leather belt to the bullock cart on which it is driven out to the neighborhood of the antelopes it is to catch. When loosed, the chetah springs toward his prey, and holds it till the keepers come up.

Other fierce animals are striped hyenas, wolves, and jackals.

Bears are quite common in the forests throughout India. The black bears found in the region of the Himalayas are very fierce, and they are feared by the natives even more than the tiger.

The sloth bear roams the forests from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and is one of the most remarkable animals in India. It feeds on white ants, and searches far and wide for the high ant-hills made by these busy insects. It lays bare, with its long, curved claws, the large cells at the bottom of each nest, and quickly devours the tiny inhabitants.

The noblest, the largest, and the most characteristic animal of India is the elephant. In the jungles at the base of the Himalayas, in the forests further south, and in Ceylon, this wonderful animal is still found wild. We will not describe the elephant more fully here as we shall learn of the many and valued services of "My Lord Elephant" (as the Hindus call him) in our travels through Asia.

One cannot travel far in India without hearing the cry of the jackal, that animal which "the wolves despise because he runs about making mischief and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village heaps." This we are told in "The Jungle Book," that thrilling story of animal life in India.

The most sacred of all the four-footed animals in this land are the common humped cattle. These animals have a great fleshy hump between the shoulders which, like that of the camel and the yak, is supposed to act as a reservoir of food and drink.

In this land there are birds of the most brilliant plumage, and reptiles without number. Among the latter is the cobra, the most dreaded of all serpents. Many hundreds of the natives are killed every year by these serpents, so numerous are they, and so deadly is their sting.

The mineral wealth of India is mostly to be found in the plateau of Deccan. Coal is mined there, and beds of iron ore and copper are worked to some extent. Within this district was the once famous kingdom of Golconda, so noted for its trade in diamonds. In the river beds gold has been found, and now gold mining is made a profitable industry.

We may well think of India as a miniature of the whole earth, since within its borders are to be found every variety of surface as well as of climate. Here are snow-capped mountains, forest-clad hills, deep valleys, broad plateaus, barren deserts, and fertile plains. In going a distance of a few hundred miles, from the valley of the Ganges to the summit of the Himalayas, one may pass from the heat of the torrid zone to the region of eternal snow.

The native population of India is principally divided into two great sects, the Hindu and the Mohammedan. But there are among these people very many classes, speaking more than a hundred different tongues and

dialects.

The early history of these races, their wars, the establishment of the empire of the Great Moguls, and the conquest of the land by the English, is a fascinating story, and we shall read it, in part at least, later on in our journey through India.

What is the present government of India? This great land, with its fruitful plains and navigable rivers, its stores of precious gems and costly fabrics, and its millions of dark-skinned inhabitants, belongs to the empire of Great Britain. It has been called "the richest jewel in Queen Victoria's crown."

To tell how England gained control of this far-away land would introduce to us many important and thrilling events in the history of India. The names of John and Sebastian Cabot are associated with the early history of our own country. We know of their explorations along the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Virginia, and that this was not the discovery they had hoped to make. They sailed from England expecting to reach the East Indies by passing through some unknown channel in the Arctic Ocean to the north of the New World. They failed in their attempt to open a new way to the Far East, but gained lasting fame in the history of America. From this earliest effort by Englishmen to find a shorter route to India, to their final conquest of that vast empire, is a long story, and we can take time only to glance at a few of the most important events that occurred in that eventful period.

In 1600 a company of English merchants were given a royal charter for the purpose of trading with the East Indies. Here was the beginning of the famous East

India Company, destined to become, in time, one of the greatest commercial powers of the world.

The first object of the great Company was to control trade with India. Little by little the territory of most value for commercial purposes was acquired, and thus the power of the Company was established in this remote land. Forts were built and an army was formed, to protect the English settlements and to make new conquests. From these small beginnings nearly the whole of central and southern India came under the power of the East India Company.

Among the noted governors of the great Company, the names of Lord Clive and Warren Hastings are the most famous. The foundations of British rule in India were laid broad and deep by these men and their associates.

After a history of more than two hundred and fifty years, the rule of the East India Company ended with the terrible Sepoy Mutiny, of which we shall learn more later, and the government of British India was then transferred to the English crown.

On New Year's Day, 1877, Queen Victoria was formally proclaimed Empress of India.

The government of India is now under the immediate authority of a governor general, appointed by the queen, and a council of fifteen members. The governor general bears the title of Viceroy. The whole country is divided into provinces, each of which has a governor acting under the direction of the Viceroy.

There are numerous small states which still have their native rulers. These kings and princes are