least some of them; but I looked forward to seeing the main body of them at Kurrachee.

We got back, and I passed a pleasant and useful day whittling another stick which I cut of "Babool" wood. It was a delightful change to have nothing doing on board the De Grey, all the crew having a holiday, in order to enable them to participate in "Hobson." I settled with the Tindal for a Mugghur, or crocodile's head, which we had shot, and I had given to my Portuguese to dry in the sun. I asked the latter whether it had become sweet, and he replied, "Yes, it stink same as yourself." By which I hope he meant “ no more."

We slept, and I humbly offered the last meal to those who were occupants of the berths of the De Grey.

Next morning, preceded by the "followers of the Commissioner," as they were labelled, we walked up to the station and started for Kurrachee, one hundred and five miles through a desolate and barren country. We occasionally passed over the dry bed of a stream which descends in the wet weather from the mountains, but otherwise from Kotree to Kurrachee all was barren.

I was surprised to find that the Khan of Khelat's country came right down to the sea near Kurrachee, and the line of the Belooch Hills forms a fine sky line to the view from Government House.

CHAPTER VII.

KURRACHEE.- -GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FRERE HALL,

BREAKWATER.

WE reached the station and disembarked under a salute of thirteen guns, and drove to Goverment House

the

Kurrachee is situated in a large sandy plain, and really with the fine buildings of the Frere Hall, outwardly ugly church tower, the barracks and various banks, and other private houses, is really the most "pucca," that is to say, complete place I have seen in India.

Government House looks towards the sea about two miles off, and along the ridge are Manora, the sanatorium of Ghuznee, and there is a "stand-point" called Clifton, to which the inhabitants resort to catch the sea-breezes.

Altogether, the climate here is first-rate, and a fine breakwater has been run out to sea, which forms. very fair harbour.

a

At present, in consequence of the numerou failures in Bombay, there is no great trade doing here, but vast quantities of cotton and wool from Affghanistan and Belooch land find their way down the Indus to Kotree, and on here by rail for shipment. China, I hear, is going in largely for cotton.

An amusing thing happened about cotton goods. A superior kind of article came into the Indus country, from the entrance north-west. It found great favour, and the authorities began to be alarmed lest Russia was forcing a trade there. Accordingly some pieces of these new goods were sent home, and forwarded by the paternal and omniscient Government to Manchester, with an enquiry whether they could not compete with these manufactures.

A firm there responded that competition was hardly necessary, as these goods bore their trade mark!

I went over the Frere Hall, erected, as the inscription says, to commemorate Sir Bartle Frere's admirable administration of Scinde. The lower part is occupied by a museum and a fair library. The museum wants both care and arrangement. Poor stuffed birds and fishes have pined away under the attacks of insects, and the local fossils are a heap. But I hear that two gentlemen have kindly

undertaken the arrangement and future preservation of the objects.

Now at this present writing, at two o'clock in the day, there is a delightful fresh breeze blowing from the which accounts for the hearty hand-shaking I have received from various healthy visitors.

sea,

A game of croquet in the evening with the General and Commissioner, and a dinner party with the Judicial Commissioner, wound up the day.

Next morning up at ten, and down to the quay, over a long esplanade to a spot where two boats awaited us, we preferring the rowing boat as least likely to render us permanent residents at Kurrachee, and rowed under the bows of the steamer of that name to Manora.

This is a promontory which runs out to sea, and presents a fine bluff point where all the winds of Heaven can be inhaled, particularly the sea-breeze.

It is inhabited, in the way of gentlefolks, by two or three families, with one of whom we were going to breakfast. We then got into a trolly and were taken down to see the breakwater.

This is a fine work, intended to break the southwest sea, and procure access to the harbour, and do away with the impediment of a bar. The stones are laid, not as they are at Alexandria, higgledypiggledy, but in order, and set diagonally at an angle to each other. This is done in the hopes of

making them firmer to resist the great monsoon which is approaching.

They have been placed in their position by a very powerful Triton, or lifting engine, which bears English names upon it. Triton was very nearly wrecked, for the sea runs frightfully here. However, there it is done, and it awaits the coming onslaught. If it succeeds it will be a lasting monument to the skill and perseverance of the engineers, with whom I am glad to know my name is associated.

Having well inspected the breakwater, we returned to Mr. Price's, where we found an excellent breakfast, which tempted me to depart from my usual plan of going on board "loaded light; " but whether it was that I ate the precise quantity which is needful on such occasions, or for whatever cause I know not, but certainly I made an unusually successful voyage of three days to Bombay.

We bid adieu to our kind friends, and re-occupying the boat which brought us, soon reached the Kurrachee, and I most reluctantly bade farewell to my brother, Sir William, who fills certainly a very responsible position, reaching up to the frontier position at Jacobabad and beyond, which recent and coming events invest with the greatest interest.

That he fills this to the perfect satisfaction of all folks, the almost unanimous popularity which I