Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/122

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ADVICE TO OFFICERS

This is the easiest mode of conveyance, and best adapted for an invalid, and admits of his having a comfortable bed, and a nap all the way".

Travelling, throughout Bengal,is attended with as little risk, either to person or property, as in any country in Europe; and ladies and children travel from Calcutta to the Indus without escort, and without apprehension, either from robbers or from wild beasts; and even the accidents from native horses or breaking down of carriages are not greater than the average on all roads.

5. MARCHING.—On ordinary occasions, when there is no hurry, long journeys are made by marching ten or twelve miles a day, either from bungalow to bungalow or by means of tents. One tent is sent on in the evening to the new ground, where it is found ready to receive its owner next morning. The sleeping tent and the heavy baggage follow their master at daylight, and generally arrive about noon. Of all modes of carriage, camels are the best, and carts or hackeries the worst: the latter are constantly liable to accidents; and it is no unusual thing for one to come up late in the afternoon, having been detained by an axle-tree breaking and the cutting down a tree to make a new one.

6. HOTELS are rarely to be met within India,and only at larger stations, such as Allahabad, Cawnpoor, Agra, Meerut.