sides, and the interspace filled with perpendicular sashes of glass, which may be opened and shut at pleasure, by ropes and pulleys. Instead of this, the two rear pendals have ten ordinary skylights, each of ten panes of glass, on the lee-side roofs only. On the windward side of all the pendals, the verandahs may be partially or completely closed, by a lower and an upper series of shutters, on horizontal hinges, their whole length.

Betwixt the doors and windows are racks and pegs for arms and accoutrements, and every soldier has, at the foot of his bed, a box for his clothes and necessaries. Each of these barracks was originally intended for 150 men, and the whole cantonment for 1000. The number they are now required to accommodate is 102 only, being 94 in the large, and one serjeant in each of the 8 small rooms. Every man, therefore, has 52* superficial feet. The bedsteads consist of 3 planks supported on tressels, 45 on each side, with 4 feet 8 inches for each, † and 2 at each end, leaving an interval of 10 feet betwixt the two rows, and an average space of 18 inches betwixt every two beds. From the height of the rooms, and the want of ceiling, the proportion of cubic space for every man is more considerable, though the peculiarity in the construction of the roofs would make the exact estimate difficult.

Twenty-two feet behind every pendal, and joined to it by a covered passage, are two washing houses, 17 feet 7 by 9 feet 8 in size, with an open verandah betwixt them, in which stand a water cask and a tub for ablution, but without basins of any kind. The men have provided for themselves, in addition, eight or nine large water chatties. In these washing houses are no windows, but innumerable holes, 6 inches square, for the admission of light and air, obliquely through the walls.

Small Pendals.-The small pendals, four in number, are at the left end of the large, and 90 feet from them. The front and rear pairs are 44, and the two of each line 26 feet apart. They form each a single room, 95 feet long, 20 broad, with side walls 10 feet 9, and ridge pole, 16 feet 2 inches high. Their walls are of bamboo and mud, blue washed, and 4 inches only in thickness, their floors of clay, and roofs tiled. They are surrounded by verandahs, and have each four doors and ten windows. The room and verandah roof form one continued slope. The windows have

folding shutters but no glass.

LATRINES.-The privies are three in number, behind and to windward of the pendals, a few yards within, and 12 feet above high water mark; two for men, joined to the six larger, one for women, joined to the four smaller pendals by raised and covered

ways, terminating in a bridge path, and from 200 to 400 feet in length. The sea breeze passing over the soil of the privies, uncovered at low water, and exposed to a powerful sun, spreads an offensive and unwholesome vapour over the whole cantonment.

Other Buildings.-Fifty paces in front of the barracks, and at proper intervals, are the cook houses, four in number, the quartermaster serjeant's house and stores, the serjeant armourer's shop, and a ball court for the men. Some hundred yards further in front, and on the opposite side of the public road, is the more elevated but still superficial ridge, on which the mess and dwellinghouses of most of the officers have been built, and which has been recommended, within the last twelve months, by a mixed committee of the Honourable Company's officers, as well as many years ago, by the late Inspector-General Loinsworth, as a site for new and improved barracks, more eligible than that on which they have been so long permitted to stand. The canteen is half way betwixt the two barracks of the rear line.

QUEEN'S DEPÔT.

The Queen's Depôt is near the middle of the island, on the road from Bombay, and consists of two buildings, on different sides of an enclosed court, 200 by 140 feet in size. On the third side is a guard-house, and on the fourth a kitchen. The brigademajor occupies a hired bungalow near it, and the depôt serjeantsmajor a temporary building, communicating by doors with the largest of the two occupied by the men. This is a substantial stone building, with a porch in front, in which some of the invalids take their meals, and a verandah to the porch, in which they perform their ablutions; but which is much too small for that purpose. The house is 80 feet by 60 in length and breadth, and divided into one large central and six smaller side rooms, with several lobbies. It has a lofty roof, two sky lights, and on each side three large windows and one door. The windows are shaded by matting. Eighty men, accommodated in this building, would have each nearly 60 superficial feet.

The second is a temporary building, with a back wall of stone, front and sides of mud and wattles, only four inches thick, a tiled roof and clay floor. It is 97 feet by 20 in size, and sub-divided into two apartments. The side walls are 11, and the ridge pole 17 feet high. At the rate of 60 superficial feet for each, it will accommodate 32 men. The margin of the roof is raised some inches above the front and side walls, to give free issue to heated air.

To windward of, and seventy paces behind the depôt, with a

covered path and bridge betwixt them, is the privy, within high water mark. This path has a hand railing for one third of its length, to prevent men, frequenting it in the dark, from falling over among the rocks on either side.

Surface drains, lined with uncemented stones before, behind, and betwixt the barracks, carry the superfluous water of the rainy season into Back Bay.

