e, and densely wooded to their very tops, and my
route lay directly over the nearer range, which was something more than
a mile in height. You may ascend the foot-hills by palanquin or pony.
For the former, previous application is necessary, as relays of bearers
must be arranged on the road. There are eight bearers, four of whom
carry you at a time. They have two movements--a sharp trot, and a long
even step as a rest from the regular gait--but neither is very enjoyable
to the occupant of the palanquin after a few hours' trial. They relieve
each other every half mile. The stages are about eight miles in length,
at the end of each of which an entire new set of bearers is obtained. On
comparatively good and level roads these bearers will average four miles
an hour: in ascending or descending steep mountains the rate of speed is
of course somewhat less. I chose a mountain-pony, a wiry and vicious
little fellow, and engaged a coolie to carry my baggage to a village
thirty miles distant for the grand recompense of one rupee.

Soon after starting I met people of both sexes who were neither Hindoos
nor Mohammedans, but bore a strong resemblance to the Chinese. The men
were short, stout and muscular, and their faces wore a stolid and almost
stupid look, which was not at all improved by their long black hair or
by their filthy garments and persons. The women, however, were rather
good-looking, not concealing the face as in the plains. These people
were natives of Nepaul and Bhotan, independent states of India. After a
ride of five or six miles I passed a _terai_, a great jungle infested by
tigers and elephants; so at least my companion, a devout follower of the
Prophet, informed me. This terai consisted of rank grass fifteen feet in
height, thick underbrush and some few huge trees; and so dense was it
that a passage could only be made with an axe. It is always advisable to
pass through such places during the daytime. At Kurseong there was a
good hotel, the Clarendon, kept by an old New Yorker, who told me he had
left America fifteen years before, and during that period had traveled
all over the world, had made a great deal of money in Western Africa in
the palm-oil trade, and had finally "settled down" (or rather _up_) in
India. He started the first tea-plantation in the Himalayas, and is
reported to be worth at present more than a million rupees.

The coolie, a Nepaulese, carried my baggage up the mountains at a sharp
trot, and