of the best preserved and most
remarkable of her monuments. It has three domes of noble proportions, a
hundred and fifty feet in height, surrounded by minarets, the whole
structure standing upon an elevated platform accessible by broad marble
steps. It is known as the Jumna Musjid, and is conceded to be the finest
of which Islamism can boast, owing its construction to that grand
builder of tombs, palaces, and mosques, Shah-Jehan,--the creator of the
Taj, that poem in marble at Agra, the glory and pride of India. The
Jumna Musjid is built principally of red stone, but is freely inlaid
with white marble, and as a whole is very impressive and Oriental in
feeling.

The Hindoos claim for their country even a greater antiquity than do the
Chinese, but there is probably nothing authentic relating to the early
history of this people prior to the time of Alexander the Great, say
four hundred years before Christ. Of one thing we are positive, that the
reign of the Mogul emperors exceeded in splendor all that the world has
ever seen outside of Hindostan. Indeed, it was their great wealth, so
lavishly displayed, which first challenged European cupidity. We have
said the Delhi of to-day is in its turn declining. It has never
recovered from the blow it received a century since, inflicted by Nadir
Shah, who pillaged the city and carried away, in gold and precious
stones, treasures estimated at over a hundred million sterling! Among
his prizes on that occasion was the famous Koh-i-noor diamond, since
"appropriated" by the English; and which to-day forms a part of Queen
Victoria's crown jewels. It will not do to analyze too closely by what
means this was brought about. What a romantic history would the true
story of that "Mountain of Light" prove, could it be honestly written.

Nature does not exhibit the usual dividing lines in this region as
regards the seasons of the years. Flowers are always in bloom in the
open fields and gardens, trees ever putting forth their leaves, and
perpetual youth is evinced by the entire vegetable kingdom. No winter,
spring, or autumn is known to the Indian calendar, the year being
divided only into hot, rainy, and temperate seasons. Though it was the
last of January while we were in Delhi, only summer clothing was worn;
outside garments were not thought of, the thermometer ranging about 68
deg. Such temperature admits of a series of crops tri-annually, if the
husbandman chooses thus to time his planting