February 17 Monday – The fog cleared and Sam got a good view of the Himalayas and of Mt. Kinchinjunga, 28,146 feet. As he was being accompanied to the railroad station to leave Darjeeling, Sam said of the view, “I intended to tell the many people in Calcutta, who told me of the grandeur of the snows, that I had seen them, whether I had or not. I am glad to be saved the pain of telling a lie” [Parsons “MT India” 89-90].

Sam’s notebook:

By train 5 m. to summit, then the 35 m down in 6-seat handcar handled by Barnard chief engineer of that division of the road — 50 m — sent a pilot ahead with Pughe [Pugh], a goorka & another native…

Fine dinner at [illegible] expense of Mr. [illegible] Holmes thro. Good sleeping car [NB 36 TS 48-9].

Parsons writes a somewhat fuller account:

Mark went by train some four or five miles to Ghoom, where he sat on a handcar which was equipped with a strong brake and powered by gravitation. The V.I.P.’s car was in charge of Mr. Barnard, Chief Engineer of the railway’s mountain division, and the pilot of the car ahead was Mr. Pugh, Assistant Inspector General of Police, under whose protection the party had come from Calcutta. When Pugh waved his signal flag, Mark experienced “a sudden and immence exaltation, a mixed ecstasy of deadly fright and unimaginable joy…the perfection of human delight.” The car swooped after its leader and was in turn followed by the regular train. Halfway down, they halted about an hour at Barnard’s house for refreshments and the view from the veranda. Then they took to bird flight again — until the gradient let them down in the plain, where they dwindled into train passengers bound for Calcutta. Mark’s summary, “That was the most enjoyable day I have spent in the earth” [“MT India” 90].