out. "Guid Lord! ye needna do that. I am only Tom the barber," said the old fellow, exhibiting his credentials in the shape of a shaving-soap pot and a case of razors. A few explanations followed, and the sahib and Tom soon became fast friends.

Tom was a very old and experienced campaigner, with a fund of anecdote at his command. He had been as a child with his father in Afghanistan; he had followed the British troops in a war with Burma; he was with the 78th Highlanders in Persia, and then followed the fortunes of this distinguished regiment during the whole of the Indian Mutiny campaign in Upper India. He was also with the 72nd and other regiments in numerous frontier wars. Tom, therefore, may safely be accepted as an authority on the British soldier, for who could scrape a closer acquaintance with Mr. Atkins than the man who shaves him? I am myself a great admirer of Mr. Atkins, as the happiest days of my childhood were spent in the old castle of Edinburgh among the red-coats; and I must say that I love Tom for having nothing but praise for the man who has made the British Empire what it is to-day:

Winds of the world, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro

And what should they know of England who only England know?

peasantry, and this is what a highlyplaced officer, Sir Henry Norman, said on the subject so far back as the year 1870: "It is a fact, which no amount of disputing will disprove, that the martial spirit of the Madras cavalry and infantry has died out." This statement is enough to make any old Madras officer to turn in his grave, as no trace can be found of any admission or suspicion of the inferiority of Madras sepoys in the days when the heaviest demands were made on their prowess. Sir Thomas Munro knew the Madras army well; he had seen the troops of all the three presidencies in action; and this is what he wrote when it was proposed that the subsidiary force at Hyderabad should be relieved with Bengal sepoy regiments: "Where troops are in all respects equal, there is still an advantage in having those who are to act together drawn from one and not from different establishments; but the coast troops are perhaps in some respects superior to those of Bengal. They are regular, more tractable, more раtient under privations, and they have been more accustomed to military operations. If this is true, the argument against employing Bengal sepoys in the Deccan becomes so much the

more

stronger, for why bring them here when we have better on the spot?" 1 In the days when the Madras army second to none, there was a large pro

was

is the answer which we throw back to those good people who want us to be a nation of cats instead of a nation of tigers.

Lord Roberts, in his well-known book, "Forty-one Years in India," tells us that "no comparison can be made between the ambitious races of the North and the effeminate peoples of the South." But why is it that the Dravidian races have degenerated so rapidly under British rule? Lord Roberts is not alone in his opinion, as the government of India for many years has been harping on the degeneration of the Madras

and the old 74th and 78th Highlanders were the two British regiments which fought shoulder to shoulder with Madras sepoys in some of the fiercest fights that took place on Indian soil. My mother's father was an old 74th officer; and on my father's side all his mother's brothers were in the Service, as will be seen from the following inscription on a tombstone in the old burying-ground of the Macleods of Drynoch, in the Isle of Skye:

Underneath are the remains of Donald Macdonald Macleod, Lieutenant, 50th Regiment Madras I., who died at Drynoch in 1837, seventh son of Norman Mac

1 Gleig's "Life of Sir Thomas Munro (1830),. vol. iii., p. 195. ]

leod of Drynoch, and Alexandrina Macleod of Bernera, whose eldest son Donald died at Gravesend in 1824, Captain 78th Regiment. Norman died in Java, in 1814, a captain in the same corps. Alexander died at Forres, in 1828, a major in the 12th Regiment B. N. I. John died a captain in 78th Regiment during passage home from Ceylon. Roderick died at Killegray from a hurt received in action on board the Belvidera frigate on N. A. station. Forbes died in Madras a lieutenant, 12th Regiment N. I. This stone is dedicated to the memory of the abovenamed by their sorrowing mother and her surviving sons, Martin, late 27th, 79th, and 25th Regiments, now of Drynoch. and Charles, now of Glendulochan, 1839.

