Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 19.3.1

19.3.1

I could not avoid admiring, in the course of our march, the successive generation and decay of trees. I saw hundreds plunged and plunging into abysses, down which man never ventured, piled dead one upon another and mouldering with time; while others were shooting out of the ground, and supplying the places of those that were no more. I observed also trees consumed by fire; but I am unable to say whether they were struck by lightning, or ignited by friction, when hot and impetuous winds agitate the trees against each other, or whether, as the natives pretend, trees when grown old and dry may ignite spontaneously. The magnificent cascades between the rocks increase the beauty of the scene. There is one especially which I conceive has not its parallel. I observed it at a distance from the side of a high mountain. A torrent of water rolling impetuously through a long and gloomy channel, covered with trees, precipitates itself suddenly down a perpendicular rock of prodigious height, and the ear is stunned with the noise occasioned by the falling of these mighty waters. Jehan-Guyre erected on an adjacent rock, which was smoothed for the purpose, a large building from which the court might leisurely contemplate this stupendous work of Nature, which, as well as the trees before mentioned, bears marks of the highest antiquity, and is perhaps coeval with the creation of the world. A strange accident cast a gloom over these scenes and damped all our pleasure.