31 
INCIDENTS IN AN INDIAN TOUR. 
(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By ROBERT S. HEAP. November 9th, 1915. 
Guided by the axiom that “ personal ” experiences con- 
stitute for us the only abiding reality, the lecturer emphasised 
throughout what proved to be a most delightful evening, 
just those incidents of his journey which touched his own 
imagination most nearly and in which he individually was 
most intimately concerned. The lecture was not therefore 
of the type which records with minute fidelity all places 
visited, distances travelled, and things seen ; it was rather, 
a series of detached impressions from the store gathered by 
an impressionable and acute mind when confronted by wholly 
new experiences. 
Mr. Heap visited India during December and January 
some two or three years ago. Passing lightly over the earlier 
incidents of his journey, he told how, when in the Straits of 
Bonifacio, a “wireless” informed the passengers that Stromboli 
was in eruption. He arranged to be called to see it, as the 
ship passed in the night. It proved a sight not easily 
forgotten for the molten lava in the crater was reflected in 
the cloud which seemed to hang over the mountain and so 
produced an effect at once fascinating and weird. Messina, 
which was passed the following dawn, displayed to the trav- 
eller’s view some evidence of recent earthquake havoc in the 
number of chain-bound houses which were clearly visible 
through binoculars. At Port Said the gateway to the East, 
Mr. Heap witnessed by night the interesting process of coaling 
ship, and he gave a most vivid word-picture of the scene 
presented by the swarthy figures moving in steady and 
regular order, from wharf to deck and back to wharf again, 
amid the flare lights and the night shadows. 
After an ideal voyage across the Indian Ocean — a voyage 
during which ship and deck seemed for days quite motion- 
less — the outer sentinel light which guards Bombay harbour 
was observed one night as our lecturer was standing on deck 
with the watch. On landing next day the first impressions 
gathered were of the seething crowds, the varied colours 
