| Description | John has told him he has not sent much of a description of Darjeeling, which William promises to do diary style, despite his two 'red hot' teeth. They left Jungipur on 23 January by palanquin dak, but no bearers arrived until William sent to the bazaar for sixteen men, eight for each. At Aurungabad they met a gentleman and his wife going to the North West, leaving them the original sixteen men and taking theirs, but riding horses borrowed from Macleod. After crossing the Ganges they found their bearers waiting for them and had no further difficulties until they arrived at Darjeeling. They were waylaid by [William] Waterfield along the way. Because it was cloudy they had no view of the hills. |They had to pass through a tract known as the Terai, which he describes, stating that even passing through it by dak is considered dangerous. They were alerted to the hills at night, by a change in the motion of their litters and by the chants of the bearers. At dawn they found themselves at a dak bungalow. William has been ill with diarrhea since arriving at Calcutta and cannot carry out commissions. He will go up to Dehli and hopes to be back in the first week of April.
In a parenthesis William notes his mathematical friends, anxious for a solution to Foucault's pendulum experiment. He thinks it may be in one of his father's book. He also asks for an explanation of the gyroscope. [John Caulfield] Hannyington has asked him to mention the phenomenon of distinguishing a star from a planet on a clear night by using a convex lens. He sends some observations by Dr Campbell [not present].
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