basement and soak into the foundations. There should always be a space of ten or twelve feet round the house either paved, tiled, or laid with a good layer of jhama or stone well consolidated and sloped from the basement and nicely gravelled. Grass should never be allowed up to the walls. A belt of sharp gravel is also a great obstacle to snakes, which are too apt to find their way into our Indian houses.

Moisture and heat being the two most essential elements in the process of organic decomposition, the next desideratum of our Indian dwellinghouses, after the prevention of damp, is to keep the temperature as low as possible. Single storied, or what are called lower-roomed houses with flat terraced roofs are often unbearably hot. Terraced roofs are usually constructed with beams, rafters, and a double layer of tiles; the upper layer imbedded in mortar and placed diagonally, so as to break joint with the lower, and from five to eight inches of concrete beaten and plastered. In some of the older houses a depth of even ten to twelve inches of material will be found, evidently put on with the intention of opposing a greater obstruction to the sun's rays. A roof of this kind is, of course, very weighty, and necessarily requires stout walls and timbers of considerable scantling for its support; and in the older houses alluded to, very considerable deflection of the beams may be observed. I have recently constructed an improved form of terraced roof or floor, which, while it has all the strength, rigidity, and stability of the ordinary form, possesses three important advantages, viz., greater depth or thickness with comparative lightness, economy of material, greater resistance to the heat of the sun, and complete ventilation.

Construction of Indian Dwellings.

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which the whole of the heavy furniture of the upstairs rooms, including heavy almirahs, requiring ten or twelve men to lift them, has been carried without in the least affecting it.

Doubts were expressed by several practical builders and engineers at the time of construction as to whether this floor would stand, or even bear the concussion of the beaters while consolidating the concrete, but the result has proved these fears to be groundless. Where iron can be procured, a more durable form of this roof would be to substitute iron girders and inverted T iron for the timber beams and rafters, the tiles resting on the flanges of the inverted irons. Another advantage of this form of construction is, that the ceiling between the girder beams can be plastered smooth and flush with the undersurface of the iron, and will thus give more scope for ornamentation if desired. There is in many other directions great room for improvement both in the plan and construction of our Indian dwellings, and which, if followed, would add not only to our comfort and enjoyment, but to the preservation of health. Little attention has been paid in the first instance to the requirements of a tropical climate, and house builders have gone on from generation to generation building upon the same lines and following the same models as their predecessors. As far as appearance is concerned, there seems to have been little attempt at æsthetic treatment of private dwellings, and in short, if, as a well-known writer on architecture says, architecture is building with something more in view than mere utility and convenience, it is building in such a manner as to delight the eye by beauty of form, to captivate the imagination, and to satisfy that faculty

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An Improved Dwelling.

of the mind which we denominate taste;" then it is evident that architecture had nothing to do with the construction of the hideous square four-sided, equally divided buildings in which Anglo-Indians seem, as a rule, content to pass the best part of their lives.

The object of this work, however, is not to descant upon æsthetics beyond this point, that beautiful surroundings by adding to contentment and happiness, are undoubted aids in preserving that 'mens sana in corpore sano,' which is essential to our well being. With regard to the construction of our Indian dwellings, it has often been a matter of wonder to me that English settlers in this country have not taken a lesson from the people of the sunny lands of the south of Europe, or from the Syrians, Egyptians, and other eastern nations, and built their dwellings with an open central court, thereby admitting light and air to the very heart of their habitation.

I cannot claim this idea as an original one, for I have quite recently, whilst employed on these pages, come across a similar suggestion made as far back as 1863 by that excellent authority on such subjects, Colonel J. G. Medley, R. E., late Principal of the Roorkee College and Editor of the Professional Papers on Indian Engineering; but I believe I may fairly claim to be the first who has not only independently arrived at the same idea, but has, to use his words, " worked the idea into a tangible shape." The room in which I am now writing looks into just such a court as Colonel Medley has suggested in the following extract,-" In many parts of the country perhaps the old eastern style of building round an open quadrangle in the centre might be adopted with advan