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 pages in life before my ‘observes’ upon what you were reading then will have reached you. It is very hard that we should have two such distinct books given us to get through, when we certainly enlivened the original publication by our clever remarks as long as we read out of the same.

My dear, here is such a plan—such a sublime plan, burst upon me! It will eventually conduct me either to the bottom of a tiger’s throat or the top of a rhinoceros’ horn; but the grand, wild, independent halo thrown around it in the meantime will make the path pleasant to such a dénouement. They do say (it is hardly possible to believe them) that there are hills in Bengal, not more than 140 miles from here; and the unsophisticated population of these hills is entirely composed of tigers, rhinoceroses, wild buffaloes, and, now and then, a herd of wild hogs. There, I’m going to live for three weeks in a tent. I shall travel the first fifty miles in a palankeen, and then I shall march: it takes a full week to travel a hundred miles in that manner. Twelve miles a day is the average rate of marching. A little more may be done; but as our beds, sofas,