shaded by clusters of date palms,
gave a picturesque appearance to the shores, and the tropical growth
grew richer and more dense as we approached Calcutta. The excitement on
arrival of the steamer is intense; custom house officers present
themselves: all baggage is ordered from the cabins on deck, even to the
smallest hand-bag; search is made for fire arms: strict laws regarding
them are enforced, and if you are unfortunate enough to have one in your
possession, as was one of our party, you are quickly relieved of it, and
only by paying as much as the original price, with much red tape, are
you enabled to regain it.

INDIA.

India, in 1892, had a population of 300,000,000. The area of the land on
which they live is equal to the United States, east of the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado. Much of it is uncultivated; other lands yield
crops under irrigation. The soil in places has become exhausted by use
without manure. Between monsoons (that is, periods of no rainfall),
these regions cease to produce and there is a scarcity.

Regions cultivated by irrigation are enhanced in value, for the products
bring better prices, but when rivers and tanks dry up from which water
for irrigation is drawn, then scarcity becomes a famine, where the rain
has failed. There are two annual crops in India; the former inferior
grade is used for home consumption, the other for export. Of the army,
seventy thousand strong, forty per cent are incapacitated by diseases.
Civil servants are superannuated at fifty-five years of age and are sent
home on a pension, seldom enjoying life longer than two years afterward.

Seven per cent native males read and write; only one per cent native
females can read or write. The different castes will not intermarry and
will not touch each other's food.

Calcutta is a city of 500,000 inhabitants, of these, 14,000 are
Europeans.

The streets of the English concession are broad and well laid out. Fine
hotel buildings, banks and storehouses line the main thoroughfare. The
hotels have broad verandas extending from the second floor, over the
sidewalk, affording a cool resting place for the guests, and would be
most acceptable were it not for the myriads of insects that cover you.
The protection these porches afford at night to the natives who, wrapped
in their cotton blankets, lie closely huddled together along the
sidewalk, while scarcely leaving room enough for a pathway for the
pedestrian serve to exempt