236 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
tide is marked by the arrival of hundreds of women 
on the river-bank, who bear away in earthen pots 
the sweet muddy waters of the Ganges before the 
return of the salt water from the sea. To live in a 
boat in the Sundarbans is charming, for you have 
the means of escape under your feet ; to live on land 
must be horrible in the extreme, and from this fate 
at least the Forest Officer is spared. 
Everyone who has been to India knows Darjee- 
ling; thousands visit it yearly if only to catch a 
glimpse in the far distance of the highest mountain 
in the world, though of course Kinchinjunga is 
infinitely more striking on account of its proximity. 
But it is perhaps not altogether to be regretted that 
the frequent clouds at Darjeeling clothe this mag- 
nificent mountain with mystery, and even at times 
hide it from view; for were it otherwise familiarity 
might breed contempt in some, and in others a 
painful sense of inferiority under the calm stare 
of this majestic hill. During ten days of a clear, 
frosty Christmas we enjoyed an uninterrupted view 
of the Himalaya, most charming, perhaps, when 
framed in the evergreen foliage along some forest 
road, or when the precipitous mountain-sides were 
barred with many colours at evening. 
As is frequent in European hill-settlements, the 
forestry question was of importance. In Simla it is 
the fuel-supply that gives trouble ; in Darjeeling the 
milk-supply adds to the difficulty. It is the primi- 
tive custom of the East to turn into the forest herds 
of cattle of mixed sexes, and abstract from them on 
their return: such milk as may be available. The 
habit is a cheap and nasty form of dairy-farming. 
