xviii INTRO D UCTOR Y 



heavy that you can see no game until you all but touch it, 

 and few animals are so confiding as to let you get to such 

 close quarters. In the north-west of Tongho I have shot 

 game on foot during the cold months, but for real enjoyment 

 the time is May. Then go to the foot of the Yomahs and 

 beat about the savannahs at their base. When you form a 

 line and advance in Burma you never know what you may 

 start or what you may come across ; it may be a tiger, a 

 leopard, a bear, elephant, gaur, or tsine, and various kinds of 

 deer. I have come across all I have mentioned in the course 

 of the same day. 



Burma is now one of our principal Provinces, and it has a 

 great future. Our employes in it now number by hundreds 

 compared to the dozens when I was there. No one has 

 attempted to depict its wild sports as a whole, and I believe 

 that a book treating of the Lower as well as the Upper 

 portion will be welcome and useful to those who have to 

 spend years there. Sport in any shape is fascinating to the 

 Briton, be he English, Scot, Welsh, or Irish. I know the 

 difficulties and expenses I underwent in acquiring the know- 

 ledge I possessed when I left. My colleague has been a 

 most successful sportsman in countries beyond the limits of 

 my own experience, and between us I hope that our book will 

 not only give information to those more intimately connected 

 with the Province, but will please those who are fond of sport 

 in general. A reliable book on sport relating to the country 

 is a godsend to the new-comer. 



Were I going to Burma again, if likely to be stationed in 

 Lower Burma, I would take a double hammerless Mannlicher 

 rifle, such as are being made by Westley Richards a Paradox 

 of either 8 or lo-bore, a double No. 12 rifle, or an Express 

 '577 f r deer and soft-skinned animals, and a 12 smooth-bore 

 carrying either ball or shot ; and much the same for Upper 

 Burma, but on that my colleague will give his views. I have 

 no interest in recommending one maker in favour of another. 

 I have had guns of nearly every maker of note. I recom- 

 mend Westley Richards because I believe his block-breech 

 action is the best, and that he has persistently used the top 

 lever action for the heaviest and largest bores, when other 