I give the above record of some of my fighting kinsmen who sacrificed their lives in the East in the service of their

country, as the Anglo-Indians, who only know me as a planter, entertain a strong suspicion to the effect that I am a traitor in disguise, owing to the manner in which I espouse the cause of the natives against European traders. But I may well inquire, how shall I address that large class of Anglo-Indians with whom rupees are always a weightier consideration than duties? In our pursuit of the almighty rupee we forget to take any interest in the welfare of the natives, with the result that we spend our lives in complete ignorance of their thoughts and aspirations. Has not William Watson told us that

Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness:

Could we but see one another, 'twere well!

Knowledge is sympathy, charity, kind

ness.

Ignorance only is maker of hell?

lowest state of dependence on foreign rulers, to which they can be reduced by conquest, are matters quite incompatible with each other." I believe thor

oughly in military officers as administrators, for one has only to turn to the many valuable books which were written by the British military officers of the East India Company to judge of their sympathetic demeanor towards the natives, and the following extract from Welsh's "Military Reminiscences" is well worth quoting. Welsh, first of all, describes how splendidly the Madras troops behaved at the battle of Argaum, which was fought on November 23, 1803; and he then goes on to tell how a

native officer met his death:

Subadar Ali Khan, a man so uncommonly diminutive in person that we used to call him the little cock sparrow, was one of the best and bravest soldiers I ever knew. He was at this time far advanced in life, as he had earned the respect and esteem of every European officer, as well as of every native in the corps; and, what was very remarkable, this Liliputian hero had as strong a voice as he had a great soul. In action he was the life and soul of those around him, and in devoted affection to the Service he had no superior. The whole of the flesh and sinews of the away by a large shot, he fell, and could hinder part of both thighs being torn

not rise again; but as soon as the action was over he requested his attendants to carry him after us, that his dear European comrades might see him die. We had halted on the field, upwards of a mile in front of where he fell, when he arrived, and spoke to us with a firm voice and most affectionate manner, recounted his services, and bade us all adieu. We endeavored to encourage him by asserting that his wound was not mortal, and that he would yet recover. He said he felt assured to the contrary, but he was not afraid of death; he had often braved it in the discharge of his duty; and his only 1egret was that he should not be permitted to render further services to his honorable masters.1

Here is another incident of the battle of Argaum, which is worth recording in this article on "Victims of Circumstances:"

1 Welsh's

"Military Reminiscences," vol. i.,

Lieutenant Langlands, of the 74th Highlanders, was close to us in the action. when a powerful Arab threw a spear at him, and, drawing his sword, rushed forward to complete his conquest. The spear having entered the flesh of the lieutenant's leg, cut its way out again and stuck in the ground behind him, when Langlands grasped it, and turning the point, threw it with so true an aim that it went through his opponent's body, and transfixed him within three or four yards of his intended victim. All eyes were for an instant turned on these two combatants, when a sepoy of our Grenadiers rushed out of the ranks, and patting the lieutenant on the back, exclaimed, “Achha kiya, sahib, bahut, achha kiya!" (Well done, sahib, very well done!) Such a ludicrous circumstance, even in a moment of extreme peril, could not pass unnoticed, and our soldiers all enjoyed a hearty laugh.1

Now, these Madras sepoys were at the time engaged in doing battle with the fierce Arab spearmen, and yet they could coolly "enjoy a hearty laugh" in the middle of a desperate engagement. These Arabs are of the same kith and kin as the ancestors of "Fuzzy-Wuzzy," who has been immortalized by Rudyard Kipling as a first-class fighting man. Kipling's hero, Tommy, tells us that

We 'eld our bloomin' own, the papers say, But man for man the Fuzzy knocked us 'oller.

Again Tommy confesses that

From Travel

TO THE SUMMIT OF THE JUNGFRAU BY RAIL.

