FIRST SIGHT OF HIMALAYA 11 



Another beautiful tree which is found in this 

 lower part is the Acacia catechu, known in Northern 

 India as the Khair tree, and found all about the 

 foothills of the Himalaya. Not tall and stately, 

 but rather contorted and ample like the oak, it has 

 a graceful feathery foliage and a kindly inviting 

 nature. 



Proceeding over these level plains, which as we 

 approach the mountains are covered with dense 

 forest, stagnant morasses, and trim tea-gardens, 

 we one morning awake to find that over the horizon 

 to the north hangs a long cloud-like strip, white 

 suffused with pink — ^level on its lower edge but 

 with the upper edge irregular in outline. No one 

 who had not seen snow mountains before would 

 suppose for a moment that that strip could be a line 

 of mountain summits. For there is not a trace of 

 any connection with the earth. Between it and 

 the earth is nothing but blue haze. And it is so 

 high above the horizon that it seems incredible that 

 any such connection could exist. Yet no one who 

 had seen snow mountains could doubt for an instant 

 that that rose-flushed strip of white was the Hima- 

 laya. For it possesses two unmistakable charac- 

 teristics which distinguish it from any cloud. 

 Firstly, the lower edge is absolutely straight and 

 horizontal : it is exactly parallel with the horizon. 

 Secondly, the upper edge is jagged, and the outline 

 of the jaggedness cuts clean and perfectly defined 

 against the intense blue of the sky. 



No one who knows mountains could doubt that 

 this linewas the Himalaya, yet every time we see it 



