ndred feet in height and twelve feet in thickness. Two stair-cases of
one hundred and fifty steps each wind upward to its summit on either
side, giving the building from a distance the appearance of a huge brick
cork-screw. These steps were intended to be used for carrying up the
grain, the building being filled through a small aperture at the top,
and up them Shah Maharaj, the present premier of Nepaul, is said once
to have ridden his pony--a most daring feat of horsemanship and nerve.
On one side were two large stone tablets with inscriptions--the one in
Persian, the other in English. They simply stated that the granary was
erected in 1786 as part of a general plan ordered by the
governor-general and council of India for the perpetual prevention of
famine. It has never yet, however, been filled with grain, but has been
employed as a military magazine. From the summit a fine view of the
surrounding country is to be had, comprising plains and forests, stately
bungalows and flowery "compounds," vegetable gardens, native huts, and
in the distance the sacred Ganges, with its stony bed more than half
exposed.

Formerly, famines were not infrequent in Hindostan, which was owing to
an insufficient fall of rain at the proper season and consequent failure
of the crops. One occurred in the year 1770, in which thirty millions of
people are said to have perished in the valley of the Ganges. This Patna
granary was doubtless one of a number which it was intended should be
built throughout the country and filled with grain in times of plenty to
supply the people in case of famine, like those in the cities of ancient
Egypt which Joseph filled with corn in the seven years of plenteousness
and opened in the seven years of dearth, when "famine waxed sore in the
land." But the building of the Ganges Canal and the railroads have
rendered it almost impossible that a widespread calamitous famine should
again occur in this section of India--the former by providing a more
thorough system of irrigation, and the latter by affording means for the
rapid and easy transportation of food from one province to another. The
extent of the recent famine has been grossly exaggerated. Had certain
public works--the construction of railroads and other sources of
communication and of canals for the irrigation of the rice-fields--which
the government contemplated prior to the outbreak of the distress, been
completed, probably no reckless, sensational reports of