The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-06-05

-oOD llSll III Great BllIdln-
All Rights Reserved.
Suez. April s, 1906.-We have at
last reached India. and what extremes
are here, southern India pe~netrates
the Indian ocean and is so near the
equator that the inhabitants SWelter
under the heat of a perpetual summer,
while h rocky scntinels that guarG
the northern frontier are clad in the
ice of an eternal winter. AS might be
expected in Il land which has every
altitude from sea level to nearly 80
600 feet. one finds all varieties of veg
citation, from the delicate fern of the
tropics to the sturdy edelWeiss that
blossoms in the - the grain
and orchards of Agra. Oudh and the
IunJab to the cotton, rice and fruits of
Bombay. Calcutta and Madras hi
extremes are as noticeable among the
people as in Natures realm. In learn
ing there Is a great gulf between the
Hindu pundit and the great ryot:
there is a wide sea between the wealth
of the native prince and the poverty Of
the masses: and there is a bOundless
ocean between the and
the people.
Eastern India is entered through
Calcutta, a city of more han Il million
inhabitants which has been built up
under British occupancy. It is the
capital of the province of Bengal and
the winter capital of British India. /
say winter capital because the higher
English officials have their ~headuuart-
ers at Simula, 5000 feet up in the
HimalaNas, during eight months of the
year. Calcutta is on the HOoghly river.
one of the numerous mouths of the
Gauges; and the Ganges. it may be
added, is a little disappointing to one
who has read about it from youth m
stead of being a large river, flowing
down from the Himalayas directly to
the sea. it is neither of great length
nor of great width. and it runs for
hundreds of miles along the foot of
the range and joins the Brahmaputra
which comes from an opposite direct
ton II apparently is much longer.
The mouths of the joint stream form
a delta like that of the Nile. which at
the coast is something like 200 miles
wide.
Lacking the antiquity of the cities
of the interior. Calcutta does not pos
sess many things Of interest to the
tourist. no elaborate tombS. no mas
SiVe mosques and few temples of i'm
~pOrtanCe. although all shades of re-
liGion are represented here. There is
q very pretty Jain TEN pie in the sub
urbS. and in the city there is a Hindu
temple where goats are offered as a
sacrifice. but the center of Hinduism
is at BenareS. while Agra. Delhi and
Lucknow furnish the finest specimens
of the taste of the M~ohammedan
rulers. There are at Calcutta some
fine public buildings and less preten-
tious private blocks. some beautiful
parks and a very extensive museum.
In this museum one can learn more
of the various races of India. of their
dress. implements and more
of the animal and insect life, more Of
India's mineral wealth. more Of her
woods. stones and marbles. more of
hor a oyiCIJJt ,IIaJ rrnII1ct. n11 MO -,
features than he can in weeks of
travel. He sees here mounted speci-
mems of bug and butterfly. bird. fish
and beast. 1t is the very Mecca of the
student and we saw a number of
groups thus engaged.
Among the insects there are several
which illustrate the mimicry of nature
to a marvellous degree. Some are like
dried glass, like moss and some like
leaves. The most remarkable of these
is q leaf insect which can scarcely be
detected from a leaf even after it has
been pointed out. There is A noun
tain grouse which turns white in the
winter. and i'll some countries Il hare
which u~ndergoes the same change. II
CeylOn there are BIS with LEGS like
pieces of coral and a color closely re
sembling the sand upon which they
crawl, but the leaf insect surpasses
them all. Not only is it's color identi-
cal with the leaf, but its body ant
wings are veined and ribbed like :
leaf; even rust spots could ne founC
on some of them. We could hardly
believe our own eyes had we not seer
some of these insects alive and some
of the young Just Matched.
The botanical garden. while no
equal in variety or beauty to the
gardens at P~uitenzorg and Randy, Iva:
one object of growing interest. viz, {
gigantic banyan tree. This tree i!
nearly a century and a half old ant