ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 227 



impassable for guns and wheeled carriages, General Michel 

 was obliged to move in a westerly direction to Bhilsa, a large 

 town belonging to Scindiah, situated on the eastern side of 

 the Betwa river, near its junction with the Bess, thirty-two 

 miles north-east from Bhopal. Here we had an opportunity 

 of visiting the Bhoodist remains known as the Sanchi Tope, 

 an engraving of which appeared with a short notice in the 

 Illustrated London News, March 5, 1870. "These Topes 

 were used for the deposit of relics, etc., and the Sanchi Tope 

 is one of the most remarkable. The date of the Tope itself is 

 500 B.C., while the gateway is about 500 years later. Of the 

 four gateways which originally surrounded it, the eastern is 

 the most perfect. The others have suffered much damage 

 from weather and other disastrous effects, and two of them 

 are now nothing more than masses of richly carved blocks 

 of stone, lying one on the top of the other. Of the eastern 

 gateway a cast is at the present moment being made by a 

 party of Eoyal Engineers, under a subaltern officer who has 

 been appointed Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey 

 of India in the North- West Provinces, especially told off for 

 this work by the Government of India. When finished the 

 cast will be sent to England, and exhibited at the South 

 Kensington Museum. In the meantime those of our readers 

 for whom this magnificent memorial of Bhoodist art has any 

 interest may find in Mr. Fergusson's exhaustive work, entitled 

 Tree and Serpent Worship, very complete materials for ac- 

 quainting themselves with its .general features and details." 

 Bhilsa tobacco is held in high repute throughout Central 

 India. Here we parted with Scindiah's Sir Soubah, from 

 whom we had at all times received the greatest assistance, 

 both in obtaining intelligence of the movements of the enemy 

 and in drawing supplies to the camp. 



