d with infinite care in some
expensive hot-house.

And what we see is only, we feel, a stray sample of what there is to
be seen. What may there not be in those forest depths which we dare
not enter for fear of losing our way! What other towering forest
monarchs might we not come across if we plunged into the forest!
What other exquisite flowers, what insects, what birds, what animals!
What wealth of insect life may there not be at the tops of the trees
where the fierce sunshine hidden from us by their leaves is drawing
out their flowers! What may there not be going on in the ground
beneath us! We know, that in these forests, perhaps near enough to
see us, though their forms are hidden by their likeness to their leafy
surroundings and the dappled sunlight, are animals as various as
elephants, tigers, leopards, foxes, squirrels, and bats; birds as
various as hawks, parrots, and finches; and insects from butterflies,
bees, and wasps to crickets, beetles, and ants. The forest, we know,
in addition to all the wealth of tree and plant life, is teeming with
animal and insect life, though of this we are able to see very little, so
carefully do animals conceal themselves. In the night they emerge,
and in the morning and evening there is a deafening din of insect life.
But at noonday there is a soft and solemn hush, and we are tense
with curiosity to know all that is going on in those mysterious forest
depths and up among the tree-tops, so close but so impossible of
access.

The great forest is the very epitome of life. Concentrated here in
small compass is every form and variety of living thing, from
lowliest plant to forest monarch, from simplest animalcule to
elephant, monkey, and man. There is life and abundant life all about
us. But it is not the noisy, clamorous, obtrusive life of the city. It is a
still, intense life, full of untold possibilities for good or harm. And
herein lies its mystery: we see much, but we feel that there is
infinitely more behind.

Of this life of the forest in all its richness, intensity, and variety we
shall come to know more as we ascend the Teesta Valley till it
reaches the snows, and tropical plant and animal life changes first to
temperate and then to arctic forms. But first we must note some
beauties of the valley itself.

* * *

The valley of the great Teesta River, the valleys of its tributaries, the
gorges through which the main river and its tributaries rush, the
cascades pouring