cimens of this insect in southern India and at Singapore,
some of which were an inch long, but these of Elephanta were not
remarkable for size. They were hardly larger than one's little finger
nail, but of such brilliancy of color, red, blue, yellow, and pink, as
to cause them to resemble precious stones rather than insects. Some were
a complete representative of the opal, with all its radiating fire. Some
were spotted like butterflies, others like the expanded tail of the
peacock, and again some had half circles of alternate colors like the
eyes in a pearl oyster. We were told that only upon this island were
such specimens to be found. Children gathered them, and filled little
wooden boxes with various specimens, which they sold for a trifle. The
harbor of Bombay is a spacious and excellent one. The old fortifications
have gone mostly to decay, but two floating monitors, the Abyssinia and
the Magdala, now form the principal defense of the port. The city,
unlike most commercial ports, is not situated on a river, but is one of
a cluster of islands connected with the main-land by causeways and
railroad viaducts, turning it into a peninsula.

The fish-market is remarkable here for the variety and excellence of the
finny tribe offered for sale. The fish-market of Havana has ever been
famous for the size, color, and shapes of the specimens it shows upon
its broad marble tables, but Bombay rivals the Cuban capital in this
respect. Fish forms a large portion of the substantial sustenance of
the common people. The fish-women, those who sell the article in the
market, are curious, swarthy creatures, covered with bangles on wrists,
ankles, arms, ears, and noses. An East Indian woman seems to find vast
satisfaction in this style of disfigurement. To see and to eat prawns in
their perfection, three or four inches long, one must visit Bombay,
where they create handsome bits of scarlet color piled up amid the
silver and gold scaled fishes upon the white marble. The fruit-market is
equally remarkable for variety and lusciousness. Mandarins, oranges,
lemons, mangoes, grapes, bananas, cocoanuts, rose-apples, and vegetables
too numerous to mention, load the tempting counters. One of the dealers,
a young woman who would have been pretty if not so bedecked, had
perforated each side of her nostrils and wore in the holes small gilt
buttons,--this in addition to bangles innumerable, and ornaments
dragging her ears quite out of shape. Her swart