Our Road From
This, Descending, Lay Among The Nooks And Dells Of The Shady Side Of
The Mountain; And The Wild Rose And The Heliotrope Perfumed The Air
At Every Step As We Walked Along In Full Enjoyment Of The Morning
Breeze.
Our sepoy guide of to-day was not of the educated branch of
the army.
He was the stupidest specimen of his race I had ever met;
and as his language was such a jargon as to be nearly unintelligible,
we failed signally in obtaining much information from him.
Among other questions, I made inquiries as to woodcock, the cover
being just suited to them, and after a great deal of difficulty
in explaining the bird to him, he declared that he knew the kind
of creature perfectly, and that there were plenty of them. By way
of convincing us, however, of his sporting knowledge, he added that
they were in the habit of living entirely on fruit; and he was sadly
put out when F. and I both burst into laughter at the idea of an old
woodcock with his bill stuck into a juicy pear, or perhaps enjoying a
pomegranate for breakfast. Shortly after, we came suddenly upon quite
a new feature in the scene - a strange innovation of liveliness in
the midst of solitude.
At a bend in the road, what should appear almost over our heads but
a troop of about a hundred monkeys, crashing through the firs and
chestnuts, and bounding in eager haste from tree to tree, in their
desire to escape from a party of natives coming from the opposite
direction. They were large brown monkeys, of the kind called lungoors,
standing, some of them, three feet high, and having tails considerably
longer than themselves. Their faces were jet black, fringed with
light grey whiskers, which gave them a most comical appearance.; and
as they jumped along from tree to tree, sometimes thirty and forty
feet, through the air, with their small families following as best
they could, they made the whole forest resound with the crashing of
the branches, and amused us not a little by their aerial line of march.
After crossing a dashing mountain-torrent by a rude bridge of trees
thrown across it, we arrived at the village of Burrumgulla. Here our
guide wanted us to halt in a mud-built native serai, but, with the
recollection of past experience fresh upon us, we declined, preferring
to choose our own ground and pitch our first encampment. The ground
we selected was almost at the foot of a noble waterfall, formed by a
huge cleft in a mass of rugged rock. The water, dashing headlong down,
was hidden in the recess of rock below, but the spray, as it rose up
like vapour and again fell around us, plainly told the history of its
birth and education. Even had we not seen the snowy peaks before us
from the mountain top, there was no mistaking, from its icy breath,
the nursery in which its infant form had been cradled.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 22 of 158
Words from 10896 to 11406
of 82277
