A Journey to Katmandu | Page 5

a considerable amount of enjoyment in suddenly coming to
hills after you have for a long time seen nothing but flat country--in
first toiling up one and then bowling down the other side, at the
imminent peril of the coolies' necks--in seeing streams when you have
seen nothing but wells--in coming amidst wood and water and
diversified scenery, when every mile that you have travelled for a week
past has been the same as the last. Such were our feelings as we woke
at daylight one morning in the midst of the Rajmahal hills.
There were a good many carts passing with coal from the Burdwan
coal-mines; moreover, we saw sticks, and from the top of each fluttered
a little white flag, suggestive of a railway, whereby our present mode of
conveyance would be knocked on the head, and all the poor coolies
who were pushing us along would be put out of employ.
Notwithstanding the disastrous results which must accrue, a railway is
really contemplated; but I have heard doubts thrown out as to the
present line being the best that could be obtained. It is urged that it has

to contend against water carriage--that, with the exception of the
Burdwan mines, the coal of which is of an inferior quality, there is no
mineral produce--that immense tracts of country through which it
passes are totally uncultivated, and from a want of water will in all
probability remain so--and it has been calculated that, even if the whole
traffic at present passing along the great trunk road of Bengal was to
become quadrupled, and if all the Bengal civilians were to travel up and
down every day, and various rajahs to take express trains once a week,
it would not pay: all these things being considered, were it not that its
merits and demerits have been maturely considered by wiser, or at least
better-informed men than the passing travellers, one might have been
inclined to think that those who expressed doubts regarding its success
had some good foundation for them.
However, it is better to have a railway on a doubtful line than none at
all; the shareholders are guaranteed 5 per cent., and the Government is
rich and can afford to pay them. So let us wish success to the
experimental railway, and hope that the means of transport may soon
be more expeditious than they are at present.
It will doubtless open out the resources of the country, though I cannot
but think, for many reasons, that it would have been more judicious to
have made the line from Allahabad to Delhi the commencement of the
railway system in this part of India, instead of leaving it for a
continuation of the line that is now being made.
The bridges we passed over are all on the suspension principle, and do
credit to the government; the rivers are difficult to bridge in any other
way, as the rains flood them to such an extent that arches will not
remain standing for any length of time. It took us two hours to cross the
Soan, which we forded or ferried according as the streams between the
sand-banks were deep or shallow. This large river is at times flooded to
so great an extent that it is one of the most serious obstructions to the
railway.
It was not until the morning of the seventh day after leaving Calcutta
that we found ourselves on the banks of the Ganges. The Holy City
loomed large in the grey dawn of morning, with its tapering minarets

barely discernible above it, looking like elongated ghosts.
We were ferried across in a boat of antique construction, better suited
for any other purpose than the one to which it was applied, and landed
in the midst of the ruins caused by the dreadful explosion of
gun-powder that had taken place the previous year: it had occasioned a
fearful destruction of property and loss of life, and many hairbreadth
escapes were recounted to us. We were told, indeed, that two children,
after being buried for five days, were dug out alive; two officers were
blown out of the window of an hotel, one of whom was uninjured, the
other was only wounded by a splinter, whilst the Kitmutgar, who was
drawing a cork close to them at the time, was killed on the spot.
In the course of an hour after leaving this scene of desolation we
reached the hospitable mansion which was destined to be our home
during our short stay in Benares.


CHAPTER II.
_Benares--Cashmere Mull's House--The Chouk--The Bisheshwan
Temple, and Maido Rai Minar--Jung Bahadoor in Benares--A Rajah's
visit--The marriage of Jung Bahadoor--Review of the Nepaul Rifle
Regiment--Benares College_.
Whatever may be said of the large salaries of the Bengal civilians, they
certainly