thereto, generated by the similitude it had to a coffin, now that she was sick, and felt so even to the grave, she scarcely could enter it; and her husband, weighed down to the earth with anxiety, asked her, as she did so, why it was so unwelcome. "Oh! I shall never leave it alive," she replied; "it is like the dead man's home!" Nor did she leave it alive. A second exacerbation came on soon after starting; the heat of the evening, closeness of the conveyance, and motion of the bearers, all tended to aggravate a disease which, at that season, is peculiarly ardent. She became more urgently ill, and at length became insensible, the cerebral system having from the first been primarily affected; and C, her husband, made the hired menials of the road, who bore her, place the palanquin upon the ground. He sat beside her who had only been a year his wife; he recalled to his memory the injunctions of an aged mother, and her sisters' parting tears arose up before him to upbraid him; he watched the quivering lips, and marked the sigh, although she knew it not, with which her spirit winged its way on high; and close to her while dying, he, the rough soldier, failed not to acknowledge the decree,—“ A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave unto his wife." The infant of the dead mother had travelled in the palanquin of its other parent, who took his child up when he found that his wife was dead. Poor thing! it was hot, and breathed heavily for infantile slumber. He placed it for a moment within the arms of its yet warm mother, and gazed upon them both. By means of bribing the bearers enormously, he continued his dāk with both palanquins, and arrived as I have already narrated. But there was no time in which to decently perform the rites which, according to our customs, it is an aggravation to see omitted, and we set some artizans to work to construct a shell for the dead; all that we could hope to accomplish was such as we are wont to see in England inclosing the remains of a village pauper. These orders given, I returned with S into the bungalow, and he was in the act of explaining to me, in a whispering tone, previous to my departure, that he would require assistance at daybreak, for the interment could not be delayed longer; and when the low gaunt bungalow looked dark and gloomy, as the occasion warranted, a most uproarious fit of laughter rang from room to room of the house of mourning, petrifying us both. "Hah! hah! hah! Good-very good! By Jove, you are a good fellow. Come along, S, another bottleand as good as the last." This proceeded from the room in which Captain C had been with his sick child and the native female who had been appointed to attend it, and whilst yet in some uncertainty as to the cause of this unseasonable outbreak, Chimself entered the dimly-lighted verandah in which we were conversing; his eyes sparkled, and strong excitement seemed to have command over him. "Come, I say, is dinner ready? Another bottle of that champagne is the thing; for walking march after march in this dd climate, and that with a fever on, is not quite bearable for any length of time." Then, seeing a stranger, he caught himself, as if suddenly sensible that 20 器 something was wrong; and he gazed at me for a minute or two, and then taking my hand in silence, and without knowing, save by intuition, who I was, he led me from the house. "Come to the dead man's home." The expression chilled, even in such a temperature; but I went with him. He drew the slide of the palanquin, and pointing to his wife's body, he said, "Doctor, you must bury the dead." I at once comprehended his meaning, for he was aware that, his present excitement once off, he would be unable to perform the office of chief mourner, and I grasped his hand in token of my assent. We re-entered the bungalow. The strange manner and language made use of by the bereaved was easily accounted for, when his host remembered he had persuaded him to take a glass of beer on arriving; and, on a frame that had had no food for two days, the effect, though horrifying, was not improbable. After persuading him to take a mere mouthful of solid food, I administered a powerful sedative draught, and having seen him to his couch, I promised to be with him in the morning. Before sunrise, S and I were in the churchyard; the real "dead man's home" yawned before us, and the impressive burial-service of our church was spoken by a layman. The two strangers, and who had never seen her in life, placed within that narrow grave, in a foreign land, the daughter of a mother whose heart could scarcely yield her to another, even though that other was her husband; and that done, and the parched turf placed over her, we slowly and full of grief regained the bungalow, and entered the verandah. There, before us, was he who ought to have carried his wife's head to the grave, playing at "pitch and toss" with S's children. "Heads or tails? tails it is". "come, better luck next time," and such like expressions, came momentarily from his lips. But no sooner did his eye rest upon S and myself, with the black crape upon our arms, than the morbid excitement once more gave way. Before I could induce sleep in Captain C, the quantity of opium administered would have poisoned a dozen people in health. By unremitting care, the infant recovered; its mother sleeps tranquilly in the little churchyard of - the bones of its father are among the buried few who fell in the "terrible retreat." Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.IV.No.19. K BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE JAMES GILBERT GERARD, BENGAL MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT. THE subject of the present memoir was a traveller from the earliest period of his service in India, and one of a family whose name is intimately connected with all the knowledge we possess regarding the Himalaya mountains. Aberdeen was the birth-place of James Gilbert Gerard; he was the third son of Gilbert Gerard, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University and King's College, as well as Chaplain in Ordinary to her Majesty for Scotland. As a boy, he was distinguished chiefly for his careless and intrepid disposition; he was always the leader in any enterprise undertaken by his schoolfellows; and, when mischief was committed, Gerard was always blamed, whether guilty or otherwise. From school he was removed to the University at the early age of thirteen, and after remaining for the usual period of four years, he prosecuted his medical studies, which he had commenced before leaving College; with this view, he first proceeded to Edinburgh, and afterwards to London, where he obtained his surgeon's diploma. Neither at school nor at College did Gerard evince any particular talent, except that of great quickness in mastering any subject, while a considerable portion of his time was spent in idleness. Having