of departure on your travels?"

"Yes, my Lord, to see India has been a cherished purpose with me
all my life. It will be the realization of my fondest dreams,
to find myself in the country of elephants and Thugs."

"Then it would be by no means a matter of indifference to you,
to visit another country instead."

"No, my Lord; indeed it would be very disagreeable, for I have letters
from Lord Somerset, the Governor-General, and also a commission
to execute for the Geographical Society."

"Ah, you have a commission."

"Yes, I have to attempt a curious and important journey,
the plan of which has been drawn up by my learned friend
and colleague, M. Vivien de Saint Martin. I am to pursue
the track of the Schlaginweit Brothers; and Colonels Waugh
and Webb, and Hodgson; and Huc and Gabet, the missionaries;
and Moorecroft and M. Jules Remy, and so many celebrated travelers.
I mean to try and succeed where Krick, the missionary
so unfortunately failed in 1846; in a word, I want to follow
the course of the river Yarou-Dzangbo-Tchou, which waters Thibet
for a distance of 1500 kilometres, flowing along the northern
base of the Himalayas, and to find out at last whether this
river does not join itself to the Brahmapoutre in the northeast
of As-sam. The gold medal, my Lord, is promised to the traveler
who will succeed in ascertaining a fact which is one of the greatest
DESIDERATA to the geography of India."