HO IIILLMEN. 



My first care on reaching the ground was to start half-a-dozen men 

 for firewood, whilst I took others with me carrying kettle, water - pots, 

 wash-hand basin, saucepan, and all available vessels, to secure a supply 

 of clear water for cooking and drinking for myself and servants before the 

 small stream which ran through the valley should be disturbed by the thirsty 

 elephants. This done, I sounded the assembly on my cornet for Sergeant 

 Carter, who was not yet in sight, to let him know that the day's march w^as 

 over, and he soon came up with the last elephants. 



The valley was very damp, and after dinner I had a fire kept up for 

 half an hour in the tent ; and though I turned in amidst the smoke, it was 

 better than a cold raw atmosphere. I believe that, with a small fire kept 

 lip in or near the tent all night, and of course mosquito-curtains, and a cot 

 at least three feet from the ground, a person may sleep in the most malari- 

 ous swamps or jimgies with safety. As the miasma is carried up, or anni- 

 hilated, in the warm atmosphere, I have frequently done so without ill effects. 

 In unhealthy jungles I make it a rule to keep within the influence of the 

 camp-fires after sunset, and in the mornings until the jungles are warmed 

 by the sun, when possible. 



December 30, 1875. — To-day we marched from 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 P.M. 

 The coolies got off at 4 a.m. The country was more difficult than yesterday, 

 and we only did about sixteen miles. Here we caught up the coolies, and 

 found such a good camping-ground that I ordered a halt. With so many 

 men and elephants, for whom space, water, and fodder were necessary, it was 

 not every place that offered facilities for camping. The country to-day was 

 all grass and a little bamboo, but closer and steeper than yesterday. The 

 few villagers we saw were Hill Arracanese and Chuckmas, and had strongly- 

 marked Indo-Burmese features. I noticed a breed of fine white fowls and 

 several geese in the two or three viQages we passed. All the houses were 

 raised upon bamboo platforms about ten feet from the ground, a good pro- 

 tection against malaria and dampness. 



Our encampment this evening was better situated than yesterday. ]\Iy 

 tents and the sergeant's occupied a small hillock covered with short grass, 

 rising in the centre of a narrow valley. The coolies were comfortably 

 squatted on the level ground along the stream, where they erected grass 

 huts as a protection against the soaking night dew. The view up to the 

 closing of the valley, a vista of about half a mile, was uni(][ue. Several 

 small rounded hillocks, like the one my tent occupied, rose from the level 

 ground ; spurs ran out from the sides of the hills enclosing the valley, here 

 only about three hundred yards wide ; and the stream wound a tortuous 

 course around these and the hillocks. The sjiurs at their loM'cst points 



