ch has been given them for their breakfast.
This is a much more quiet and rural place than any which I have
visited since I have been in India; for Barrackpore is a great
military station, and the park, &c., there are quite public. Here
there are not altogether above five or six European families.... We
have a train twice a day from Calcutta, so I can get my boxes as
regularly as I do there.

[Sidenote: Monghyr.]

_Bhagulpore.--August 25th._--On Saturday, we made an expedition to a
place called Monghyr, about forty-five miles from here, where there is
a hot spring, and something like _hills_. (I am told also, that on a
particularly clear day I can see from here the highest mountain in the
world.) We did not leave this till 3 P.M., and were back again by 8
P.M., having travelled some ninety miles by rail, and driven in
carriages about ten or twelve more,--the fastest thing, I should
think, ever done in India. There has been a good deal of rain, and I
still feel well here, but I suppose on the 29th I must return to the
Calcutta steam-bath. This forenoon I paid a visit to a school, one of
the Government schools. The boys (upwards of 200) are not of the
lowest class. They all read English very well and when asked the
meaning of words, gave synonymes or explanatory phrases with
remarkable readiness. During their early years, I should certainly say
that they are quicker than English children. They fall off when they
get older.

_August 31st.--Calcutta._--We returned to this place on Thursday. It
is cooler than when I left, but I fear we have not done with the heat
yet. All agree that September is about the worst month in the year
here.

_Calcutta.--September 8th._--I do not think that Dr. M. is
particularly proud of the way in which I am bearing up against this
oppressive and depressing season.... I wish that we were going to the
Neilgherries instead of to Simla. The climate is, I believe, better,
and the place more agreeable, but it is entirely out of the way of
business for me now, whereas Simla is a natural stage to the most
important part of my government.

_September 17th._--... I have given up my morning walks. It is now
always sultry before sunrise, and the dullness of pacing up and down my
garden at that hour is intolerable. So I walk till daylight in my
verandah...