I. Kashmir-Ladak

Trails to the Inmost Asia

On the sixth of March, 1925, the expedition left the hill station of Darjeeling, and with it the friendly country of Sikkim. It is always a wonderful experience to travel down the jungle-clad slopes of the eastern Himalayas. The tropical vegetation and the endless stream of hill people who wander along the cart road are full of interest to the traveler.

In complete darkness, we reached Siliguri. The train was rolling over the low-lying plain of Bengal — jungle-clad and fever-infected marshy tracts, and rice fields already flooded. Through the blackness of the tropical night, one could see the strange life proceeding around the glittering lights of numerous fires scattered in the jungle and in front of small village huts, that stood here and there among palm trees. Figures in white turbans anddhoti moved about, and at the railway stations the air resounded with the high-pitched cries of peddlers selling tea, drinking water, and cigarettes. The country seemed alive with intense movement screened by the dusky veil of the night.