CAMP LIFE IN INDIA 



One of the pleasantest periods in the life of an Indian 

 Police Officer is that portion of it which, under the regu- 

 lations, he is required to spend in touring through his 

 district on inspection duty. This cold-weather tour, as 

 it is termed officially, usually begins about the 15th 

 November and is continued, with short intervals at head- 

 quarters, till the end of March. 



During these four months the climate. of India is at its 

 very best, and is probably, at this season, the finest in 

 the world, with day after day of brilliant sunshine, tempered 

 by cool breezes, and the nights so cold and often frosty, 

 that a fire is by no means a mere luxury, especially out in 

 camp, where, apart from the comfort it imparts, it serves 

 to light up the surroundings as well as to purify the air 

 which, after sunset, in the neighbourhood of jungles, is apt 

 to be malarious. 



Camp life in India has often been described and, as it 

 deserves to be, generally in glowing terms, since it would 

 be difficult to imagine a condition of life more thoroughly 

 enjoyable, for it must not be supposed that camping in 

 India, in the sense referred to here, involves any of the 

 hardships or discomforts such as one experiences in that 

 questionable amusement known as " camping out," which 

 some people, gifted with more energy than discretion, 

 occasionally indulge in in England. 



On the contrary, for, in the first place, every official, 

 whose duties include an annual tour of his district, is 

 provided by Government with large, roomy tents, usually 

 sufficient in number to allow of one being always sent on 

 ahead, to be pitched on the new camping ground. Thus 

 when marching from one encampment to another usually 

 done in the early morning the official finds a comfortable 

 shelter awaiting him, as well as breakfast, for the cook, 

 with his appliances, has come on during the night. 



The other tents and equipage, transported on many 

 bullock carts, arrive some hours later, and before the 

 night sets in, the tents are re-erected, their furniture 

 arranged and the carts being paid up and discharged, the 

 encampment is, to all appearances, as it was the day before 

 the move was made. 



Then, as the sun goes down, and the brief Indian 



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