"I don't see any islands," replied Miss Blanche. "They are too near together to be distinguished separately. The Bombay to which we are going is an island eleven and a half miles long. The town has an abundant territory; but large as it is, portions of it are very densely peopled, averaging twenty-one inmates to a house," continued the viscount. "Next to Calcutta it is the largest city in India, and comes within 40,000 of that. "Bombay has had its vicissitudes. Of course you know that your Civil War produced a cotton famine in Europe; but it raised this city to the pinnacle of prosperity. A reign of speculation came here, and it was believed that Bombay would be the leading cotton mart of the world. Companies were organized to develop the resources of the country in the textile plant; and the fever raged as high as it did when the South Sea Bubble was blown up, or as it has sometimes in New York and other cities of your country. "New banks were started; merchants plunged recklessly into the vortex of speculation. Then came the news of the surrender of General Lee, and the end of the war in America. The bubble burst, even before it was fully inflated, and the business prosperity of Bombay collapsed. The certificates of shares in companies and banks were not worth the paper on which they were written. Even the Bank of Bombay, believed to be as solid as the 'Old Lady' of Threadneedle Street, had to suspend, and the commercial distress was frightful. "But it left its lesson behind it; and since that time Bombay has patiently and painfully regained its former solid prosperity. It has recovered what it lost, and is now steadily increasing in population and wealth." "I never heard of the South Sea Bubble of which you speak," said Louis. "That is not strange, as it was an affair of one hundred and eighty-one years ago," replied Lord Tremlyn. "I have not time now to describe it in full. The floating debt of England at that time was L10,000,000; and the Earl of Oxford concocted a scheme to pay it off, and formed a company of merchants for that purpose. The riches of the South Sea Islands, including South America, were most extravagantly estimated at that time, and the monopoly of the trade was secured by the company formed. The 'South Sea Company' was bolstered up by the pledge of the duties on the imports from these far-off regions, and the shares sold like wild-fire, increasing in price in the most extraordinary manner. Shares at a par of L100 were quoted at L550 in May, and L890 in June.