There is on record a vivid description of a scene of this kind. It is the account of a young Spanish lady, describing her own arrest. She was kept a long time in the Inquisition, and was released, not by the Inquisitors, but by the French army, which seized the buildings of the Holy Office for the purpose of a barrack. Her narrative was as follows:

"I went with my mother one day to visit the Countess of Attaress, and I met there Don Francisco Torrejon, her Confessor and Second Inquisitor of the Holy Office. After we had taken chocolate he asked me my age, and my confessor's name, and so many intricate questions about religion that I could not answer him. His serious countenance did frighten me; and as he perceived my fear, he desired the countess to tell me he was not so severe as I took him to be; after which he caressed me in the most obliging manner in the world. He gave me his hand, which I kissed with great respect and modesty, and when he went away he said to me, 'My dear child, I shall remember you till the next time.' I did not mind the sense of the words, for I was inexperienced in affairs of gallantry, being only fifteen years of age at the

time.

"He did indeed remember me, for the very night following, when we were retired to bed, hearing a violent knocking at the door, the maid, who lay in the same room where my bed was, went to the window, and asking who was there? I heard say, 'The Holy Office.' I could not forbear crying out, Father, father, I am ruined for ever.' My dear father got up, and inquiring what the matter was, I answered him with tears, 'The Inquisition.' And he, fearing the maid would not open the door as quickly as the case required, went himself to open the door and to offer, like another Abraham, his dear daughter to the fires of the In

quisition. And as I did not cease to cry out, as if I was mad, my dear father, all in tears, put into my mouth a bit of a bridle to show his obedience to the Holy Office and his zeal for the Catholic Faith, for he thought I had committed some crime against religion. So the officers, giving me time only to put on my petticoat and a mantle, took me down to the coach, and without giving me the comfort of embracing my dear father and mother, they carried me into the Inquisition. I expected to die that night."

It had been happy for her, if indeed she had died that night. Her fate at the hands of Don Francisco Torrejon was worse than death; and when released by the opening of the Inquisition by the French army she related the details. They are too revolting for these pages.

But this simple and natural narrative exhibits in a very vivid way the terrors of the Holy Office and the appalling dread felt by every one, when a father could not only assist in giving his daughter into the hands of the Familiars, but even gag her to prevent her piteous cries being heard. Yet such was the state of public feeling, every one fearing he might be himself the next victim, and therefore anxious to show an exaggerated zeal in order to ward off even a suspicion of complicity with the sentiments of the person arrested by the Holy Office. This feeling was universal, not only at Saragossa, where this incident occurred, but throughout Spain and Portugal. It paralysed all confidence and all freedom in social' intercourse.

Everyone feared some words might be misunderstood and perverted by mistake, or wrested from their true meaning by malice. Silence and reserve became regarded as the only security; and in a few years these became the national characteristics of the people of Spain.

111. THE HIMALAYA.

HIS chain of snowy mountains, the most elevated on the earth, encloses the Indian peninsula on the north, and effectually separates it from Northern Asia.

The name Himalaya is a Sanscrit term of great antiquity, signifying "the abode of snow."

By some these mountains are regarded as part of a great mountain-chain which runs across the entire continent of Asia, from Taurus to the south-east coast of China; but this attempt to establish the geological unity of successive mountain ranges, throughout thousands of miles, rests wholly on hypothesis. Only a few small portions of the great range in question have been geologically examined, and much of it (the Chinese portion) is almost wholly

unknown.

The two great rivers, the Indus on the west, and the Brahmapootra on the cast, may be regarded as marking out the limits of the Himalaya, properly so called. Thus defined as to limits, the Himálaya has a length of two thousand miles, with an average breadth of one hundred and eighty miles. The extent of its perpetual snows and glaciers might • doubtless bear comparison with the area of many flourishing kingdoms.

The great plain of India, south of the Himálaya, has a general elevation of one thousand feet above the sea. Some points of it may attain double this height; while others (towards the east) sink to an elevation of three hundred feet; but these variations are few, and have no perceptible effect on the prevailing uniform character of the plain, along which the commencement of the mountain region is everywhere marked in the most distinct manner. The ground sinks gradually, for a short distance, towards the foot of the Himalaya, the marshy hollow being covered with thick jungle (properly jangal), or forest, frequented by elephants, and the chief haunt of the tiger. The range of hills immediately behind this has little elevation, and does not conceal the lofty summits in the rear, of which it is said that there are generally three ranges

distinguishable, rising successively one above the other.

In the remote distance is seen a continuous range covered with snow, towering high above the rest, and reaching, in some points, such an immense height as to be visible from a distance of two hundred miles, or more. If the higher regions, however, be explored, it is found that there is not, in reality, any unbroken ridge or continuous chain of heights covered with snow, but that numerous summits, at very different distances, being projected on the same level in the field, coalesce in vision, owing to their uniform whiteness, and present the appearance of one wall of snow.

As the eye, surveying the Himalaya from the plains at its feet, ranges at once over an immense region of most varied character and climate, till it rests at last on those icy heights, which, though so conspicuous, yet lie perceptibly beyond the ordinary reach of vision, the scene is one of the most impressive imaginable. But if the heights beyond be ascended, the first impressions of novelty and grandeur give way to others of a more solemn kind, till at last the boundless extent of the snowy tracts, with their perfect silence and desolation, while the lively landscape below fades away in the distance, inspire feelings of awe and melancholy.

