sh caught
altogether by cormorants.

Certainly, no people exhibit more ingenuity in the training either of
plants or animals, than do these same _oblique-eyed inhabitants_ of the
Celestial Empire.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE TERAI.

In approaching any great chain of mountains from the sea-level, you will
find a large tract of country consisting of elevated hills and deep
ravines, intersected by rapid streams and torrents. This tract is more
or less broad, in proportion to the grandeur of the mountain chain; and,
in the case of mountains of the first class, it is usually from twenty
to fifty miles in breadth. Such a tract of country lies along both
sides of the great chain of the Andes in South and North America, and
also marks the approach to the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies. It
is well-known in Italy, under the Alps; and "Piedmont" is the French
appellation for this sort of country, which is designated, in our
language, by an equally appropriate phrase, "foot-hills."

The "Alps of India" are not without this geological peculiarity. Along
their whole southern flank, facing the hills of Hindustan, extends a
belt of foot-hills, often above fifty miles in breadth; and
characterised by steep ascents, deep dales and ravines, rapid foaming
torrents, difficult paths and passes, and, consequently, by wild and
picturesque scenery.

The lower part of this belt--that is, the portion which lies contiguous
to the Lot plains, is known to Europeans as the "Terai."

The Terai is an irregular strip, of from ten to thirty miles in width,
and extends along the whole base of the Himalayas, from the Sutledge
River, on the west, to Upper Assam. Its character is peculiar. It
differs both from the plains of India and from the Himalaya Mountains,
possessing a botany and zoology almost totally distinct from either. It
differs from both, in the malarious and unhealthy character of its
climate, which is one of the deadliest in the world. In consequence of
this, the Terai is almost uninhabited; the few scattered settlements of
half-savage Mechs, its only inhabitants, lying remote and distant from
each other.

Most of the Terai is covered with forest and thick jungle; and,
notwithstanding its unhealthy climate, it is the favourite haunt of the
wild beasts peculiar to this part of the globe. The tiger, the Indian
lion, the panther and leopard, the cheetah, and various other large
_Jelidae_, roam through its jungly coverts; the w