In Front,
Over A Beautifully-Planted Fore-Ground, I Looked Down Upon A Perfect
Sea Of Palms, The Taller Palmyras Lifting Their Proud Heads Above The
Rest, And All So Intermingled With Other Foliage, As To Produce The
Richest Variety Of Hues.
This fine wood, a spur of what may be termed
a forest further to the right, skirted a broad
Plain which stretched
out to the beach, the bright waters beyond expanding and melting
into the horizon, while to the right it was bounded by a hilly ridge
feathered with palm-trees, the whole bathed in sunshine, and forming
altogether a perfect Paradise.
Every period of the day, and every variation in the state of the
atmosphere, serve to bring out new beauties in this enchanting scene;
and the freshness and delicious balm of the morning, the gorgeous
splendour of mid-day, the crimson and amber pomps of evening, and the
pale moonlight, tipping every palm-tree top with silver, produce an
endless succession of magical effects. In walking about the garden and
grounds of this delightful residence, we are continually finding
some new point from which the view appears to be more beautiful than
before. Upon arriving at the verge of the cleft between the two hills,
we look down from a considerable elevation over rocky precipitous
ground, with a village (Mazagong) skirting the beach, while the
prospect, widening, shows the whole of the harbour, with the high
ghauts forming the back-ground.
Turning to the other side, behind the hill which shuts out the sea,
the landscape is of the richest description - roads winding through
thick plantations, houses peeping from embowering trees, and an
umbrageous forest beyond. The whole of Bombay abounds with landscapes
which, if not equal to that from Chintapooglee Hill, which I have,
vainly I fear, attempted to describe, boast beauties peculiarly their
own, the distinguishing feature being the palm-tree. It is impossible
to imagine the luxuriance and elegance of this truly regal family as
it grows in Bombay, each separate stage, from the first appearance
of the different species, tufting the earth with those stately crowns
which afterwards shoot up so grandly, being marked with beauty. The
variety of the foliage of the coco-nut, the brab, and others,
the manner of their growth, differing according to the different
directions taken, and the exquisite grouping which continually occurs,
prevent the monotony which their profusion might otherwise create,
the general effect being, under all circumstances, absolutely perfect.
Though the principal, the palm is far from being the only tree, and
while frequently forming whole groves, it is as frequently blended
with two species of cypress, the peepul, mango, banian, wild cinnamon,
and several others.
In addition to the splendour of its wood and water, Bombay is
embellished by fragments of dark rock, which force themselves through
the soil, roughening the sides of the hills, and giving beauty to
the precipitous heights and shelving beach. Though the island is
comparatively small, extensively cultivated and thickly inhabited,
it possesses its wild and solitary places, its rains deeply seated
in thick forests, and its lonely hills covered with rock, and thinly
wooded by the eternal palm-tree; hills which, in consequence of
the broken nature of the ground, and their cavernous recesses, are
difficult of access.
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