RAITA GHAT 121 



lentially malarial district of Assam in the hope of 

 getting a rhino. 



I left Calcutta on March 3ist, 1911, and reached 

 the Ganges ferry at Raita Gl.at the same evening. 

 Here I was held up for two days owing to delay 

 in obtaining pad elephants. 



I took the opportunity of looking at the Sara 

 bridge works where a railway bridge is eventually 

 to link up Bengal with Assam. It seemed to me 

 to be a very arduous undertaking owing to the 

 constantly changing nature of the river-bed, but 

 no doubt the difficulty will be surmounted. The 

 heat was intense. 



Raita Ghat seemed to me very typical of the 

 British occupation. Twice a day the mail (to and 

 from Calcutta) arrives. The station-master fumes, 

 the guard curses, the coolies groan or squabble, 

 the passengers rush for the boat or train, and the 

 luggage does its best to travel in the wrong 

 direction. All is bustle and confusion, but some 

 one English official (as often as not an ex-N.C.O.), 

 by the plentiful use of the two words " carmine " 

 and " blighter," evolves order out of chaos and all 

 goes well. 



The moment the boat and train are gone, all 

 relapses into the typical India by the Ganges. 

 A brown sad-faced woman fills a gar ah with water ; 

 just above her a buffalo wallows; just below her a 

 man washes exceedingly foul linen . In mid-stream 

 a native boat with a very white sail goes dreamily 

 with the stream. A red mange-covered pye-dog 

 licks a huge sore and a miserably thin calf eats 

 sand, no doubt convinced that it is grass. All 

 animals seem to be Christian Scientists in India. 