Four of

The rest have been

Prison Cells.-Outside of the enclosure of the Queen's Depôt are three prison cells, and near the hospital ten more. these are attached to an old lock-up house. built since 1846. These are in groups of six and three, arranged on two sides of a paved area, which is nearly ten feet wide, and raised two feet from the ground. The cells of the same row are ten feet apart, and those of one row opposite the interspaces of the other. The walls are of brick, floors of clay, roofs of tile, each is nine feet eleven inches square inside, and they are lofty and well ventilated. There is a small privy at the end of each The two ranges are enclosed by wooden iron-spiked railings. The barracks were built at different times, betwixt 1813 and 1827, when the last pendal was completed.

range.

Sick Officers' Bungalow.-On the same side of the road, and a little to the north of the Queen's Depôt, are two bungalows for the accommodation of officers, sent sick from other stations to Bombay. In each bungalow are a sitting and two smaller side rooms, with dressing and bathing closets &c., one being intended to accommodate two captains, and the other two subalterns. In the compound are two kitchens, stabling for four horses, and accommodation for native servants.

c. Hospital.—The Hospital was built in 1822-23, and is on the eastern side of the island, to the south of the officers', and 320 yards beyond the men's quarters. The site is low and swampy, to correct which a large tank has been excavated and arched over, by means of which much of the water that formerly inundated the front of the hospital is carried off, and the floors and walls rendered much drier. The walls are of burnt brick and chunam, the roof tiled, the floor of flagstones, raised about two feet and a half above the surrounding level. The building consists of a centre, bearing N.E. by N., and two wings, crossing the extremities of the centre at right angles, to form two oblong squares, open to the east and west, or with the inner side common to both, and the outer deficient. The centre is 207 feet in length, 23 in breadth, 13 to the top of the side walls, and 21 to the ridge pole of the slanting roof, which is open to the tiles. It is divided into three

wards, one capable of accommodating 32* patients, and two capable of accommodating 16† each.

Each of the wings is divided into two wards, capable together of accommodating 24 patients. The centre is united to the wings by two small wards, capable of accommodating 6§ patients each; but required to be used as surgeries for the Regimental and Queen's Depôt Hospitals. An excellent verandah, ten feet and a-half wide, surrounds the whole building, and, on the western moonsoon side, is furnished with glazed windows, moveable on pivots, both outwards and inwards, which obviates the necessity of closing the shutters, except during heavy storms of wind and rain. The north and east sides have eight glazed sky-lights. The doors and windows render the ventilation complete. Immediately behind the wards are the hospital-steward's quarters, apprentices' rooms, clothing, medical, and straw store-rooms, and the dead house. A little to the eastward is the female hospital, sufficiently large for 14|| beds, and, near the opposite end, the houses of the two apothecaries.

The centre and right wing are the hospital of the corps stationed for duty in Colaba, the left wing that of the Invalid and Queen's Depôt. Water has been hitherto supplied from three tanks and one cistern, during the monsoon; and up to about the 1st of May, when it used to get low and unfit for use, and was supplied from Bombay by the commissariat, at the rate of five gallons a-day for every individual on the strength of the regiment. This mode of supply, however, will be now discontinued, as cast-iron pipes have been recently laid to conduct water from the springs in Bombay esplanade to Colaba, a distance of two miles.

BELGAUM.

a. Station.-BELGAUM, the head quarters of the southern division of the Bombay army, is in the South Mahratta country, in latitude 15° 20′ N. longitude, 74° 41′ E., 228 miles from Poona, 318 from Bombay, 76 from Vingorla on the western coast, and about 30 to the east of the Western Ghauts. The Vingorla road passes over the Ramghaut, an ascent of four miles, and so steep, that a cart, brought to the bottom by two, requires six bullocks and from six to seven hours to reach the top.

The following tabular statement of its temperature and moisture in the different months of last year, is given by assistant-surgeon Dr Anderson of the 22d, in his annual report on the health of the 78th Regiment.

The seasons of Belgaum are the rainy, cold, and hot. The southwest monsoon and rainy season prevail from May to October. The rains set in with great violence, generally towards the evening, or from night to night, and are generally preceded or accompanied by tremendous thunder-storms. By the middle of May the hot weather has ceased, and the country become green, and in the continuous rain-falls of July and August the temperature is low, the air damp and raw, making fires pleasant. 53.37 inches of rain fell in the year 1848, and 19.80 inches, or considerably above a third of the whole, in July. With exception of one heavy shower, there was hardly any rain from November to March; in this interval the heat was moderate in the day, and the night very cool, without the piercing cold experienced at more inland stations. The monsoon continues sometimes to be felt in the end of October and beginning of November, with cool breezes and occasional rain. The hot season is of short duration, beginning in February, attaining its height in March, and ending in May. In the cold months, and up to April, a dry east wind prevails during the day; but from January, the atmosphere over the Ghauts being cool and moist, a westerly sea-breeze sets in regularly every afternoon about 4 P.M., and makes the climate delightful. This refreshing breeze was absent in February 1849 only four, and in March only two, days.

Belgaum is next to Colaba in uniformity of temperature and VOL. LXXV. No. 187.

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