practice was cured of it by a sensible Englishman, who, on his part, also produced a servant with a basin and water, and deliberately proceeded to wash his hands in the native nobleman’s presence. But we must return from this digression, and make our parting bow to the Lieutenant-Governor as we retire with the rest of the gay crowd. It has been mentioned that the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has an official residence at the mountain station of Darjeling. Thirty years ago it was no easy task to reach Darjeling, and in 1857 the Lieutenant-Governor marched up from Calcutta to the foot of the hills with a regular camp, at the rate of about ten miles a day, and the march occupied fully six weeks. But now the railway has altered all this. The Lieutenant-Governor gets into his special train at Calcutta at 4 P.M. on Monday, and by noon on Tuesday he finds himself safely in his mountain residence at Darjeling. A steam tramway now runs right up the mountains, and thus Darjeling is much more accessible than Simla, which is not yet provided with a similar tramway. The principal drawbacks to Darjeling are the heavy rain and the dense mists, which too frequently envelop the whole of the mountain ranges. But when there is a clear and bright day, the view of the everlasting snows, with the mighty Kinchenjunga in all its majesty, is grand and glorious beyond all description. It is, however, rather the fashion for the Lieutenant-Governor and his secretaries, and the other great officials who follow in his train to Darjeling, to make themselves out to be great martyrs to colds and coughs and neuralgia and other maladies, which they attribute to the cold and damp and misty climate of the hills. It seems rather strange that if they dislike the climate so much they should take the trouble to go to Darjeling. But these grumblings are really only lip-deep, and they know very well that it is much more comfortable to sleep in a cool room, with a cheerful fire in it, than to remain down in the plains with the thermometer at 80, and to have to court sleep under the influence of a punkah—which has to be pulled by a native who is unpleasantly prone to go to sleep, and so to cease pulling the punkah.