| Description | Herschel informs Gordon where Chinsurah [Hugli-Chinsura] is. He is staying for the day after contracting a fever, accompanied by [William] Waterfield, a college companion resident in India. He gives an account of provisions and of inspecting a small boat which was hired with a crew of eight men. He gives an account of their customs, cleanliness and terms of employment. He notes the purchase of iron beds, used with a stretched sail for a matress, and lists the retinue to be fed. Claret is used to mix with its weight of water, since the latter is seldom pure. Herschel gives an account of sailing, the river banks monotonous, and he describes the evergreen trees blocking views of the land. There are buildings to be seen, and the bodies of anilmals, birds and men washing up in the 'daily flood and flow'. He has been shooting from the boat: vultures, adjutants, pigeons, parrots, pariah dogs, jackals, gulls and herons, all of which he examined and remembered, but he does not have books for identification. He is waiting for post from Calcutta [Kolkata] with a Dr Ross, and will then proceed up the river to Kishnagar [Kishangarh]. Waterfield sends his respects to the Herschel family. |