132 An April Climb in the Himalayas. 



owing to the wholesale destruction that has smitten these 

 splendid woods, and to the continual sound of the fatal axe, 

 which alone seems to break the stillness of the solitude, 

 announcing, but too plainly, the inevitable doom that hangs 

 •over the face of nature in this region. 



Amongst the multitude of trees which make up the forests 

 of the Lower Himalayas, the magnolias and rhododendrons 

 .are most striking ; and, in the season of bloom, their splendour 

 exceeds, perhaps, anything else of the kind in the world : not 

 that the trees are individually handsomer or finer than many 

 other objects of the vegetable kingdom, but their great size, im- 

 mense numbers, and profuse inflorescence, and last, not least, 

 the localities where they grow — on the summits and slopes of 

 the hills — which are eminently adapted to show them to the 

 best advantage, come upon the observer in such grand com- 

 bination as utterly to set aside the lesser, but, perhaps more 

 Ibrilliant glory of more contracted views. 



Magnolia excelsa, a lofty and stately tree, displays an almost 

 incredible number of white, fragrant flowers, which render 

 ..even a solitary specimen conspicuous amidst the greenery of 

 the woods fully a mile away ; Rhododendron argenteum crowns 

 the summit of the hills, and its glistening and silvery blossoms, 

 in the aggregate, present to the beholder, at a distance, much 

 the same effect as that of a recent fall of snow ; and Magnolia 

 Campbelli, a contorted and ungainly giant, at present without 

 leaves, and with few and unsymmetrical branches, offers such 

 a glorious show of rose-purple flowers that it must, in truth, 

 be acknowledged as the pride of these mountain woods. It 

 does not grow on the lower hills, but is abundant near the 

 summit, and on the upper slopes. 



Wild-flowers are, as yet, far from plentiful, a hardy few, 

 onl} T , having opened their blossoms to greet the returning 

 spring • but, conspicuous from its brilliant azure and extreme 

 beauty, the little Gentiana coronata cannot fail to attract 

 attention, and elicit warm admiration. A purple foxglove and 

 a pale violet (Viola repens) are also abundant; and, on the 

 higher altitudes, the familiar forms of many other European 

 genera, speak home to the heart of the traveller, who welcomes 

 the little, humble-looking plants of his boyish recollections 

 with thrice the warmth accorded to the more gorgeous children 

 of the eastern sun. 



Animal life is scarce in these dark, moss-grown, mysterious 

 forests, reeking with moisture, and abounding in the most 

 wondrous forms of the vegetable world ; and even the occa- 

 sional note of some lonely bird breaks on the ear as wild, and 

 strange, and out of place, amidst the vastncss of the solitude, 

 where, it would almost seem, man stood apart from earth, and in 



