neither Hindústhani nor English, much less their own Tibetan dialect, had been beating them because they could not understand him. This was Dr Stoliczka, a mild, gentlemanly member of the late Yarkand Mission; and the cause of his energy in Spiti was that, shortly before, in Lahaul, several of his coolies had perished from cold, owing to disobedience of his orders, and, being a humane man, he was anxious to guard against the recurrence of such an event. But when treating of Kashmír I shall speak more openly about the story of Hayward's death, and only wish to note here the testimony in his favour which was borne by the experienced "Ranger of the Himalaya," who has become almost one in feeling with the people among whom he dwells.

In the centre of this Terai, there is an expensively built police chowki, in which I took refuge from the extreme heat of the day; but what police have to do there, unless to apprehend tigers, does not appear at first sight. It is quite conceivable, however, that the conservatory might become a convenient place of refuge for wild and lawless men, as well as for wild plants and wild beasts. Hence the presence in its midst of these representatives of law and order, who hailed the visit of a Sahib with genuine delight. The delay here prevented me reaching the cultivated valley of the Dehra Doon till midnight, so torches were lit long before we left the thicker part of the Terai; their red light made the wild jungle look wilder than ever, and it was with a feeling of relief that we came upon the first gardens and tea-plantations. There is no place in India, unless perhaps the plateaus of the Blue Mountains, which reminds one so much of England

as the little valley of the Dehra Doon; and Sir George Campbell has well observed that no district has been so happily designed by nature for the capital of an Anglo-Indian empire. It lies between the Sewalik or sub-Himálayan range and the Himálaya itself. This former low line of hills, which is composed from the debris of the greater range, has its strata dipping towards the latter in a north-easterly direction, and consists of a few parallel ridges which are high towards the plains, but sloping in the direction of the Himalaya where there is any interval between. It contains an immense collection of the fossil bones of the horse, bear, camel, hyena, ape, rhinoceros, elephant, crocodile, hippopotamus, and also of the sivatherium, the megatherium, and other enormous animals not now found alive. At some places it rests upon the Himalaya, and at others is separated from them by raised valleys. The Dehra Doon is one of those elevated valleys, with the Upper Ganges and Jumna flowing through it on opposite sides, and is about seventy miles in length, and nearly twenty in breadth. It is sometimes spoken of, by enthusiasts for colonisation in India, as if the whole Anglo-Saxon race might find room to establish themselves there; but it is really a very small district, with most of the available land cultivated; and from Masúri we see the whole of it lying at our feet and bounded by the two shining rivers. It is a very pleasant place, however. Being so far north, just about 30° of latitude, and at an elevation of a little over 2000 feet, it enjoys a beautiful climate. Even in the hot season the nights and mornings are quite cool, which is the great thing in a hot country; the fall of rain is not so great as in the plains

below or in the hills immediately above; and in the cold season the temperature is delightful, and at times. bracing. I saw roses in the Dehra Doon growing under bamboos and mango-trees, and beds of fine European vegetables side by side with fields of the

tea-shrub.

me.

In one plantation which I examined particularly, the whole process of preparing the tea was shown to It was under the superintendence of a Celestial, and the process did not differ much from that followed in China, but the plants were smaller than those usually seen in the Flowery Land. After having been for long a rather unprofitable speculation, the cultivation of tea on the slopes of the Himálaya is now a decided monetary success; and the only difficulty is to meet the demand for Indian tea which exists not only in India and Europe, but also in Central Asia. Dr Jamieson of Sahárunpur, who has interested himself much in the growth of tea in India, and pressed it on when almost everybody despaired of its ever coming to anything, was kind enough to give me a map showing the tea districts of the Western Himálaya; and I see from it that they begin close to the Nepalese frontier at Pethoragarh in Kumaon. A number of them are to be found from a little below Naini Tal northwards up to Almora and Ránikhet. Besides those in the Dehra Doon, there are some in its neighbourhood immediately below Masúri, and to the east of that hill - station. Next we have those at Kalka on the way to Simla from Ambála (Umballa), at or rather just below Simla itself, at Kotgarh in the valley of the Sutlej, and in the Kúlú valley, so famed for the beauty and immorality of its women. And lastly, there is a group at Dharam

sala, and in the Kangra valley and its neighbourhood. The cultivation of tea does not seem to get on in the Himalaya above the height of 6000 feet, and it flourishes from that height down to about 2000 feet, or perhaps lower. Some people are very fond of Indian tea, and declare it to be equal, if not superior, to that of the Middle Kingdom; but I do not agree with them at all. When my supplies ran out in High Asia, tea was for some time my only artificial beverage, though that, too, failed me at last, and I was obliged to have recourse to roasted barley, from which really very fair coffee can be made, and coffee quite as good as the liquid to be had under that name in half the cafés of Europe. It is in such circumstances that one can really test tea, when we are so dependent on it for its refreshing and invigorating effects; and I found that none of the Indian tea which I had with me-not even that of Kangra, which is the best of all-was to be compared for a moment, either in its effects or in the pleasantness of its taste, with the tea of two small packages from Canton, which were given me by a friend just as I was starting from Simla. The latter, as compared with the Himálayan tea, was as sparkling hock to home-brewed ale, and yet it was only a fair specimen of the ordinary better-class teas of the Pearl river.

CHAPTER V.

FIRST VIEWS OF THE HIMÁLAYA.

GOITRE - MASURI

CLIMATE INTERIOR ROUTES -VIEW OF SNOWY PEAKS THE ABODE OF THE GODS- ROAD TO SIMLA-APPEARANCE OF SIMLA-LINES ON THE HIMÁLAYA.

LOOKING from Rajpur at the foot of the hills up to Masúri, that settlement has a very curious appearance. Many of its houses are distinctly visible along the ridges; but they are so very high up, and so immediately above one, as to suggest that we are in for something like the labours and the experience of Jack on the bean-stalk. In the bazaar at Rajpur, I was reminded of the Alps by noticing several cases of goître and I afterwards saw instances of this disease at Masúri; at Kalka, at the foot of the Simla hills; at Simla; at Nirth, a very hot place near Rampúr in the Sutlej valley; at Lippe, a cool place, above 9000 feet high, in Upper Kanáwur, with abundance of good water; at Kaelang in Lahaul, a similar place, but still higher; at the Ringdom Monastery in Zanskar, about 12,000 feet high; in the great open valley of Kashmír ; and at Peshawar in the low-lying trans-Indus plain. These cases do not all fit into any particular theory which has been advanced regarding the cause of this