The soil and bushes everywhere swarmed with large
and troublesome ants, and enormous earthworms. In
the evening, the noise of the great Gicadce in the trees
was almost deafening. They burst suddenly into full
chorus, with a voice so harshly croaking, so dissonant,
and so unearthly, that in these solitary forests I could
not help being startled; and they cease as suddenly
as they commence. In general character the note was
very similar to that of other Gicadce. On the following
morning my baggage arrived, and, leaving my palkee,
I mounted a pony kindly sent for me from Dorjiling
by Mr. Hodgson, and commenced a very steep ascent
•of about 3000 feet winding along the face of a steep,
richly-wooded valley. The road zigzags extraordinarily
in and out of the innumerable lateral ravines, each
with its water-course, dense jungle, and legion of
leeches; the bite of these blood-suckers gives no pain,
but is followed by considerable effusion of blood.
They puncture through thick worsted stockings, and
even trousers, and, when full, roll in the form of a little
soft ball into the bottom of the shoe, where their
presence is hardly felt in walking.
Not only are the roadsides rich in plants, but native
paths, cutting off all the zigzags, run in straight lines
up the steepest hill-faces, and thus double the available
means for botanising; and it is all but impossible
to leave the paths of one kind or other, except for
a yard or two up the rocky ravines. Elephants, tigers,
and occasionally the rhinoceros, inhabit the foot of
these hills, with wild boars, leopards, &c.; but none
are numerous. The elephant’s path is an excellent
specimen of engineering—the reverse of the native
track, for it winds judiciously.
At about 1000 feet above Punkabaree, the vegetation
is very rich, and appears all the more so from the
many turnings of the road, which afford glorious
prospects of the foreshortened tropical forests. The
prevalent timber is gigantic, and scaled by climbing
Leguminosce, which sometimes sheath the trunks, or
span the forest with huge cables, binding tree to tree.
Their trunks are also clothed with parasitical Orchids,
climbing Pothos, * Peppers, Vines, Convolvulus, and
Bignonias. The beauty of the drapery of the Pothos-
leaves is pre-eminent, whether for the graceful folds
the foliage assumes, or for the liveliness of its colour.
Of the more conspicuous smaller trees, the wild banana
is the most abundant, its crown of very beautiful foliage
contrasting with the smaller-leaved plants amongst
which it nestles; next comes a screw-pine (Pandanus)
with a straight stem and a tuft of leaves, each eight or
ten feet long, waving on all sides. Bamboo abounds
everywhere : its dense tufts of culms, 100 feet and
upwards high, are as thick at the base as a man’s thigh.
Twenty or thirty species of ferns (including a tree-fern)
were luxuriant and handsome ; while foliaceous
lichens and a few mosses appeared at 2000 feet. Such
is the vegetation' of the roads through the tropical
forests of the Outer Himalaya.
At about 4000 feet a great change took place in the
vegetation,—marked first by the appearance of a very
English-looking bramble, which, however, by way of
proving its foreign origin, bore a very good yellow fruit,
F 2