xlvi 
INTRODUCTION 
thousands of trees springing up in dense masses on the slopes 
which have been bared by the axe, or still more destructively by 
the fires of the hillmen. 
After about five miles the road enters a dense forest of large 
massive pines, intermixed with two species of sycamore, and a fine 
cherry, which relieve the otherwise too gloomy foliage of the coni- 
ferous trees. A magnificent climbing vine, which attaches itself 
to the tallest trees, rising in light green coils round their trunks, 
and falling in graceful festoons from the branches high overhead, 
adds much to the elegance of the scene, and renders it, in the 
expressive words of Griffith, who was familiar with the rich vege- 
tation of the humid forests of the Eastern Himalaya, the only 
true Himalayan forest of the western mountains. 
On this ascent the road rises to about 9,000 feet, the crest of the 
Mahasu ridge being 9,200 feet. The large size and dense shade of 
the trees, and the abundance of Abies SmitJiiana [Picea Morinda], 
of the sycamore, and of the gigantic vine, give the forest a totally 
different appearance from that of Simla, and the undergrowth pre- 
sents also a considerable amount of novelty ; a species of currant, a 
fine Spiraea, Indigofera atropurpurea, and fine species of Rosa and 
Rubus forming thickets under the tall trees. This forest, indeed, 
from its dense shade and great humidity exhibits a much greater 
contrast to the ordinary temperate vegetation of the Himalaya 
than is usually observed below 9,000 feet, at which elevation the 
upper temperate or subalpine vegetation begins fairly to pre- 
dominate over that which is prevalent from 5,000 to 9,000 feet. 
On the very summit of the Mahasu ridge there are a few trees 
of Quercus semecar pi folia, the alpine oak of the Western Himalaya, 
an European-looking and partially deciduous species, and of Picea 
Webbiana, or Pindrow, the silver fir of the Indian mountains, a 
dark sombre-looking pine, abundant in the forests of the interior. 
These trees may be adopted as the characteristics of the subalpine 
zone, in every part of which, from 9,000 to about 12,000 feet, which 
is the highest limit of tree vegetation in the Western Himalaya, 
they abound. On Mahasu they are entirely confined to the crest 
of the ridge, and form no part of the forest below. 
Eagu is situated immediately above the valley of the river Giri. 
The mountains to the right, which dip into the valley of the Giri, 
are bare of forest, with a good deal of cultivation in small terraced 
fields on the steep sunny slopes. On the left hand, again, the 
deep valley which runs towards the Sutlej is full of forest, not 
rising, however, to the ridge, which is bare, or lined only with 
scattered jungle of Indigofera, Desmodium, Spiraea, roses, and 
brambles, It seems to be a constant rule that the depressions of 
