One may construct a good-enough outline map of this wonderful land in one’s mind by referring its main features to the first letter of the alphabet.  Take a capital A; turn it up side down; imagine that the inverted triangle forming the lower half of the letter is the Deccan, the left side representing the Western Ghauts, the right side representing the Eastern Ghauts, and the cross-stroke standing for the Vindhya Mountains; imagine further that a line from right to left across the upper ends of the letter, trending upward as it is drawn, represents the Himalaya, and that enclosed between them and the Vindhyas is Hindustan proper.  Behind—­i.e. to the north of—­the centre of this last line rises the Indus, flowing first north-westward through the Vale of Cashmere, then cutting sharply to the south and flowing by the way of the Punjab and Scinde to where it empties at Kurrachee.  Near the same spot where the Indus originates rises also the Brahmaputra, but the latter empties its waters far from the former, flowing first south-eastward, then cutting southward and emptying into the Gulf of Bengal.  Fixing, now, in the mind the sacred Ganges and Jumna, coming down out of the Gangetic and Jumnatic peaks in a general south-easterly direction, uniting at Allahabad and emptying into the Bay of Bengal, and the Nerbudda River flowing over from the east to the west, along the southern bases of the Vindhyas, until it empties at the important city of Brooch, a short distance north of Bombay, one will have thus located a number of convenient points and lines sufficient for general references.

This A of ours is a very capital A indeed, being some nineteen hundred miles in length and fifteen hundred in width.  Lying on the western edge of this peninsula is Bombay Island.  It is crossed by the line of 19 deg. north latitude, and is, roughly speaking, halfway between the Punjab on the north and Ceylon on the south.  Its shape is that of a lobster, with his claws extended southward and his body trending a little to the west of north.  The larger island of Salsette lies immediately north, and the two, connected by a causeway, enclose the noble harbor of Bombay.  Salsette approaches near to the mainland at its northern end, and is connected with it by the railway structure.  These causeways act as break-waters and complete the protection of the port.  The outer claw, next to the Indian Ocean, of the lobster-shaped Bombay Island is the famous Malabar Hill; the inner claw is the promontory of Calaba; in the curved space between the two is the body of shallow water known as the Back Bay, along whose strand so many strange things are done daily.  As one turns into the harbor around the promontory of Calaba—­which is one of the European quarters of the manifold city of Bombay, and is occupied by magnificent residences and flower-gardens—­one finds just north of it the great docks and commercial establishments of the Fort; then an enormous esplanade farther north; across which, a distance of about a mile, going still northward, is the great Indian city called Black Town, with its motley peoples and strange bazars; and still farther north is the Portuguese quarter, known as Mazagon.