Page:Burke, W.S. - Cycling in Bengal (1898).djvu/17

( 3 ) for a good many who would not care to act in defiance of popular opinion, as a healthy and convenient mode of travel is now open to every one of average activity.

There are many Europeans, especially those whose business confines them to the Presidency towns, who see and consequently know little or nothing of India, its scenery and its people, its possibilities and its realities. They retire to England when their exile is over with an ignorance of their surroundings which is simply astonishing. The reason of this in the majority of cases is lack of opportunity, but with the bicycle now firmly established here, this disability is at once removed. It is only by road travelling that one can obtain an adequate idea of the beauty of the country passed through, that its physical features can be fully appreciated or the manners and customs of its people be understood. The train takes us too rapidly through, but the cycle just hits the happy medium, for while it can be ridden with comfort over three times as fast as a man can walk, the average tourist does not travel so rapidly as to preclude him from observing and enjoying his surroundings.

There are many hundreds of cyclists in Calcutta alone, yet we doubt if more than a score have ever done two successive days' journeying in this country. To us this is absolutely incomprehensible, unless it is that they are still under the first charm of motion and pace; in due time we hope this will give way to the far more lasting love of rambling and exploration, and thus the new cyclists who are so in obedience to fashion's call, will become permanent members of the great army of wheelmen.