uated on three or four
heights, which are the crest of a mountain that lies among other
mountains of about the same elevation, scattered around it in groups
and rows, intersected by valleys, and closed in on the north by a
range covered with everlasting snow, and glittering from morning to
evening in the rays of a tropical sun. The hills on which Simla stands
are well clothed by trees, not of great stature generally, though of
much beauty; ilexes of a peculiar kind, deodars, and rhododendrons
being conspicuous among them; but there is little wood on the
surrounding mountains. No doubt the special charms of Simla are
enhanced by this contrast: and perhaps also by the character of the
scenery which the traveller meets on the whole route from Calcutta.

Nothing can he well imagined more uninteresting. On leaving Lower
Bengal, even the luxuriant tropical vegetation which distinguishes
that part of India disappears,--and the rest of the journey is
performed through a country perfectly flat, and apparently barren; for
notwithstanding occasional groups of trees, and good crops here and
there, the wide-spreading dusty plains give but faint indications of
the fertility which cultivation and irrigation can no doubt evolve
from them. Even when the mountains are approached, and the ascent
commences, the same character of barrenness attaches to the scene, for
their sides are almost bare of trees, and there is little to relieve
them, except the patches of vegetation which lie snugly in the
valleys, or creep in terraces up the slopes.

No doubt the greater luxuriance in foliage and vegetation which adorns
Simla is in some measure due to the presence of the European visitors
who prevent the trees from being cut, and protect in other ways the
amenity of the place.

But the climate and soil have also, it may be presumed, a good deal to
do with it. For the trees at Simla are not only more abundant, but
also different from those which are met with on the mountains nearer
to the plains. This probably accounts for what otherwise seems
strange,--namely, that Europeans, wishing to escape from the heat of
the lowlands, should have fixed on a spot among the Hills so distant
from the plains. It is not as inaccessible now as it was in former
days, because a road has been made which is practicable for carts. B