122 ASSAM AND RHINOCEROS 



Should we ever leave India horresco referens, 

 would India relapse in one or two generations into 

 the typical " India by the Ganges " ? 



And if the relapse came about, would the boat- 

 men be less happy, and could the woman and 

 the dog and the calf be more miserable, than at 

 present ? And would the strong but rare English 

 official flourish elsewhere and stupidly, illogically, 

 unimaginatively turn bad into good with the aid 

 of " carmine " and " blighter " ? 



After crossing the Ganges I rejoined the train 

 and at 10 next morning " descended " at a small 

 station in a fever-stricken spot in the jungle. 

 I was met by the Deputy-Commissioner, who 

 drove me some twenty-six miles through wild, 

 I might almost say savage, country to a forest 

 bungalow (where I met the Deputy-Conservator), 

 and which was to be my first camp. They were 

 both most kind to me, and took an infinity of 

 trouble to get me my rhinoceros. 



Next day we moved some fifteen miles farther 

 inland and camped almost at the foot of the 

 Himalayas south-east of Bhootan, and, I fancy, 

 not very many marches from where the Abors 

 give trouble. 



The next morning, April 8th, I was on my 

 elephant, as usual, at 4 a.m. We got to our 

 ground at dawn, but the trackers made a bad 

 mistake. They " crossed " a fresh trail without 

 detecting it. This resulted in six hours' hard work 

 merely to get back to the very spot where we had 

 " missed " and starting de novo on a six-hour-old 

 trail. On the whole, however, the tracking was 

 very, very good and intensely interesting. About 



