constantly put their backs up by assuming mastery over them, and issuing orders as from himself. "Heh! Kulah! put those here, not there. What are you about?-yainday!" he vociferated, as the boys were handing up the things to the elephant-drivers. The boys treated his orders with sullen disdain, and went on quietly attending to their business. Loogalay was stamping about and slapping his thighs, becoming more flushed every minute, and looking more and more like an enraged turkey-cock. I was enjoying the fun, sitting quietly smoking in my chair up in the court-house, and would have liked to have watched its further development. There is nothing like a thunderstorm to clear the air, or a good determined school-fight to put the young folk at their ease and knock sense into them. Dr Cushing, however, being in charge of the marching arrangements, put an end to the cabal by appearing on the scene and bundling Loogalay and Portow off to attend on the other elephants. With his presence order came out of chaos, and by halfpast seven we were ready to start. A quarter of an hour later Dr Cushing stepped off the verandah of the courthouse on to the head of his elephant, sprawled over the greasy Karen mahout to the seat that had been prepared for him, said good-bye to the Myook, and headed the train of elephants as they commenced their journey. May to reat CHAPTER II. SURVEYING KAREN THANKFUL FOR A HALT- LEAVE HLINEBOAY · RGES JRVEYING by time-distances and a prismatic compass, when the march, requires a steady hand, a quick judgment for electing an object for your angle, and a good memory. If he hand is unsteady, the ring of the compass, which is alanced on a needle, will not come to rest. In a junglelad country you must watch the foremost elephant as it winds through the trees, and rapidly select the point for your next angle as the animal is just passing from view. good memory is required, otherwise in noticing the trees, rocks, by-paths, width and depth of streams, breadth of fields, size of villages, and taking sketches of, and angles to, neighbouring hills, you will forget the object, twig, branch. or trunk of tree, that you have aimed at. Having taken your angle, you must catch up the last elephant-for you are taking your distances by the time it takes in passing over the ground—and observe the time and 10 SHELTER FOR THE NIGHT. your next angle on arriving at the object you had formerly chosen. This constant observation, continuing from dawn to dark with one interval for refreshment, is a great strain upon one's attention, and when joined with the necessity of taking heights from the aneroid barometer, and temperatures from the thermometer at every change of level, makes one thankful for a halt at the foot or summit of a mountain pass, where one has to check the height by the boilingpoint thermometer. For the first hour after leaving Hlineboay we passed over slightly undulating ground, covered with stunted trees and scrub-jungle, and then entered paddy-fields through which we proceeded to Quambee, a Talaing, or Pwo, Karen village in a rice-plain over half a mile in breadth. To the east of the plain amongst the forest appeared many isolated hills and knolls, backed up by a boldly defined peaked range of hills, the Dana Toung, distant about fifteen miles, which forms the water - parting between the Thoungyeen and Salween rivers. There being no zayat, or rest-house, in the village, and Karen houses being generally infested with bugs, we decided to camp in a grove of large trees in the vicinity of a well, from which we could draw water for bathing and cooking. After the elephants were unloaded and we had finished our supper, a shelter for the night was quickly formed with a few bamboos, roofed with two large waterproof sheets which I luckily had with me. My tent had been left behind in Maulmain through an oversight of the boys; and although the Bombay-Burmah party kindly brought it with them to Hlineboay, it may be still at the latter place, as they had not carriage sufficient to bring it farther. A tent is a cumbersome and costly thing to carry about, and we managed very well for several months without one. The next day we resumed our short stages, hoping that Mr Bryce's party would catch us up. The country continued of much the same character as between Hlineboay and Quambee-only, cultivated fields became rarer, isolated hills more numerous, and teak - trees were frequently interspersed in the forest. The first night from |