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INDIA

consequently the forests are denser, and the variety of
trees infinitely greater.
In the south-east of the Himalayas the highest group
of mountains in the world is to be found gathering around
Mount Everest (29,000 feet). Mount Everest (or Gaurisankar)
 is itself only one peak amidst a number of surrounding
 satellites so little inferior to it in height that
when its altitude was first observed trigonometrically, it
was by no means selected as either the highest or the
most conspicuous. It is, consequently, very difficult to
obtain a clear view of this mountain monarch of the
world, and though the whole group may be observed
from several points accessible to travellers not far from
Darjiling, it is doubtful whether the actual peak can
be seen, On the borders of Sikkim, not far to
the east of Mount Everest, is another gigantic peak,
Kanchanjanga (28,180 feet), but little inferior in altitude,
and far surpassing Everest in the majestic grandeur of its
appearance. As it faces the hill-station of Darjiling at a
distance of fifty miles, and is particularly well placed for
observation (there being no intervening ranges of great
altitude), it may be doubted whether a more impressive
experience of the silent and unapproachable grandeur that
surrounds the “everlasting hills” can be obtained in the
whole wide world. If Everest is monarch of the world,
Kanchanjanga is at least prince of the Himalayas. And
the impressiveness that attends vast altitudes is in no
way diminished by the wealth of forest vegetation which
envelops the lower spurs and buttresses of the snow peaks.
[t may happen indeed that, under stress of winter cold,
even these forests may for a time be buried in snow. Then
the delicate tracery formed by the forests of snow-weighted
bamboo form a fleeting shroud of intricate lace drawn
across the depths from hill to hill, in delicate contrast with
the stern grandeur of the snow-clad peaks above.
From the foot of the lower spurs of the Himalayas
throughout the south-eastern districts, and extending more
or less along the line of junction with the plains as far to
the north as the district of Kumaon, there is a broad belt of