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though the crushing through the forest sounded like his retreat, 

 and I gave up all hopes of the skin, for I had determined not to 

 track the brute up, having once before, in India, been badly 

 mauled by foolishly following up a wounded tiger on foot. The 

 Lapaees, however, rushed off in a body before I could stop them, 

 and in about ten minutes, returned with the tail of the animal, 

 saying he lay dead but a short distance from where I fired ; I was 

 glad he had been found, but it was very vexing the tail had been 

 cut off, for it spoiled the value of the skin. He measured from tip 

 to tip eleven feet two inches, and had a rich glossy coat of a 

 deeper yellow than any I have shot in India. The operation of 

 skinning detained us a couple of hours, and it was long after dark 

 before I got back to my boats. I presented the four Lapaees, with 

 new red goung-boungs, some shot and powder, and three Eupees 

 each, with which they seemed well satisfied, and said if I would 

 stop a few days and go up to their village, they would show me 

 plenty of large game sport. 



295. Friday, 6th February 1874.— Thermometer, 6 a.m., 49°. 

 Left Winemew at 7, reaching Katcho by 8 a.m., where we remained 

 engaged all day cutting slips oiFicus clastica, and planting them in 

 little open-work bamboo baskets, filled with sand and leaf mould, 

 which were sent down to Bhamo on a bamboo raft in charge of 

 Moung Gnet. The raft cost five Eupees ; and I was told the bam- 

 boos would realize twenty Eupees in Bhamo, which was far in 

 excess of the amount expended on the transport of the plants. 

 I questioned whether the consignment would reach Eangoon alive, 

 but the experiment was worth while trying. My attention was here 

 drawn to a Shan-Burman woman carrying a white child, of about two 

 years old, with blue eyes and red hair ; she proved to be the mother ; 

 and the father, I was given to understand, is a Burman, who had 

 recently been transported to Mogoung. The complexion of the child 

 would not have struck me as anything uncommon two hundred miles 

 further south, but in these latitudes the little fellow seemed rather a 

 vara avis, and I was led to make careful enquiries as to the mother's 

 antecedents, for it appeared probable the child might have been kid- 

 napped ; her life, however, at Mandalay, from where she had recently 

 come, sufficiently accounted for her son's European type of physiog- 

 nomy. It had drizzled throughout the day, but this had not inter- 

 fered with the cremation of a Shan-Burman on the island of Zee- 

 ghoon, opposite ; evidently the deceased was of a poor family, for the 

 ceremony was not attended with any distinction. The corpse was sim- 

 ply packed in a pile of wood, round which his friends and relations 

 stood until the pyre hadbeen reduced to ashes. I sent word to the ./iwa/ 

 that I intended crossing over to Zeeghoon the next day, and arrange 



