CHAPTER IX 



WANDERINGS IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS 



Chittagong Hill Tracts and Lushai Hills — Accompany the Commissioner 

 into the Hill Tracts — Luxurious travelling — Take to dug-outs — 

 Burning forests — A day of smoke and heat — Land for the night — 

 The Commissariat delayed — Dinnerless to bed — A wet morning — 

 Continue our journey — A swimming snake and Kaleej pheasants — 

 Reach the falls — A southern outpost — A wild frontier country— The 

 Military Police — A fine fishing river — Proceed up-stream— Dense 

 jungles and interesting fauna — A faunistic survey required — Meet 

 the Political Officer — Bad weather and few fish — Southern Hill 

 Tracts forests — Calhng up sambhar — Stalking the mithan — A trip in 

 the rains — The forest flora — Track the herd — A close encounter. 



THE Chittagong Hill Tracts and South Lushai 

 Hills are a most interesting piece of country to 

 wander in. Of course, when once up in those 

 parts one feels rather lost to the outer world and 

 occasionally the feeling would come, as I remember it came 

 to me very strongly on an occasion in the fastnesses of 

 Upper Burma, that one had seen the last of civilization and 

 was destined to leave one's bones in the wilds. But such 

 feelings are evanescent. The lure of these wild tracts and 

 their great fascination is far more dominant and lasting. 



I remember one hot weather in April accompanying 

 the Commissioner of the Division, who held almost auto- 

 cratic sway over the Hill Tracts, with powers of Ufe and 

 death and other terrors, up into this region. The first 

 eighty odd miles of the journey were done in a luxurious flat 

 pulled up the river by a launch. The day was spent in 

 dignified ease. An hour or two in the morning was given 

 to perusing and noting upon stately bundles of red-tape- 

 encircled files, extracted from japanned tin office-boxes on 

 the outer covers of which the official titles of their owners 

 were inscribed in large type. Followed a beautifully cooked 

 hot breakfast and then, installed in comfortable long chairs, 



III 



