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PREFACE.

And where towers and temples rose,

Buried continents. repose

Giant secrets of thy breast,

With their thousand isles of rest,
With their brave and beauteous forms,
Undisturbed beneath thy storms,
In a safe and peaceful home,
Where the mourner may not come,
Nor the stranger rudely tread,
O'er their calm and coral bed.
Where the ocean buried lies,
May no monuments arise,
For thy bosom bears no trace
Of our evanescent race.

On thy wild and wandering wave,
Bloom no laurels for the grave;
O'er thy dread unfathomed gloom,
Lower no trophies for the tomb.
But there comes a day of dread,
To reclaim thy thousand dead;
Bursting from thy dark control,
While in fire thy billows roll,
Shall thy countless multitude,
Soar from out thy shrinking flood."

Appleby, Westmoreland.

xi

[blocks in formation]

Climate. South-west monsoon.

last descend.

of the ocean.
is agitated.
elements.

Mangoe showers. Put

Palan-

Warm

your house in order. Letters and post-men.
quins. Clearing tents off the Esplanade.
clothing. Why I was called a Griffin. The rains at
Atmospheric changes. Appearance
Awful thunder and lightning. Nature
The sun darkened. Strife of the
Tempest terrific to behold. Houses
shaken in the Fort. The floods. Scene pregnant
with horrors. Flying bugs and hideous spiders. A
rest for the punkahs. What the poor natives suffer
at this season. A glance from our bungalow. Won-
derful changes in the vegetable world. Flowers and
fruits. Golden oriole and jungle-cock. Shere Khan
and his good works. Neglect of old tanks. Cool
breezes and Delhi shawls. A peep into the sick

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