e fact that at the last occurrence of the
sort thirty thousand native houses were totally destroyed in half an
hour. The Hoogly River often experiences the effect of tidal waves
during the monsoons, which dash up from the sea at a speed of twenty
miles an hour, causing much destruction. Ships lying off the city on
such occasions often part their cables and are driven on shore, while
many of the small craft along the eighty miles of river course are
entirely destroyed.

[Illustration: A GREAT BANYAN TREE AT CALCUTTA.]

A journey of four hundred miles to the northward, the last half of which
is performed by narrow-gauge railway, which climbs zigzag fashion over a
very hilly country, will enable us to reach Darjeeling, nearly nine
thousand feet above the level of the sea. Here we are in proximity to
and in full view of the Himalayan range of mountains, the loftiest on
the globe. The lowest peak is over twenty thousand feet in height; the
highest exceeds twenty-eight thousand. Upon the range rest eleven
thousand feet of perpetual snow. There can be no animal life in that
Arctic region--only the snow and ice rest there in endless sleep. The
Himalayas--meaning the "Halls of Snow"--form the northern boundary of
India, and shut out the country from the rest of Asia. Thibet, which
lies just over the range, whence we view it, is virtually inaccessible
by this route, the wild region between being nearly impassable. Bold
parties of traders, wrapped in sheepskins, do sometimes force their way
over the mountains at an elevation of eighteen thousand feet, but it is
a most hazardous thing to do, and the bones of worn-out mules mark the
frozen way, telling of suffering and abandonment. The little yak cow,
whose bushy tail is manufactured into lace, has been found to be the
best and most enduring animal to depend upon when such journeys are
performed. She will patiently toil up the steep gorges with a load on
her back, and will drop dead in her tracks before she will show any
stubbornness or want of courage. The culminating point of the range, and
the highest mountain peak in the world, is Mount Everest, which is a
little over twenty-nine thousand feet in height above the level of the
sea.

Darjeeling is becoming the centre of a great tea-producing district, and
thus India bids fair to rival China in a product which has seemed to
belong almost exclusively to China from time immemorial. English
capitalists are largely embarking in this