The sandstone ridge of hills rises gradually to a height of about two thousand feet above the external plain, and is sometimes covered, and totally concealed, by enormous fragments of other kinds of rock. The dry and sunny slope between this ridge and the Tarrai is known as the Bháver, and is covered with forests of immense timber. The longitudinal valleys in the interior are called Dhún; in their jungle and dense forests, frequented by elephants, and in their pestiferous atmosphere, they resemble the tracts immediately below them. Such is the lower region of the Himalaya, which may be considered as extending on the north side of the Dhúns up to an elevation of four thousand feet above the sea. Thence, to the height of ten thousand feet may be marked out as the middle region. The upper region of the Himálaya, comprising the snow fields, ter minates above, at the ridge of the Ghats, or

Passes, at a general elevation of sixteen thousand, or, as some think, of eighteen thousand, feet.

The general height of the Himalaya is double that of the Alps; the passes over the former ordinarily exceed, often by half a mile, the elevation of Mont Blanc (fifteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-two feet), the highest point in Europe; the Karokorum pass being eighteen thousand six hundred feet; the Parangla, eighteen thousand five hundred feet high. There are several summits which approach closely to double the absolute elevation of the greatest of the Alps, and forty of these are stated to be above twenty thousand feet.

Jumnotri, the triple-pcaked mountain, twenty thousand seven hundred and forty-nine feet high, at the foot of which the Jumna takes its rise, is regarded by the Hindoos as holy ground. Numerous warm springs issuing, in some instances, from beneath the snow, add to the sanctity of the place. From the sources of the Jumna the mountains cast rise gradually, till they attain a height of twenty-two thousand feet. Here, under the Panchaparvata, or five mountains, rise the streams which unite to form the Ganges. The most celebrated and sacred of these sources is the Gangavitari, or Gangootri, about thirteen thousand feet above the sea, in latitude 31° north. In the lofty mountains south-east of Nanda Devi lie the sources of the Gogra, more anciently named the Saraju. Here we have reached the highest part of the Himalaya, as far as it is known and measured. The Dhawalagiri (long. 83° E.), the Gosain-than (long. 86°), a nameless summit about forty miles east of the preceding, and Kangchang, or Kunchain-junga (long. 88° 12'), are all said to be of nearly equal height, and to exceed twenty-eight thousand feet, the last, which is the highest, having an absolute elevation of twenty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty-eight feet, or five and a third miles.

In the lower region of the Himálaya, up to four thousand feet, we find, with little modification, the vigorous vegetation of the plains. The forests of the Bháver and the Dhúns consist chiefly of the largest timber trees, the saul and teak, with the bombax, or cotton-tree, fig-trees, (Ficus Indicus and religiosus), and acacias. Here also the palm associates with the pine (Pinus longifolia), tree ferns of stately growth. mix with European species. The bamboo is common; the pisang, or plantain, grows wild,

is

and rice is cultivated in the valleys. This crop sometimes succeeded the same year by wheat, which, with barley, grows abundantly higher up.

At the height of seven thousand feet, the woods consist of oak, maple, elm, chestnut, magnolia, laurel, tree rhododendron, etc.; and the fruits now cultivated in most parts of Europe here grow wild. Maize and millet are the chief summer crops at this height; wheat and barley are reaped early in the spring.

As we ascend, the pine-trees of various species grow more numerous. Walnut, willow, birch, and juniper, with many species of dwarf rhododendron, now appear to advantage. At length the pine ceases, at about eleven thousand five hundred feet; the juniper ascends perhaps one thousand feet higher; and the rhododendron seems capable of advancing still further.

and

These estimates of height all refer to the south side of the range. On the north, the juniper thrives to a height of fourteen thousand four hundred feet; the rhododendron and lonicera to seventeen thousand feet; humbler vegetation reaches even to nineteen thousand feet. Cultivation ceases on the south side, at an elevation little exceeding ten thousand feet; while on the north crops of rye and buckwheat are gathered at the height of thirteen thousand five hundred feet.

Tropical forms sometimes make their way up the mountain much higher than might be expected; and bamboos are sometimes met with at heights of eight thousand or nine thousand feet. This phenomenon is particularly striking in Sikkim, where the humidity of the atmosphere is favourable to tropical vegetation. But at fifteen thousand feet all the species are new; and on the table-land most of them disappear altogether, owing to the dryness of the air. Yet it was here, at a height of nineteeen thousand feet, that Dr. J. D. Hooker descried the Lecanora miniata, a lichen-conspicuous from its bright orange colour-which he had previously discovered on Cockburn Island, near the Antarctic circle.

The lower region of the Himalaya is the favourite abode of the elephant and rhinoceros, and of the bibos and bubalus, or wild buffalo. Deer of several kinds are very numerous; and antelopes, of which the tetroceros or fourhorned species, is the most remarkable. The apes, also, among which are the Entellus and Macacus chiefly inhabit the lower region, though