different the points of view from which different people survey the same scene or the same object! To us at the breakfast-table the motives of Bunder or of Paugul were of little moment, whilst we dilated upon the ridiculous figure made by Paugul on his exit from the empty cabin, and admired amazingly the apparent collectedness and sang-froid of the bearer, for whom the libation was intended.

Mrs. Nutkut did not fail to rally Paugul upon his taste for the ludicrous and its consequences; and indeed the incident, simple and natural as it was, was a source of much merriment in so monotonous a journey.

CHAPTER XVI.

RIVER HAPS AND MISHAPS.

In the evening the captain and the pilot seemed to differ in opinion with respect to the place where the vessel should stop for the night. In so ever-varying a stream as the Ganges, the steamers, in their voyages up and down, are obliged to take various pilots as they proceed, who, by constantly going over the same ground, or rather the same water, backwards and forwards, are aware of the changes in the river, and where the steamer can most

safely and swiftly progress. On this particular evening we had "carried on," as the sailors say, later than usual.

It was already dark before Lumba was thinking of dropping the anchor. The native

pilot thought the position we were then in a favourable one, whilst Lumba conceived that we should be safer further inland, where the country was inundated, but where there was quite sufficient water to float a vessel drawing so little as the Irrawaddy. The pilot, however, prevailed, and the anchor was dropped about half a mile from the shore, in rather a deep portion of the stream; a sand-island lay three or four hundred yards behind us, and to our left a deep inundation, like a gulf, stretched into the land.

No sooner was the anchor dropped, than we became aware of the amazing strength of the current of the river. It rushed as through a sluice past the bows of our steamer, curving at each side into graceful arches, as if we were proceeding at the rate of ten or twelve knots an hour. I have said that the steamers on the Ganges tow up barges called flats after them, laden with merchandize, of which the vessel cannot take much, from its peculiar construction. Sometimes, indeed, there are two, or even three, of these monstrous tails appended to the unfortunate steamer, which puffs, and groans, and labours,

and strains under the infliction, having to overcome the current, drag up its own weight, and two or three other bodies nearly as heavy as itself, and all this without the slightest assistance from any quarter.

Fortunately, the Irrawaddy had only one of these ungainly appendages on this occasion. Had there been more, they would probably have been lost.

No sooner was the anchor down and the fires partially extinguished, than Lumba commenced running first to the bows and afterwards to the stern, in such a way as caused some alarm amongst the passengers. He had been just promising to rig a tent with sails for Mrs. Nutkut on the forecastle (which here answers the purpose of a quarter-deck), such was the intensity of the heat in the cabins. Her couch-cot was to be conveyed there from her cabin, and she was thus to pass the night in the open air, as we did, encircled only by a. wall of canvas.

We were quietly discussing these arrangements over our cigars and brandy-pawnee,* when Lumba's agitation and his abuse of the

* Brandy and water.

.

pilot caused us to ask what was the matter. The roar of the water as it swept past the steamer soon convinced us that our anchor had been dropped in one of those rapid currents which abound in the neighbourhood of the sand-islands.

Get up

the steam again!" shouted Lumba to the engineer; "lash the flat with the chain-cable!" roared he to the chief officer.

"Ay, ay, sir!" were the ready replies; and corresponding orders were immediately given in Hindostannee to the crew.

'The flat's gone, sir!" screamed the chief officer from the stern, as we heard a crash and a jerk that almost upset us; the noise of the stream and the high wind caused the loud tone in which the orders were given, and proportionately alarmed the passengers, of course.

Lumba ran to the stern; the flat had broken from its moorings, and the stream was, to our astonishment, carrying it away to our right, instead of down the river in our stern.

"I thought so," growled Lumba; “it's a blessed whirlpool we're in ;" and he seized hold of the pilot (a native, of course,) to inflict summary chastisement.