bited;
and I believe every one of them declared that it should not. And yet,
when it was put a stop to only a few years after by Lord William, not
a complaint or murmur was heard. The replies to the Governor-
General's inquiries were, I believe, throughout India, for the most
part, opposed to the measure.[5]

On the 4th we came to Dhamoni, ten miles. The only thing remarkable
here is the magnificent fortress, which is built upon a small
projection of the Vindhya range, looking down on each side into two
enormously deep glens, through which the two branches of the Dasan
river descend over the tableland into the plains of Bundelkhand.[6]
The rays of the sun seldom penetrate to the bottom of these glens,
and things are, in consequence, grown there that could not be grown
in parts more exposed.

Every inch of the level ground in the bed of the streams below seems
to be cultivated with care. This fortress is said to have cost more
than a million of money, and to have been only one of fifty-two great
works, of which a former Raja of Bundelkhand, Birsingh Deo, laid the
foundation in the same _happy hour_ which had been pointed out to him
by his astrologers.[7] The works form an acute triangle, with the
base towards the tableland, and the two sides hanging perpendicularly
over the glens, while the apex points to the course of the streams as
they again unite, and pass out through a deep chasm into the plains
of Bundelkhand.

The fortress is now entirely deserted, and the town, which the
garrison supported, is occupied by only a small police-guard,
stationed here to see that robbers do not take up their abode among
the ruins. There is no fear of this. All old deserted fortresses in
India become filled by a dense stream of carbonic acid gas, which is
found so inimical to animal life that those who attempt to occupy
them become ill, and, sooner or later, almost all die of the
consequences. This gas, being specifically much heavier than common
air, descends into the bottom of such unoccupied fortresses, and
remains stagnant like water in old reservoirs. The current of pure
air continually passes over, without being able to carry off the mass
of stagnant air below; and the only way to render such places
habitable is to make large openings in the walls on all sides, from
the top to the bottom, so that the foul air may be driven out by the
current of pure atmospheric air, which will then be continually
rushing in. When these fort