"The whole city of Delhi was spread out at our feet like a map, as we looked from the minarets of the mosque. We could trace the streets, or at any rate all the principal ones, and our guide showed us the public buildings, and the points that were made memorable during the Mutiny. But we found our attention drawn to the ruins around Delhi quite as much as to the city itself. Far as we could see toward the south we discovered masses of ruins, or scattered tombs and other buildings; they cover an area ten or eleven miles long by six in width, and it is said that no less than five different cities have been built here. Delhi has been called the Rome of Asia, and certainly the comparison does not appear a bad one. "Having seen the ruins of the old cities from a distance, we naturally wanted to examine them closely. So our second day was devoted to an excursion, and we started early in the morning for a drive among the remains of ancient Delhi. "We had our heads filled with tombs, walls, forts, old palaces, towers, and similar things, before we returned. The sight could not fail to impress us with the grandeur of the city of the Mogul emperors, and since we left home we have seen no better illustration of the changes which time works than in Delhi and the surrounding country. Empires and kingdoms that had their capitals here have been overthrown one after another, and in each instance the conquerors have shown little or no respect for the conquered. Magnificent tombs are decaying, palaces are crumbling into ruins, and the gardens which were once the secluded retreats of crowned heads are converted into fields and pastures. Where once were the crowded streets of a populous city there are now only a few straggling natives, who subsist on gratuities received from strangers, and the walls of the forts have gone to decay so that they would be utterly useless for purposes of defence. [Illustration: THE KUTTUB MINAR.] "The most famous of the sights in the vicinity of Delhi is the Kuttub Minar, which is said to be the tallest column in the world. We are not quite certain as to the correctness of this statement, and will give the figures, so that anybody may correct us. It is divided from the base to the summit into five different stories, and each story has a balcony at its top. The distance between the balconies diminishes in proportion to the diameter of the column, so that as you look upward from the base the column appears a good deal higher than it really is. The lower story is shaped like a polygon, but the others are round, with deep fluting all the way up.