The refreshment system of the East Indian Railway is not at all bad, when we consider the newness of the iron road and the comparatively small number of travellers to patronize it. At convenient distances there are refreshment-rooms, where meals of a fair quality are served at reasonable prices: many of these restaurants are managed by one man, who has a contract with the railway company, and is guaranteed against loss on the condition that his service is satisfactory. Most of these restaurants have hotels attached, so that a traveller may be lodged and fed without leaving the station, in case he arrives late at night and does not find the train he wishes to connect with. On the express-trains the conductor will telegraph ahead to a dining-station and order a dinner, so that the traveller will find it all ready for him on the arrival of the train. Our friends did this on several occasions during their travels in India, and were well pleased with the result. The boys regretted that they were obliged to travel in the night, on account of missing the view of the country. They wanted to have a peep at Chandernagore, twenty miles or so above Calcutta, which, with Pondicherry, forms the French East Indies, as already stated. Frank consoled himself for the deprivation by reading to Fred the description of the place, which is less than two miles square, and has about 20,000 inhabitants, the most of them Hindoos. He learned further that it was the only profitable possession of the French in India, as the British Government gives it 300 chests of opium every year on the condition that the inhabitants will not cultivate that drug or interfere with the salt monopoly. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is to raise cattle for the Calcutta market, and their town has a very dilapidated appearance. Frank wanted to look at the fields where opium is raised, but the Doctor told him it was not the season for the cultivation of the plant that produces the famous drug, and he would have seen nothing more than the bare earth if his journey had been in the daytime. Thereupon followed a talk about opium and its peculiarities, which we will give for the benefit of those interested in the subject. "Opium is raised from the plant we call the poppy," said the Doctor; "it was known as far back as the third century of our era, and before that time extracts of the poppy were in use for medicinal purposes. It is made in Asia Minor, China, Persia, Egypt, and India, the latter producing more than all the other countries together. Experiments at its cultivation have been made in Australia, Africa, Europe, and the United States; but none have been successful, as the best qualities of the drug are to be found only in the Asiatic opiums. Next to the Indian opium comes that of Asia Minor, commonly known as Turkey or Smyrna opium, and some authorities consider it equal if not superior to that from Hindostan."