CHAPTEE I. 



Introductory — Departure — Ocean-life — Accidents at Sea from falling over- 

 toard — Birds — ^Albatross — ^A Gale — Tropical Sunsets — Seychelle Islands 

 — Becahned — ^Arrival at Bombay — Caves of Carlee — ^Advice to Indian 

 Residents from a Sanitary point of view. 



During a sojourn in the East of nearly seven years, with 

 frequent change of place, I had many opportunities afforded 

 me of making a lasting acquaintance with various objects of 

 natural history, the local scenery of Northern India, and the 

 Western Himalayan mountains. My leisure hours were also 

 not unfrequent, and leave of absence was always most will- 

 ingly granted me whenever my professional services could be 

 dispensed with ; for which I shall ever retain a grateful re- 

 membrance to the highly-esteemed commanding and medical 

 officers under whom I then served. 



In the following reminiscences I have aimed at pre- 

 serving the objects in the order they appeared to me, and 

 attempted to describe the scenes and circumstances with 

 which I was brought in contact as minutely as the inci- 

 dents of travel would allow, and in a belief that my jottings 

 by the way would add zest to the drier descriptions of 

 animals. To a few such a proceeding may seem a work 

 of supererogation, but it must be borne in miad that it 

 is not to the professors of natural science that these pages 



B 



