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may be thought too low for sanitorium purposes. If it be so it will not be a matter of much consequence as there is still a good deal of room on the Hill top. The Hope Town Settlement plantations near Darjeeling extend I believe from 3 to 6,000 feet, and I should think this plateau would be well adapted for similar viz., agricultural purposes, which, situated as Parasnath is, would in my opinion prove one and that not the least of its advantages.
18. It is however an opinion with some medical men of whom I believe Dr. R. Martin is one, that it is not necessary or advantageous to locate Europeans at very great heights to ensure a beneficial result to their health, and in this opinion I confess I concur. There is more tendency to healthy exercise, undoubtedly at a moderate elevation and comparatively level ground, than on a chilly and precipitous Hill top.
19. At the foot of this plateau on and about which are now cut in considerable numbers the Sal wood sleepers supplied to the East India Railway Company at Raneegung, the roads separate. For 6 miles further the Topchancee road (so to call that which I followed) goes on a level nearly through a plantation, like forest containing various woods, Sal, Toon, Sissoo, Jarool, Bamboo, etc. till with a little fall it reaches the village of Pandydee a distance of 6 miles. The whole of this route is intersected by many streams of water some of considerable volume at this season. From the point of divergence nearly, it is a hackery track, traversed by the buffaloes who are employed in dragging the sleepers beforementioned to the Grand Trunk Road at Topchancee.
20. North is the water side of the Mountain as compared with the Southern, which appears to be owing to the geological dip of the strata in a Northerly direction. It is all well wooded and in appearance quito sub-Himalayan, and similar to any of the like approaches to the Northern Sanataria, Simla, Nynee Tal, etc.
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