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first act was to drink a bottle of beer, the second to light a 
cheroot, and the third to filter the everlasting bath, and clean 
half-a-dozen plates. Having performed all these interesting 
operations satisfactorily I went to sleep, and started early 
next morning for the ruins — my servant on one elephant, 
with tent, camera, and field box, while the bath accompanied 
me on the other elephant. I may as well tell you that I 
never trusted the bath out of sight longer than I could help, 
knowing that if any accident occurred there was no chance 
of getting another between Calcutta and Agra. 
The first subject I tried was a fine old minaret, standing 
by itself, near a large tank swarming with alligators. The 
attempt was a total failure — nothing but fog, I could not 
account for it then, nor can I now. Out of fifty-six large 
plates, however, exposed in India, this was the only failure. 
I made matters worse directly afterwards, by stamping on 
the focussing-screen : luckily half the glass escaped being 
broken. I would advise any photographer going to out-of- 
the-way places always to carry a spare focussing-screen. A 
collodionised plate will answer the purpose at a pinch, but 
with a badly-lighted subject it is difficult to focus accurately 
without ground glass. 
The next plate was all right, so I moved on to a grove of 
date palms, every tree of which was full of monkeys, and it 
was plain that unless they were driven away I might as well 
attempt to photograph the palm trees in a gale of wind. At 
last they all took their departure — or at least I thought so. 
A dark gateway at the end of the grove became beautifully 
lighted, and not a leaf stirred. I lit a cheroot, placed the 
dark slide in position, and uncovered the lens, intending to 
give an exposure of one minute and a-half. Twenty seconds 
were wanting to complete the time, and already I saw a 
perfect negative developed, when suddenly an old grey 
monkey dropped from the top of a tree, and swung on a 
bough which, with infinite pains, I had brought into focus 
by an unlimited use of the swing-back. Of course I covered 
