There is a very fine view from the brow of the cliff above Kennery, of which my wife made an accurate drawing. We saw many monkeys in the woods, and some beautiful lizards, with a bright red crest like that of a cock. I also thought I heard partridges calling. Tygers are found in these woods, but seldom attack people where there are many together, or between sunrise and sunset.

The heat was very great during this excursion, but we had sufficient proof either that the sun, at its greatest strength, is not so dangerous here as in Bengal, or else that more precautions are commonly used against it in Calcutta than is absolutely necessary. On the morning of the 27th, not only all the men in the party, but my wife and Mrs. Macdonald rode from our encampment to Tannah, seven or eight miles, at a brisk pace, and along a dusty and unsheltered road, without any inconvenience that I heard of: and at Bassein on the 28th, at the hottest part of the day and the year, we were all of us walking about round the town and amid the ruins for nearly two hours without even umbrellas. It is possible that in Bengal people are sometimes needlessly afraid of the sun. But there really should seem to be something in the refraction of the soil, the abundance of moisture, or some similar cause which renders the heat in Bengal, though not more intense, yet to use an expression of an old Indian, more venomous than in most other parts of India.

There are cave temples of the same kind with those of Kennery, but smaller and less interesting, at Mompezier and Ambowlee. We passed these places in our return, but we had, as it unfortunately happened, no time to stop, being obliged to return home for the ensuing Sunday. Having seen the best, we felt, indeed, no great anxiety to give ourselves any inconvenient trouble about the worse. We returned to Bombay by the ferry of Mahim, a large and very populous though meanly built town, overhung by a profusion of palm-trees.

The bungalows on the esplanade of Bombay are all temporary

buildings, and removed as soon as the rains begin to fall. We were, accordingly, driven from ours on Saturday the 4th of June,

• At the commencement of the hot season, those Europeans who are obliged by business, or other circumstances, to have their principal residences within the fort, erect bungalows on the adjoining esplanade, which are, many of them, remarkably elegant buildings, but quite unfit to resist the violence of the monsoon. On its approach their inhabitants return into the fort, the bungalows are taken down and preserved for another year, and their place is, in a very short time, occupied by a sheet of water. The esplanade is on the sea beach, with the black town at its furthest end, amidst a grove of coco-trees. This town stretches across the whole end of the island, and makes the communication between the fort and the interior unpleasant, from the heat and dust of its narrow streets. The houses within the fort are of a singular construction, and quite unlike any in the East of India, being generally of three or four stories high, with wooden verandahs, supported by wooden pillars, projecting one above another;these pillars, as well as the fronts of the verandahs, are often very beautifully carved, but the streets are so narrow that it is impossible to have a complete view of them. The prospect from some parts of the fort is extremely beautiful, looking across the bay, over islands, many of them covered with wood, to the Ghâts, which form a magnificent back-ground to the picture. A great number of Parsees live within the walls; they are a frugal and industrious race, who possess a considerable part of the island, and are partners in almost all the commercial houses, as well as great ship-builders and ship-owners. The "Lowjee Family," a large vessel of 1,000 tons, in which I came from Calcutta, belongs to a family of that name, whose head has an excellent house near Pareil. In our early and late rides I have been interested in observing these men on the shore, with their faces turned towards the East or West, worshipping the rising and setting sun, frequently standing within the surge, their hands joined, and praying aloud with much apparent devotion, though, to my astonishment, I was assured, in a language unintelligible to themselves; others are to be seen prostrate on the ground, devoutly rubbing their noses and foreheads in the sand; they worship the four elements, but give the pre-eminence to fire. Their principal temple is in the centre of the black town, where the everlasting fire is preserved by the priests. I never observed their women at prayer, but they are hourly to be seen mixed with Hindoos and Mussulmans, in crowds surrounding the wells on the esplanade, (which Mr. Elphinstone had sunk at the commencement of the drought, but which in this severe scarcity hardly supply the population with water) and scrambling for their turn to fill the pitcher and the skin. In this respect there is a remarkable difference between the customs of the Bombay women and those of their Bengalee sisterhood, who are seldom seen drawing water for any purposes. The principal Parsee burial-ground is on an eminence near the coast. I met a funeral procession in one of my rides, just on the point of ascending it, which had a singular effect among the trees and jungle; the body was laid on a bier, covered with a white cloth, and carried by six men clothed in long white garments, and closely veiled; it was preceded and followed by a number of persons in the same costume, walking two and two, each pair linked together with a white handkerchief. They object to any Europeans approaching their burial-ground; indeed. in former times, Mr. Elphinstone told me, a Giaour found within their precincts was liable to be expelled the island. But a friend of ours, who contrived to gain access to it, gave me the

and most hospitably received as guests by Mr. Elphinstone in the government house at Pareil.

There are three government residencies in the island of Bombay. The one within the walls of the fort, though large and convenient, is little used except for holding councils, public Durbars, and the dispatch of business. It is a spacious dismal-looking building, like many of the other large houses in Bombay, looking like a Stadthaus in a German free city. At Malabar-point, about eight miles from the town, is a very pretty cottage, in a beautiful situation on a rocky and woody promontory, and actually washed by the sea-spray, where Mr. Elphinstone chiefly resides during the hot weather. The third and principal is Pareil, about six miles from Bombay, at a short distance from the eastern shore of the island. The interior of the house is very handsome, having a fine stair-case, and two noble rooms, one over the other, of 75 or 80 feet long, very handsomely furnished. The lower of these, which is the dining room, is said to have been an old and desecrated

following description of one of them. A deep well, of very large diameter, is sunk in the hill, the sides are built round near the surface, and partitioned into three different receptacles, for men, women, and children; on ledges within these partitions the bodies are placed, and left exposed to the vultures, who are always hovering in the neighbourhood, while the friends anxiously wait at some distance to ascertain which eye is first torn out, inferring from thence whether the souls are happy or miserable. When the flesh is consumed, the bones are thrown down the well, into which subterranean passages lead, for the purpose of removing them when it becomes too full. The Christian Church-yard, the Mussulman burial-ground, the place where the Hindoos burn their dead, and the Parsee vault, are all within a short distance of each other.Extract from Editor's Journal.

From Mr. Elphinstone's house there is a magnificent view of the town and harbour; and at the extremity of this promontory in a part of the rock which it is difficult to approach, are the remains of a pagoda, and a hole, famous as a place of resort for Hindoo devotees, who believe that on entering it they are purified from all their sins, and come out regenerate. The western side of the promontory is considered as one of the healthiest situations in Bombay, and there are several European houses on the beach; there is also a beautiful village, almost solely inhabited by Brahmins, with a very fine tank in its centre, and some magnificent flights of steps leading to the water. These people seem to enjoy the beau idéal of Hindoo luxury, occupied only in the ceremonies of their religion, and passing the rest of their lives in silent contemplation, as they would themselves assert, but, as I should rather express it, in sleeping and smoking.-Extract from Editor's Journal.