Those who are disposed to look upon the construction of every new mountain railway as a fresh act of violence upon the physical beauties of nature, and who feel even so modest an undertaking as the Snowdon Mountain Tramway to be altogether a thing of horror, will hear with something like despair of the scheme of Herr Guyer-Zeller, which has now passed beyond the theoretical into the experimental stage, for the construction of a line of railway up to the summit of the Jungfrau. Anything more daring and gigantic in the way of railway enterprise it would be difficult to conceive. Even in Switzerland, the land which has given us already some of the boldest and most romantic examples of applied engineering science, nothing like it has yet been attempted. The Pilatus line may still

have steeper and more perilous gradients.

The great tunnel of the St. Gotthard will still be longer than all the tunnels of the Jungfrau. The Rigi may continue to be the most popular, as it is certainly the oldest of the Swiss mountain lines. But none even of these great works strikes one's imagination as the does this new proposal to carry tourist, in defiance alike of rock, glacier, and avalanche, up beyond the snow-line to a point 13,670 feet above sea-level, from which he may look not only upon the green pastures, the blue

With 'is coffin-'eaded shield an' shovel

spear,

An 'appy day with Fuzzy on the rush Will last an 'ealthy Tommy for a year.

From the above it is evident that the races of the Soudan have not degenerated. Then why is it that the Madras sepoys have lost their fighting spirit since their country has been under British rule? King Middleman, sitting on his money-bags, will have to answer this question.

1 Welsh's "Military Reminiscences."

DONALD N. REID.

Switzerland, but also upon Italy's Monte Rosa, upon France's Mont Blanc, and upon the far-away shadows of Germany's Black Forest.

Any who are familiar with central Switzerland will be sure to be familiar, too, with the striking outline of the Jungfrau, and the majestic place it occupies amid the giants of the Oberland. Within recent years at least three distinct schemes, those of Trautweiler, Köchlin, and Locher, have been suggested for carrying a line of railway up to its summit. All had their base in the Upper Lauterbrunnen Valley, and all in turn came to be regarded

as impossible. The construction a few years ago of the line over the Wengern Alp offered, however, a new base for operations, and this Herr Guyer-Zeller now proposes to utilize.

A few words will suffice to make the geographical position tolerably clear. Starting from Interlaken, the Valley of the Lutschinen continues as far as Zweilutschinen, where it breaks into a fork, one branch terminating at Lauterbrunnen and the other at Grindelwald. These extreme points, separated by that pleasantest of mountains, the Wengern Alp, are now connected by a line which runs over the mountain from valley to valley. If the tourist takes his stand at the Little Scheidegg station on this line, with his back towards the Mannlichen, he has in front of him a noble cluster of snowcapped mountains, of which, for the purposes of this article, three only need be mentioned the Eiger on the left, the Jungfrau on the right, and the Monch between the two.

The Scheidegg station, 2,060 metres1 above sea-level, will be the starting point of the new line. From here the Jungfrau railway will run on the western slope of the Fallbodenhubel, making straight for the foot of the Eiger Glacier; thence it will turn due east, and later on due south in a tunnel winding round the solid body of the Eiger as far as the Eiger Station, 3,100 m., which is to be laid open by galleries similar to those on the Axenstrasse between Brunnen and Fluelen. The tunnel will then proceed in a direct line towards the Monch and the Jungfraujoch, which it will reach at 105 m. below the surface. It will finally curve round the upper pinnacle of the Jungfrau and terminate on a plateau, well known to guides, at 4,100 m. above sea-level. This platform lies just 65 m. below the summit, measures 25 by 30 m., and is generally clear of snow during the summer months. From this level a liftprobably something after the style of the American elevators-will take the passenger to the highest peak. The

1 A metre is equal to 39.37 English inches.

present proposal is that the elevator should consist of two concentric iron cylinders, placed telescope-fashion one within the other. The inner one will contain the lift, and between the two a corkscrew staircase will be fitted, so that the tourist may either complete the journey by the lift or climb the distance from the terminal station to the summit on foot.

