A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of IndiaAcland, Charles
History
A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India
Acland, Charles
India -- Description and travel; India -- Social life and customs
In the direction in which you look to see the mirage I mentioned,
there is a small piece of stagnant water from which much moisture
must arise under the burning heat of the sun; consequently there
must be much refraction in all directions. And this is seen in
looking the right way from all parts of the Pooree sands; and from
the particular point to which I have alluded, this picture, owing,
I suppose, to certain marks in the sand, assumes the appearance of
a castle, houses, &c. All this is a very rough explanation; but it
may serve to give you some idea of the probable cause of the mirage.
Ships have sometimes appeared to be sailing in the air from the same
cause; and distant coasts, which were far below the horizon, have
been distinctly seen by means of the refraction.
Guzzeepuddee, 8 miles from Balasore, January 12.
[Sidenote: SPORTING.]
Yesterday morning about four o'clock we started from Balasore on
horseback. The party consisted of the magistrate, the surgeon, and
myself. It was a brilliant moonlight, but somehow I thought I should
like to finish my night's rest, and therefore soon got into my
palanquin, and had a most comfortable nap. I was awakened at daybreak
by my bearers stopping and telling me that they did not know the way
to Guzzeepuddee. I got out of my palanquin, loaded my gun, inquired
my way of the first native I saw, sent my palanquin on, and then with
two servants entered the jungle. Whereabout the magistrate and the
doctor were I had not the slightest idea. I had a delightful ramble
through a jungle, many of the natives following me from each village
through which I passed, and appearing to take great interest in the
success of my sport.
I went on, with my broad-brimmer hat and brown leather gaiters,
followed by twenty or thirty black fellows, forcing my way through
the thickest, densest shrubberies, thinking at every instant that
I might come suddenly on a large bear. Every now and then a break
would occur in the jungle, and I would emerge from the tangled
thicket into a broad open space of three or four acres, covered with
the smoothest turf, interspersed here and there with the graceful
bamboo, and surmounted on all sides with a literal wall of trees and
underwood. On their branches sat the splendid wild fowls and the
beautiful peacocks, whilst from all sides I heard the soft cooing of
the doves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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