1839.] 



Camel draught to Carriages. 



599 



in a wooden frame, four feet 



square by two and a half high. 



A Camel was then brought, 



equipped just as a common 



Huckaree Camel, but having 



a small loop on either side 



of the saddle, into which the 



hook of the shafts was passed. 



The Camel was mounted, and 



in lieu of putting baggage into the van, we put four men and started 



it. The Camel moved away with it at the rate of full six and a half 



miles an hour, and trotted gaily all round the stony and uneven surface 



of a large compound. We then proceeded some distance along the road, 



and the Camel van was found to answer admirably. 



The next day we tried a four wheel conveyance for passengers. It 

 was a light carriage, something between a palanquin carriage and a 

 double bodied coach, with rattan-work blinds, which let up and down, 

 and excluded the glare, while they let in the breeze. It had a 

 small dickey in front, and afforded excellent accommodation for two 

 persons and their servants, and a couple of carpet bags, and minor &cs. 

 To this we harnessed two Camels, the pole bei'f.g attached to one side 

 of each saddle, and a bamboo trace being fastened to the other side. 

 The Camels were mounted, and Dr. Ranken — the ingenious inventor, and 

 prime mover of the whole — and myself being seated inside, and a servant 

 on the dickey, we started, and drove half round the city walls of 

 Delhi, then entered the gate and drove through the Chandrichouk, to 

 the no small surprise of the natives : our pace being somewhat more 

 than seven miles an hour. We returned home after a drive of some six 

 or seven miles. The next evening a second experiment was made. 

 Three miles were measured from the Cashmere gate. The road was 

 mostly good and smooth, but by no means level, the load about thirty 

 stone ; the carriage started, and completed the entire three miles out, 

 and three miles back, total six miles, in thirty-eight minutes ; — nine and 

 a half miles per hour. 



Again I left Delhi en route to Allyghur, and after crossing the river, 

 started in the above mentioned carriage with two Camels for Dadree, dis- 

 tant twenty-two miles. The first eighteen miles were certainly as 

 rough a road as I ever remember to have passed in a wheel conveyance, 

 and in places indeed was so bad, that I was compelled to quit the road, 

 and drive through the fields. The last four miles were good. The 

 whole distance was performed in four hours and twenty minutes, 



