Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. The district of Simla, in India, situated in the foothills of the lower Himalayas, is one of the most picturesque spots on earth. Around it are deep valleys bordered by mountains whose slopes are hidden by dense forests of cedar almost to the limit where perpetual snow forbids vegetation. The scenery is grand beyond description. On one side are the eternal glaciers, covering the crests of the majestic Himalayas, and sharply outlined by the brilliant Indian sky; on the other the shining waters of the beautiful river Sutlej, meandering through immense and fertile plains, completing one of the fairest panoramas that human eye can rest on. On one of the mountain spurs of this little paradise and in one of its most secluded nooks, is built the city of Simla, known for its unsurpassed climate—cool, exhilarating and congenial to man, from whatever country he may have travelled. The streets of this as yet small city, are full of traffic; simple shepherds of Thibet exchanging skins for grain and other necessaries; among them Panjab hillmen with their characteristic Aryan features, beaming with kindness and good-feeling, accompanied by beautiful and gaily attired women, purchasing golden trinkets; with perhaps a native prince mounted on his handsome steed and followed by a retinue of horseman ; all this tide of humanity, flanked by a line of camels or ox-carts moving in the narrow streets, bordered with quaint bazaars and odd-looking wooden houses with their bright red paint, forms a scene worthy of the brush of a Jules Breton or a Bierstadt. Aside from the business street are the bungalows, inhabited by foreigners and well-to-do people; transient residents in search of health in a cool climate, during the broiling heat of the Indian summer months. In one of these com...