The Cliff Climbers

The Cliff Climbers
A Sequel to "The Plant Hunters"
By Captain Mayne Reid
CHAPTER ONE.
THE HIMALAYAS.
Who has not heard of the Himalayas--those Titanic masses of
mountains that interpose themselves between the hot plains of India
and the cold table-lands of Thibet--a worthy barrier between the two
greatest empires in the world, the Mogul and the Celestial? The veriest
tyro in geography can tell you that they are the tallest mountains on the
surface of the earth; that their summits--a half-dozen of them at
least--surmount the sea-level by more than five miles of perpendicular
height; that more than thirty of them rise above twenty thousand feet,
and carry upon their tops the eternal snow!
The more skilled geographer, or geognosist, could communicate
hundreds of other interesting facts in relation to these majestic
mountains; vast volumes might be filled with most attractive details of
them--their fauna, their sylva, and their flora. But here, my reader, we
have only space to speak of a few of the more salient points, that may
enable you to form some idea of the Titanic grandeur of these mighty
masses of snow-crowned rock, which, towering aloft, frown or smile,
as the case may be, on our grand empire of Ind.
It is the language of writers to call the Himalayas a "chain of
mountains." Spanish geographers would call them a "sierra" (saw)--a
phrase which they have applied to the Andes of America. Either term is
inappropriate, when speaking of the Himalayas: for the vast tract
occupied by these mountains--over 200,000 square miles, or three

times the size of Great Britain--in shape bears no resemblance to a
chain. Its length is only six or seven times greater than its breadth--the
former being about a thousand miles, while the latter in many places
extends through two degrees of the earth's latitude.
Moreover, from the western termination of the Himalayas, in the
country of Cabul, to their eastern declension near the banks of the
Burrampooter, there is no continuity that would entitle them to the
appellation of a "chain of mountains." Between these two points they
are cut transversely--and in many places--by stupendous valleys, that
form the channels of great rivers, which, instead of running east and
west, as the mountains themselves were supposed to trend, have their
courses in the transverse direction--often flowing due north or south.
It is true that, to a traveller approaching the Himalayas from any part of
the great plain of India, these mountains present the appearance of a
single range, stretching continuously along the horizon from east to
west. This, however, is a mere optical illusion; and, instead of one
range, the Himalayas may be regarded as a congeries of mountain
ridges, covering a superficies of 200,000 square miles, and running in
as many different directions as there are points in the compass.
Within the circumference of this vast mountain tract there is great
variety of climate, soil, and productions. Among the lower hills--those
contiguous to the plains of India--as well as in some of the more
profound valleys of the interior--the flora is of a tropical or subtropical
character. The palm, the tree fern, and bamboo here flourish in free
luxuriance. Higher up appears the vegetation of the temperate zone,
represented by forests of gigantic oaks of various species, by sycamores,
pines, walnut, and chestnut trees. Still higher are the rhododendrons,
the birches, and heaths; succeeded by a region of herbaceous
vegetation--by slopes, and even table-plains, covered with rich grasses.
Stretching onward and upward to the line of the eternal snow, there are
encountered the Cryptogamia--the lichens and mosses of Alpine
growth--just as they are found within the limits of the polar circle; so
that the traveller, who passes from the plains of India towards the high
ridges of the Himalayas, or who climbs out of one of the deeper valleys

up to some snow-clad summit that surmounts it, may experience within
a journey of a few hours' duration every degree of climate, and observe
a representative of every species of vegetation known upon the face of
the earth!
The Himalayas are not uninhabited. On the contrary, one considerable
kingdom (Nepaul), with many petty states and communities (as Bhotan,
Sikhim, Gurwhal, Kumaon, and the famed Cashmere), are found within
their boundaries--some enjoying a sort of political independence, but
most of them living under the protection either of the Anglo-Indian
empire, on the one side, or that of China upon the other. The
inhabitants of these several states are of mixed races, and very different
from the people of Hindostan. Towards the east--in Bhotan and
Sikhim--they are chiefly of the Mongolian stock, in customs and
manners resembling the people of Thibet, and, like them, practising the
religion of the Lamas. In the western Himalayas there is an admixture
of Ghoorka mountaineers, Hindoos from the