We were informed
that the power of life and death, in single cases, rests with the
Maharajah of Jeypore, as well as with the rest of the native rulers.
Thus one third of India, embracing a population of between fifty and
sixty millions of people, is still under native rule.

From Jeypore to Bombay is a distance of seven hundred miles, a journey
which we were three days and nights in performing. Most of the route lay
through a sparsely-populated country, very similar in character to the
sections already described,--the greater part of India being an immense
plain. It was curious on this route to observe that all the railroad
station-houses were built with white domes like mosques, a fancy which
was also carried into practice upon many of the better class of village
houses; the effect, however, was far from pleasing to the eye. Now and
then a few antelopes were seen; they would gaze fixedly at the train for
a moment, then turn and spring away in immense bounds. Now a lynx and
now a fox would put in an appearance in the early morning, in the lonely
district through which we passed, generally at a wholesome distance from
the cars. We were up and watchful; there is not much sleep to be
obtained on the cars in India; besides, one does not wish to lose the
crisp freshness of the dawn. Before the sun fairly rises the temperature
was a little chilly, but directly its power was felt, and it got fairly
started upon its diurnal path, there was a change of thirty or forty
degrees, and then--it is impossible to describe how the golden sunlight
flooded the plains. Small game of various species was frequently seen in
the fields and hedges; kingfishers, kites, and hawks put in an
appearance, and a tall bird standing four feet high was pointed out to
us, called a sarus, gray in color, and of the stork family. The pretty
Indian blue jay seemed omnipresent.

As we got further southward we came upon the great poppy fields,
cultivated for opium, which formed a remarkable feature in the
landscape. They were scarlet in color, mingled occasionally with pink.
In other parts of the country we had seen the beautiful, though
baleful, fields of poppies, dressed in bridal white. The effect of
either is very fine when the eye measures the singular display by miles
in extent, the rich, glutinous flowers nodding gracefully in the gentle
breeze. We were told that from six to seven hundred thousand acres of
land, mostly in the valley of the Ganges, were