completed his medical studies, he came to India as an assistantsurgeon on the Bengal establishment, in 1814; and, shortly after his arrival in Calcutta, was sent, at the expense of Government, to Meerut, where he was attached, for a short time, to the horse artillery. He was then directed to join Sir David Ochterlony's division, in the North Western Hills, which was employed against the Goorkhas; but his brother Alexander, belonging to the 1st battalion 13th regt. N.I., which formed a part of another force, young Gerard wished to see him before joining Sir David, and with this view proceeded to Nahun, where the force was commanded by Sir Gabriel Martindell. At that time there was a great paucity of medical officers, and Gerard was unexpectedly detained for a short time, but eventually ordered to proceed and join Sir David Ochterlony's force, with which he remained until the termination of the first campaign. He then got medical charge of the light infantry battalion, where he saw a good deal of service; and at the conclusion of the war, he was appointed to the 1st Nusseeree battalion, which was first cantoned at Asmeergurh, about twenty-two miles from Subathoo, and afterwards removed to the latter place, where it remained until 1843, when it left Subathoo to make room for her Majesty's 9th regiment, and the Company's 1st European Light Infantry. Gerard's vigorous and active frame of body, united to a mind bent on the acquisition of knowledge, had thus an opportunity of developing its powers to the full extent, instead of being exposed to the heat of the plains of India, where both mind and body become often, after the lapse of a few years, weak and feeble: he enjoyed the cool bracing air of the mountains, and its effects were speedily witnessed. He became a traveller, and could perform journeys on foot at an extraordinary pace over any kind of path; and from his strength and activity of body he was enabled to keep up the same rate of travelling, day after day, for a long distance. As an example of his pedestrianism, it may be here mentioned, that he walked in one day from Nahun to Subathoo, much to the surprise and astonishment of the officers residing at the latter place; and in Gerard made many observations and remarks on the climate of the interior at During one of his journeys, Gerard discovered that the use of the lithographic stone, as well as printing, had been known and practised, from time immemorial, either in some part of Kunawur, Speetee, or the territory of Ludakh. On this occasion, he arrived within three days' journey of Leh, the capital. He brought back specimens of the stone, some of which were forwarded to Sir C. Metcalfe, at that time Vice-President in Council; but unfortunately no notice was taken of either them or their discoverer. He proceeded twice into the Ladakh territory, by way of the hill state of * An able digest of some of his narratives was made by the late Mr. Colebrooke, by whom it was read before the Royal Asiatic Society. It is published in its Transactions. Kooloo, and passed through part of the Speetee valley; but sickness, in one instance, detained him for a long time at one place, and eventually compelled him to return, much to his regret. On another occasion, obstacles obliged him to come back from the banks of the Chundeen Ruga river; in the latter tour, he surveyed the whole of his former routes, and passed near the lake Mantalaee, the source of the Beah. He frequently travelled on foot from the interior of the Himalayan mountains to Subathoo in six days, which, of itself, was no mean pedestrian feat. In one of his journeys, about the 19th of September, and while returning, he lost one man, from the intensity of cold, at the limit of the forest on the Kunawur, or northern, face of the Shatool, or Rol pass; and another of his followers perished the same day, on the very crest of the same mountain, from excessive fatigue, cold, and the drifting snow. On reaching the top of the pass, Gerard was in a most miserable plight, and called to his other servants, who were some way behind him, to come up as quickly as they could, or the consequences would be most serious; but, on his crossing alone, and disappearing from them, they became so alarmed, that they, one and all, deserted him, and fled down the mountain, reaching the different villages in Kunawur they knew not how. In this lonely and deserted state, Gerard arrived at the brink of a fearful chasm in the snow. By means of a small pocket compass, which he always carried with him, he directed his steps until he reached a natural bridge of snow stretching across the chasm; over this he passed to the opposite side; had he not providentially met with this bridge, he would have shared the fate of his servant, who perished. Through the aid of the little instrument alluded to, he knew, perfectly, his situation, and the bearing of the nearest village, which was upwards of twelve miles off, and he proceeded towards it, through snow and sleet driven along by a furious wind, and ultimately reached Rainoo-Shatee. In two or three days afterwards, though five ordinary stages, over rough, and in many places dangerous, footpaths, he arrived at a village on the right bank of the Pubeen or Pubna river, without either shoes or stockings! In this disastrous trip he lost all his papers relating to it, as well as the whole of his instruments, and the greater part of his baggage. About nine months afterwards, in search for his papers, he and his brother, Capt. A. Gerard, found the body of his servant, who had perished on the crest of the pass, in a state of perfect preservation. Portions of his instruments were discovered, but all broken and useless; fragments of papers and some of his clothes were also found, but all so much destroyed as to be perfectly useless; so that his labours, on this occasion, were entirely lost. In the Speetee valley, Gerard discovered fossil shells of a variety of kinds, and some entirely new; he found, likewise, rocks composed solely of these shells, as well as ridges and masses of mountain rising to an altitude of from 14,000 to 16,000 feet. A set of the specimens was forwarded to Professor Buckland, and another presented to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta ; many others were given to private individuals, as the quantity collected was very extensive. Had Gerard's travels among the Himalayan mountains never done more than made us acquainted with the existence of marine shells at such elevations, not only science, but mankind in general, would owe him a debt of gratitude; the shells which this indefatigable traveller discovered in the valley of Speetee, prove that the waters of the ocean had, at some former period, covered these mountains; and the very idea of such an occurrence gives a sublimity to these scenes, such as we can easily imagine; and the sight of shells, whose formation |
