 eye, and when he opens his big mouth there is a noise 

 that would frighten a jackass of the strongest nerves. 



* Euphorbia pentaptera. 

 t Dichoceros bicornis. 



