The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-08-18

IN It's upper parts lutte more tnan
good mountain track, was smooth and
good. For my own part, though the
sun was hot, my effort was so trifiing
that in the comparatively cool air OF
the high table-land. l was quite able
10 enjoy the scenery, and the oriental
features of the landscape, which had
not yet had time 10 lose their charm
since had landed month before AZ
Bombay. We made good progress. and
by the time we reached the spot that
had been chosen for our midday halt
and meal we began 10 feel that we had
diminished a good deal OF the eighteen
hundred feet that represented the
difference in elevation OF the tenn
pies at Murishabad and the can
tonments at Koondewalla. The state
ly tealSwood trees, the most strik-
ing feature OF the vegetation OF
the higher level, were rapidly giving
way to masses OF tropical-loolking foli-
age and shrubs. There were still great
trees, indeed, but the wide-spreading
banyans with their many stems and
iig-like foliage, the wool tree, with its
vast leaves, and the stately tobacco
plants were becoming more and more
mingled with the palms and the hun
dred other vegetable forms that tell
so Enthusiastically of n tropical forest.
The spot chosen for our halt was N
romantic one, and il was rendered still
more so by the close neighborhood OF
an old hill fort, said to have a dark
history in the old Mahratta wars, and
even to have been used as robber
stronghold in much more modern
times. The preparations for lunch were
not yet complete, and IL was proposed
that we should spend the time of walt
ing in exploring the old fort. II stood
but short distance-perhaps two hun
dred yards to one side of the road on
which we were--and the idea was
hailed as good one and acted upon ut
once, at least by the younger members
of the party. Most of us dismounted
and sought one or the other of the for
tst paths which appeared to promise
short cut TO the fort, the top of which,
dark and threatening looking, could be
seen rising out of the masses of tropical
Jungle that lay between us and the
higher ground on which the old robber
fastness had been built.
Perhaps il was a little spice of native
obstinacy that led me to cling to my
bicycle instead of joining one of the
parties on foot, whose laughing voices
made the echoes of the jungle ring with
the unaccustomed sounds Of pleasure
and amusement Reasons are nearly al
ways mixed, and / didn't take the
trouble to analyze my own as L once
more mounted and pursued the road we
aad been travelling a little farther, in
search of the place where it must be
Joined by the path leading up to the
Tort. In a minute or two i had reached
Z. The old fort builders had made no
attempt TO conceal the approach to their
stronghold, and paused for moment
10 admire the unstinted use Of patient
nbor that had been spent in hewing
away the beetling granite crag, round
the foot of which it swept to join the
main road. The sounds of laughter
higher up the hill however, made me
lace the steep ascent, and 1t was only
after five minutes of rather harder
work than was pleasant that l found
myself on the level of the fort. Even
here / was not at the actual level of the
entrance, for the ground dipped once
more into hollow rising suddenly to
the ruinous gateway.
glanced round and saw that az yet
none of the others had arrived. The hol-
low before me was not deep, and letting
my bicycle go, the impetus of the de-