en
occurs so abundantly as to colour the rocks an orange red.

* * *

The entire range of plant life, from the truly tropical to the hardiest
arctic, is now complete. As we look back from the limit of perpetual
snow we see the whole great procession in a glance. We have come
across no African, nor South American, nor Australian plants, so we
have not seen anything like the _whole_ of plant life. But the range
from the tropic to the arctic has been complete and continuous. In no
other region could we in so short a space as a hundred miles--the
distance from Bath to London--see the entire range so fully
represented.

And actually _seeing_ how vast is the range and variety of plant life
is a very different thing from knowing that it exists; seeing the
flowers in the flesh is altogether different from only reading
descriptions of them; and seeing them in masses and in their natural
surroundings affects us quite differently from seeing only a few in a
garden or in a hot-house. Here on the spot we feel close in touch
with Nature's own heart. We see Nature's productions springing up
fresh and new straight from the very fountain source. We have the
joy of being able to stretch out a hand and pick a flower direct from
its own surroundings, and to fondle it, examine it all round, admire
its colour, form, and texture, compare its beauty with the beauty of
other flowers and settle wherein its special beauty lies. We shall
never be able to give to even the most exquisite orchid or the most
perfect lily the same affection that we give to the primroses and
violets of our native land. But we may be sure that our
Naturalist-Artist, when he gathers together in his mind the impressions
which have been made upon him by his passage through the tropical forests
to the alpine uplands and thence to the limit of perpetual snow, will
find that his sense of the variety of beauty to be found in trees and
leaves, in ferns and flowers, has immeasurably expanded. He will
have acquired a firmer grasp of plant life as a whole. He will have a
truer measure of the beauty in it. And irresistibly, but most willingly,
he will have been more closely drawn to Nature's heart.

CHAPTER IV

THE DENIZENS OF THE FOREST

So far we have paid attention almost exclusively to the plant life.
But all through Sikkim the insect life presses itself just as insistently
on our notice. In the tropical portion it is unbelievably abundant and
varied. It swarms abou