Western Himalaya and Tibet : a narrative of a journey through the mountains of northern India, during the years 1847-8 / by Thomas Thomson.

  • Thomas Thomson
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Western Himalaya and Tibet : a narrative of a journey through the mountains of northern India, during the years 1847-8 / by Thomas Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/532 (page 33)
    SUMMIT OF MAHASU. 1847.] festoons from the branches high over head, adds much to the elegance of the scene, and renders it, in the ex- pressive words of Griffith, who was familiar with the rich vegetation of the humid forests of the Eastern Hi- malaya, the only true Himalayan forest of the western mountains. On this ascent the road rises to about 9000 feet, the crest of the Mahasu ridge being, according to Captain Herbert, 9200 feet. The large size and dense shade of the trees, and the abundance of Abies Smithiana, of the sycamore, and of the gigantic vine, give the forest a totally different appearance from that of Simla, and the under- growth presents also a considerable amount of novelty; a species of currant, a fine Spircea, Indigofer a atropur- purea, and fine species of Rosa and Rubus, forming thickets under the tall trees. This forest, indeed, from its dense shade, and great humidity, exhibits a much greater contrast to the ordinary temperate vegetation of the Himalaya, than is usually observed below 9000 feet, at which elevation the upper temperate, or subalpine vegetation, begins fairly to predominate over that which is prevalent from 5000 to 9000 feet. On reaching the summit of the steep ascent, the road again gains the crest of the ridge, which consists of a succession of rounded knolls, covered with grass, and quite bare of trees, the forest rising almost, but not quite, to the top. On the very summit of one of the first of these knolls, is a small wooden shrine or temple, of a form common in the hills; the top of a moun- tain, or the summit of any very steep ascent, being usually selected as a proper spot for the erection of a D