At six o'clock in the morning after the departure from Allahabad the train brought the three travellers to Jubbulpoor, 229 miles from the junction of the Ganges and Jumna rivers. Here the East Indian Railway terminates, and the rest of the journey was made over the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The appearance of the country told very plainly that they were no longer in the valley of the Ganges; the broad plain disappeared, and in its place there were wooded hills and mountains which afforded many picturesque views. A few miles from Jubbulpoor the train entered the valley of the Nerbudda River, which was followed for a long distance; then it ascended a steep incline to cross a chain of mountains, and afterward descended to the valley of the Godavery. The Ghaut Mountains of Central India were seen in all their magnificence, and the boys frequently compared the views from the car windows to those that greet the traveller over the Alleghanies, on the great routes westward from the seaboard cities of the United States.
RAILWAY VIADUCT IN THE MOUNTAINS.
The mountain passes on this route are the Thull Ghaut and the Bhore Ghaut, which are respectively 1912 and 2027 feet above the level of the sea. The steepest inclines are one in thirty-seven, or about 143 feet to the mile, and there are many tunnels, viaducts, and bridges, as might be expected in a railway through the mountains. Doctor Bronson said the engineering work was excellent, and very creditable to the builders of the road, though it was not equal to what had been accomplished in America—perhaps for the reason that there were not so many difficulties to encounter and surmount.
The boys had devoted their spare moments to the preparation of their accounts of India, previously promised, and during some of the long rides in the railway train they read aloud the results of their work. Frank had taken the general history of India for his share of the work, while Fred had prepared a short account of the sepoy rebellion; consequently Frank's composition was the first to be read. We are permitted to examine that valuable document.
A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIA.
By FRANK BASSETT.
"There is a good deal of uncertainty about the early history of India, as the Hindoo accounts are not to be believed in any way. They make the Hindoos the first people that ever lived here, and give their race an antiquity of millions of years; they talk about kings and dynasties that never existed, and mix their performances with those of their gods. Here is a fair sample of their stories: