Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Well, Van Guitt, what do you think of it ? inquired Captain Hood. I think, captain, replied Mathias, with some reason, that this elephant would be much more wonderful if he w.gre made of flesh and blood. We did not follow the route by which we had reached the foot of the Himalayas, but travelled south-west towards the little town of Philibit. We went at a moderate and easy pace, and met with no hindrance or discomfort. The Dutchman daily took his seat at our table, when his splendid appetite never failed to do honour to the culinary talents of Monsieur Parazard. It speedily became necessary to call upon our sportsmen to do their duty, and Captain Hood resumed his labours for the larder. Food was required for our four-footed passengers, as well as for ourselves, and the shikarees took care to provide it. They were clever hunters; and led by K lagani, himself a first-rate shot, kept up a supply of bison and antelope meat. K lagani maintained his peculiar and reserved manners, although very kindly treated by Colonel Munro, who was not a man to forget a good service done him. On the loth of September our train skirted the town of Philibit without making a halt, but a considerable number of natives came to see us. Van Guitt's wild beast show attracted little attention in comparison with Behemoth, and without more than a passing glance at the splendid creatures within their cages, all hastened to admire the Steam Elephant. We traversed the great plains of Northern India, - ing, at a distance of some leagues, Bareilly, one of the chief cities of Rohilkund. Sometimes we were surrounded by forests filled with birds of brilliant plumage, sometimes by dense thickets of the thorny acacia two or three yards high, which is called by the English Wait- a-...