IN THE EAST INDIES. 19 
never saw anything so huge. Its branches were 
covered with orchids. JI must stop, as we are off to 
Burma. 
Happy New Year to every one. Qn the first of 
January we leave for Java. 
Affectionately, 
Ros. 
December 10, 1906. 
101, N. Garden Reach, 
Caleutta, India. 
Dear Father : 
I am writing this letter to you because it is about 
a hunting trip and I am sure you will enjoy hearing 
of it. We have already written that we have been 
given a survey boat belonging to the Calcutta Port 
Commission, and we have just returned from over a 
week in the wilderness of the Ganges Delta. 
We were very comfortable on board, had excellent 
food and service, and had collapsible cots so that we 
could sleep on deck at night under an awning with 
mosquito netting, and be quite cool and safe in a 
notoriously unhealthy region. We had a good deal of 
bad Iuek, however. In the first place, the tide was 
wrong and low water came at morning and evening. 
This left a great mud bank exposed along the shores of 
all the ereeks, so that we could really only land at 
night or at midday, and of course we wanted to hunt 
mornings and evenings. 
We saw several hundred axis deer, often fifty at 
a time, feeding along the creek banks late at night. 
We had a strong searchlight, and it was great fun 
watching these deer and other small wild beasts, as 
