182 MALARIAL FEVERS. 



It will be unnecessary for me to enter into details about equipage. 

 Excellent liints on the subject of tents and kit may be found in many 

 books on Indian sport, and in others devoted entirely to the sul)ject. The 

 great principle to be borne in mind in making arrangements for jungle-lifo 

 is, that the sportsman should make himself and followers as comfortable as 

 possible. Any amount of hard work may be done by all during the day if 

 they have dry clothes and a comfortable dinner and bed at the end of it. 

 Eoughing it when there is no necessity — and there seldom is nowadays in 

 India — is a mistake which only the inexperienced fall into. There is rarely 

 any reason why a sj^ortsman should sleep without slieets, drink out of a tin pot, 

 or dine off a box, though these are merely discomforts. In matters actually 

 affecting the health of the party in jungle localities, it is suicidal not to 

 know what are the precautions to be observed, or to neglect them. 



Malarial fever is the great obstacle with which the sportsman in Indian 

 jungles has to contend ; but, though it is a dread reality, it is at the same 

 time made more of a bugbear to the inexperienced than it need be. Mias- 

 matic air, from its heaviness, lies and travels close to the ground, and it is 

 probably not active during the day when the jungles are warmed by the 

 sun. Cold and dampness are its great auxiliaries. It appears to be taken 

 into the system by inhalation, and it is supposed the poison also exists in 

 water contaminated by decaying vegetable matter. As evening closes in there 

 is a raw feeling in the air in the jungles which the sportsman must perceive 

 is inimical to health. Some jungle-tribes build their houses on platforms 

 ten feet high, knowing by experience the advantage to health in being thus 

 elevated. But as a moving camp cannot take this precaution, the miasma 

 about the sleepers must be destroyed or dissipated. This is to be done by 

 keeping up fires to windward. The pestilential exhalations are thus carried 

 up in the current of lighter air, or are consumed. Small tents of thick 

 material should be used for master and servants, as they are warmer tliau 

 large ones. At night the jungle-people in each camp, or some of the sports- 

 man's own men, should keep up a fire as close as possible to the tents, and 

 so placed that the warm air from it may blow over them. Wliilst within its 

 influence it is impossible that malaria can touch the sleepers. Let the sports- 

 man but go out of the circle of the fires during the night, and he will feel 

 how cold and raw the air is compared to that within their genial influence. 



Every one must sleep well off the ground. Tiie sportsman's cot should 

 be at least three feet high — raised by forked uprights if necessary — and he 

 should sleep within mosquito-curtains.''^ For his servants, if nothing else 



* In some parts of India the nifjhts are so sultry, even in the forests, that this would hardly 

 be possible. It is doubtful, however, if miasma is abroad iu such a temperature. 