Scheidegg station being the starting point, the same class of permanent way and rack rail will be used as that on the Wengern Alp Bahn. The total length of the line will be 12,443 metres, and it will be divided into six sections, with intermediate stopping places and stations to be known as Eiger Glacier, Grindelwald Gallery, Kalifirn (Eiger station), Mönchjoch, Aletsch Guggi (Gungfraujoch), and Jungfrau (terminus). The maximum gradient will be one in four, and the minimum one in ten-quite an easy climb compared with some of the Swiss lines. The journey up is timed to occupy exactly one hundred minutes, and the speed will average about eight kilometres an hour. The company have power to charge forty-five francs for the ascent and descent, but they have decided to issue the return ticket for 40 francs. During the season, which opens on June 1st and closes on September 30th, five trips will be made daily, and accommodation will be provided on each train for eighty passengers. It is intended, however, to run "specials"-unromantic word-between the Scheidegg and the Eiger Glacier, which is expected to become an exceedingly popular section. The nominal capital required is ten million francs, but the promoters estimate with

to be driven from the tunnels to the surface, and, if at all possible, the electric light will be introduced.

The Act of Concession for the new line was granted by the Swiss Federal Assembly on December 21st, 1894. It stipulated that within eighteen months from that date complete plans of the scheme would have to be deposited, and that within six months dating from the acceptance of the plans earthworks must be commenced. The line, which is to be completed in five years, will be constructed and opened for traffic section by section. Already waterworks are proceeding at Lauterbrunnen, and the building of the first portion of the railway, that from the Scheidegg station to the tunnel entrance, has begun. This section, the promoter assures us, will be opened for traffic on August 1st next.

Apart from the railway itself, the terms upon which permission for its construction has been given, are worthy of note. The concession is granted for eighty years, and the Swiss government, ever careful about national rights, has taken care to see that the scheme is made to serve other purposes than that of merely earning a dividend for the shareholders. In the first place the company is bound at all times to permit persons making the ascent on foot to have access to all parts of the mountain, free of charge, and without restrictions of any kind. Then, again, articles of scientific interest brought to light in the course of the excavations, such as fossils, coins, and medals, become the public property of the canton in whose territory they are found. But most important of all is a clause under which the company is required, upon the completion of a part or of the whole of the line to spend a sum of at least one hundred thousand francs in erecting and equipping a permanent observatory, to be specially designed for the purpose of assisting meteorological, tellural, and other forms of physical research. Beyond this, the company undertake to contribute a monthly sub

scription of one thousand francs towards the expenses of the undertak

ing. This arrangement, supplemented as it will be by the erection of a series of meteorological stations at different altitudes along the line, promises to furnish Switzerland with a physical observatory of the very first rank, and ought to lead to substantial and interesting results.

It was inevitable that an undertaking of the kind I have shortly described should meet with opposition upon both practical and æsthetic grounds. The promoters have frankly recognized the objections and done their best to an swer them. The first, and perhaps the most alarming, since it relates to the study of hygienics, is that embodied in the two following questions: "Will the health of a person of sound constitution be injuriously affected by his conveyance, within the space of two hours, from a level of 2,000 m. to one of 4,166 m., and by the consequent rapid abatement of atmospheric pressure?" Secondly, "Will such an ascent be attended by evil consequences to a person suffering from organic disease?" Upon these points and upon the general question of what "mountain-sickness" really is, a great volume of expert evidence is produced. Briefly stated, it leads up to the conclusion that, except in special cases, mere rarity of air does not produce the symptoms of asphyxia known as "mountain-sickness," except when acting in conjunction with the effects of bodily exertion and fatigue. For example, the committee of the Swiss Alpine Club declare themselves to be "perfectly convinced that, given a means of being conveyed to the summit without any kind of muscular exertion, persons in good health and of sound constitution have no evil consequences whatever to fear from a short sojourn at the top of the Jungfrau." In the case of the more delicate class of persons another answer is furnished. It is pointed out, quite appositely, that a sea trip, an ordinary railway journey, and, most of all, a stiff climb, would all be more or less dangerous to those in feeble health. Yet persons of this class indulge in these things, and no one suggests that they should be prohibited