“The Abode of Snow”

Abstract

LAST week we noticed Mr. Drew's almost exhaustive work on Jummoo and Kashmir; Mr. Wilson's work is to a large extent concerned with the same region, as the greater part of the journey recorded was through Kashmirian territory. But the two works differ in many respects in design and plan. Mr. Drew has brought together so full and trustworthy a mass of information of all kinds about Kashmir as must render his work the great authority on the subject for a long time to come; his style is perfectly plain and unadorned; nearly every sentence is a positive statement of fact; he does not spend many words in admiration of the unparalleled scenery in the midst of which he lived for ten years, and he is never tempted into rapture. The attraction of Mr. Drew's work, and it is distinctly attractive, lies in the high interest and value and frequent novelty of the information contained in it. Mr. Wilson's aim, on the other hand, is to enable the reader to share, as far as words can go, the sensations which he himself felt in journeying for weeks in the midst of scenery whose grandeur cannot be adequately expressed, to present an impressive panoramic view of the “peaks, passes, and glaciers,” and the fearful ravines of the highest mountains in the world, and to picture the scanty life which lurks in their lofty valleys or clings to their steep and rugged sides. His work is written, he tells us, “for those who have never seen and may never see the Himalaya. I have sought,” he says, “to enable such readers in some degree to realise what these great mountains are, what scenes of beauty and grandeur they present, what is the character of the simple people who dwell among them, and what are the incidents the traveller meets with, his means of conveyance, and his mode of life?” Mr. Wilson has accomplished this task as successfully as it is possible to do it by means of language. Without apparent effort or artifice the current of his narrative flows on with delightful sweep; his style is vigorous, clear, and really eloquent, never bombastic or stilted, and with an under-current of genuine humour. He follows the only scientific method of reproducing in his readers the impressions made upon himself by the Himalayan scenery—by representing in simple but striking language the features which stirred his admiration and awe, never indulging in those futile and vague expressions of ecstasy which are a mark of the feeble observer, unscientific thinker, and unskilled writer. At the same time Mr. Wilson manages to convey a very considerable amount of information, and whoever reads his work with care will have realised to some extent the character of the region which it attempts to describe.

The Abode of Snow.

Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to the Indian Caucasus, through the upper valleys of the Himalayas. By Andrew Wilson. (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Co., 1875.)