Moving east along the Himalayan slopes, the next point of interest is the small town of Simla. This is important, not in itself, but as the seat of government in the summer, when the Viceroy and his staff escape to its cool heights from the burning plain 7,000 feet below. "By the time the month of May is advancing the season for Simla has begun. The Viceroy and his Government, with some of the official classes, have arrived, and the world of Anglo-Indian fashion have assembled. Social gatherings on the greensward underneath the rocks, overshadowed by the fir, pine, and cedar, are of daily occurrence. The rich bloom of the rhododendrons lends gorgeousness to the scene.
"The place is like a gay Swiss city isolated on the mountain-top, with dark ilex forests around it, blue hills beyond, and the horizon ever whitened by the Snowy Range. But in this paradise, tempting the mind to banish care and forget affairs of State, the most arduous business is daily conducted. Red-liveried messengers are running to and fro all the day and half the night. Tons of letters and dispatches come and go daily. Here are gathered up the threads of an Empire. Hence issue the orders affecting perhaps one-sixth of the human race."
In winter Simla is deserted. The Viceroy and his staff, the gay world of fashion, all have gone back to the plains, and in severe weather the little town often lies deep in snow.
Simla lies near the Siwalik Hills, one of the many foot-ranges which lead up to the greater heights of the Himalayas, and the Siwalik Hills are famous, because through them the sacred Ganges bursts out upon the plains of Hindostan. It is at the city of Hard war that the Ganges forces its bright blue stream through a wild gorge and leaves the mountains for ever; and Hardwar is a holy place. The city lies in the gorge beside the stream. It has one principal street running along the river; the others mount the hill-side as steeply as staircases. Temples and ghats line the bank, and hither come vast numbers of pilgrims to the great annual fair of Hardwar to bathe in the holy river. At that time the country round resembles a vast encampment, "and all the races, faces, costumes, customs, and languages of the East, from Persia to Siam, from Ceylon to Siberia, are represented."
CHAPTER VI
AMONG THE HIMALAYAS (continued)
But to see the Himalayas in all their majesty we must still keep our faces to the east, and travel on towards the great central knot, where Mount Everest and the Kanchanjanga spring nearly 30,000 feet, about five and a half miles, towards the sky. Of these two mountain giants Mount Everest, though the highest measured mountain in the world, presents the less imposing appearance. This is because it lies so far in the interior of the range, and is surrounded by a girdle of snowy peaks which seem to gather about and protect their lord. They, however, block the way for a complete view of the enormous height, and thus seem to dwarf it.
THE GOLDEN TEMPLE, AMRITSAR. Page 18.
For majestic splendour, Kanchanjanga bears away the palm. From the vale of the great Ranjit River, a huge rushing torrent which pours past its base, the whole immense mountain-slope may be surveyed in a single prospect, a most sublime and splendid view. The traveller who climbs the flanks of this great mountain will pass through belts of vegetation reminding him of every zone on the earth's surface. He begins his climb among the eternal green of tropical forests, through thickly-matted jungle where large creepers bind tree to tree, and great bunches of gaudily-coloured flowers blaze in the scorching heat of the tropical sun.