carry out their mats and sleep under its bewitching freshness; but it is dangerous, unless the body and head be well covered. There certainly are marsh miasma in the neighbourhood of extensive rice cultivation, caused by the inundations necessary to that grain, which destroy life. It is on this account that I dislike very early parades, as those miasma seem to operate powerfully in the morning. I observed, indeed, when under a commanding officer exceedingly fond of before-daylight preparations for field days, that his hospital was filled with men, who had been invariably taken ill at drill. After "climatization," the night air in the interior seems to be as little injurious to health as the noon-day rays of the sun.

When a regiment has had this seasoning for a few months on the sea-coast, it should be sent into the Deckan, or Mysore regions, which being elevated about 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, are cool and healthy. The corps, in the course of a few years, might be marched to the northern stations, and receive the benefit of streams of air flowing from mountains covered with eternal snow. Thus Europeans would, in

my humble opinion, preserve health for ten or twelve years, and return to their country with unbroken constitutions, even after twenty years' residence in a hot climate.

Many of the long journeys, which military men have to make in India, either to join their regiments on arrival from Europe, or in corps afterwards, upon transfer from one presidency to another, &c. are made by water. I can refer to nothing more delightful in recollection, than the movements I have made in India on its fine rivers. The rich banks were often covered with herds of cattle, feeding amidst fruit groves; and the bright green of the broad plantain leaves formed charming tints with the deep shades of the mangoe, guava, and jack, while tall palms, thinly scattered, rose like stately spires in the distance. From among this external luxuriance of nature peeped numerous villages; and the hum of labour, the tinkling bells of pagodas, the Mahomedan call to prayers, and the groups of young females along the margins, gazing at our tracking or paddling boat, with their jet black hair decorated with sparkling white flowers, altogether formed an af

fecting scene, upon which, with my brother officers, I used to gaze, till the brilliant luminary of day sank to repose. Then we sometimes saw the bosom of the broad water covered, as it were, with stars glittering on the dark blue expanse, and emulating the vivid glances of yet brighter stars above. This enchanting appearance was caused by numerous lamps sent down the stream after sunset by the Hindoo girls, under the belief that they lighted departed friends, and prognosticated the return of those who were absent. If the lamp, or little boat, sailed off propitiously, a shout of exultation was raised; but if it upset, or the light went out, a melancholy howl announced apprehension, which was answered by the screams of peacocks and monkeys.

The numerous towns that rise, too, in quick succession, as by enchantment, and the busy scenes of human anxiety and folly, all contribute to excite and gratify curiosity. Who has ever sailed up the Ganges to Delhi, and seen the wonders of Patna, Benares, Agra, &c. without amazement and admiration? Could he look upon the ruins of Mogul splendour, and the monuments of Brah

manical power, and not feel his faculties enlarged, and his sensibility affected? The gardens and palaces of Shalimar, once the abode of ten thousand beauties, are now clothed in the wildness of long neglect. There is scarcely a flower left to breathe its "sweetness on the desert air."-Sic transit gloria mundi.