126 
make the solution tolerably acid, and added one drachm of 
acetic acid to ninety ounces of bath solution. With this acid 
hath I took a great many instantaneous stereoscopic views, and 
several negatives 11x9 Avith the triplet, in less than a second. 
Within a mile or two of Calcutta there Avas at that time a 
most beautiful jungle of palms, cocoa-nuts, bamboos, &c. — a 
perfect paradise for photography. All this, or the greater 
part of it, together Avith the splendid trees in the Botanical 
Gardens, have since been destroyed by the great cyclone. 
Here I used Thomas’s collodion, newly iodised with mag- 
nesium, with great success. After being iodised a few days, 
hoAvever, the film invariably split at the loAver edge of the 
plate when immersed in the nitrate bath. The crack Avas 
about tAvo inches long and one-eighth broad, extending up- 
Avards. I should be glad if any one could explain Iioav this Avas 
caused. After this I used MaAvson’s collodion almost entirely. 
Once I mixed the tAvo together, and found them Avork Avell. 
The chief draAvback to Avet photography in India is the 
enormous weight of apparatus required. It Avas bad enough 
by railway, but Avhen I had to transport three heavy boxes 
by horse dak, as the miserable public carriages are called, it 
became simply ruinous. 
My visit to the ruins of Gauv, in the Maldah district, 
some 200 miles above Calcutta, gave me more pleasure than 
anything I saw in India. From Calcutta to Rajmahal there 
is a raihvay. There I put my baggage into bullock carts to 
cross the Ganges, and proceed to Gaur, a distance of thirty 
or forty miles. I myself rode to the ferry, and Avas delighted 
to see a couple of elephants Avaiting on the opposite bank to 
convey me to Mootrapore, the residence of an indigo planter — 
the most hospitable man in the Avorld, and the slayer of at 
least 200 tigers. Next day I Avent on with the elephants, 
and the day folloAving arrived at Gaur, found a tent pitched, 
and the carts unloaded. 
Gaur was the ancient capital of Bengal, and the ruins of 
the city, surrounded by dense jungle, are magnificent. My 
