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CHAPTER III. 



Journey between Mandalay and Bhamo, including return voyage. 



101. I shall not devote much space to this part of my journey, for 



... , , the distance has been so often covered, 



Information embodied not 01 a j.i,„j. ±r^ • r u i i n, T « P 



novel type. tnat there 1S n ttle left, I fear, for me 



to chronicle of a novel type, while it 

 must also be remembered that travelling by steamer does not offer 

 a favourable opportunity for gathering information. However, there 

 is this satisfaction left me, in knowing that we all do not see with 

 the same eyes ; neither does observation consist in the mere notice- 

 ing of facts that pass before one, but rather in noticing results, 

 and, as Stuart Mill remarks, in his System of Logic, to do this 

 well, is a rare talent. I will therefore hope that something still 

 remains to be told of these latitudes, and that I may have been for- 

 tunate enough to have gathered a few items of interest, that have 

 escaped the observation of previous voyagers ; but if, unfortunately, 

 my narrative proves stale, the reader has always the option of skip- 

 ping this chapter, and accepting it in the charitable light of a mere 

 connecting link to the remaining portion of my jottings. 



102. On the morning of the 19th December 1873, the Colonel 

 Departure from Mandalay. Fytche, of 215 tons burden, left Manda- 

 lay for Bhamo with the mails, a gene- 

 ral cargo, and one flat in tow, laden with cotton. With the excep- 

 tion of another European, the passengers were principally Chinese, 

 returning to their homes in Western China. 



103. The objectionable habit of opium-smoking rendered these 

 A1 . u ,. . , .. , . people most undesirable companions on 



Objectionable habit of opium- t j i • -vr 1 i , i 



smoking on board. board-snip. No sooner had the nar- 



cotic influence of the drug lulled one 

 into dream-land, than another resumed his smoke, until the whole 

 atmosphere in the vessel, throughout the twenty-four hours, was so 

 densely charged with the filthy fumes, that the place became quite 

 unbearable. Any attempt to restrict these men to a particular part 

 of the steamer was altogether out of the question ; for they were in 

 such numbers, that they lay packed like sardines all over the deck, 

 right up to the door of the companion-ladder leading into the 

 saloon, down which the clouds of smoke descended, until even that 

 part of the vessel offered no retreat from the sickening fumes. 

 Here a happy thought struck me, and I suggested to the Captain 



