APPENDIX 



cut is the "semi-riding," loose at the knees, which 

 should be well faced with soft leather, both for 

 crawling, and to save the cloth in grass and low 

 brush. One pair ought to last four months, roughly 

 speaking. You will find a thin pair of ordinary 

 khaki trousers very comfortable as a change for 

 wear about camp. In passing I would call your 

 attention to "shorts." Shorts are loose, bobbed off 

 khaki breeches, like knee drawers. With them are 

 worn puttees or leather leggings, and low boots. 

 The knees are bare. They are much affected by 

 young Englishmen. I observed them carefully at 

 every opportunity, and my private opinion is that 

 man has rarely managed to invent as idiotically un- 

 fitted a contraption for the purpose in hand. In a 

 country teeming with poisonous insects, ticks, fever- 

 bearing mosquitoes; in a country where vegetation 

 is unusually well armed with thorns, spines and 

 hooks, mostly poisonous; in a country where, of- 

 tener than in any other a man is called upon to get 

 down on his hands and knees and crawl a few as- 

 sorted abrading miles, it would seem an obvious 

 necessity to protect one's bare skin as much as pos- 

 sible. The only reason given for these astonishing 

 garments is that they are cooler and freer to walk in. 

 That I can believe. But they allow ticks and other 

 insects to crawl up, mosquitoes to bite, thorns to 



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