32 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



He willnot only feel no ill effects, but he will positively be 

 better for the exercise he has taken. But avoid . stimulants 

 during the heat of the day, and whilst toiling through mud 

 and water under a broiling sun, for snipe can best be shot 

 with advantage during the hours of ten to four. Before and 

 after that, the birds get wild. The less spirits a man drinks 

 in India the better. There is no harm in his taking a fair 

 modicum of the liquor which best pleases him with his evening 

 meal after the day's fatigue is over, nor indeed a moderate 

 allowance of claret-cup or shandy-gaff (beer and ginger-beer 

 mixed) or even a bottle of Lager beer with his late breakfast 

 or tiffin, but it is best as a rule to avoid drinking anything, 

 water not excepted, whilst actually shooting. The more you 

 drink, the more you want. Tea is a fair substitute, but drink 

 as little as possible. Men who wish to lead a healthy life in 

 India must not be molly-coddles, but be given to out-door 

 sport, be it shooting, riding, cricket, rackets, lawn-tennis, and 

 the like, but they must at the same time lead a sober life. 

 Drink used to be the curse of India, but since the habit has 

 died out Indian lives are accepted by insurance offices as good 

 as those of others who live in more favoured climes. Now 

 that European troops are being gradually concentrated on 

 Hills, single stations for native troops are getting more 

 numerous, and I think in choosing a place where six or eight 

 officers are to be bottled up for several years, thought ought 

 to be had for their amusement and recreation. If a lot of 

 officers get together in a locality devoid of sport, and with 

 nothing to distract them except their daily routine of drill, it 

 is placing them at a great disadvantage, and the chances are, 

 however efficient and good they were when first they arrived 

 at such a station, they will soon deteriorate. If there be 

 neither shooting nor riding to be had, then I think the Govern- 

 ment should provide a racket-court, a swimming-bath, and 

 lawn-tennis grounds. For be sure that all work and no play 

 never answers anywhere, least of all in India. 



How can a man who takes no exercise ordinarily be fit to 

 take part in such a campaign as that of the North- West, 

 where we have met more than our match in the wild savages 

 who are at home in their crags, and to whom climbing moun- 



