CHAPTER III 



MANDALAY TO THE RUBY MINES 



Large and small game to be found there Best time to find it Burmese 

 hunters, trackers, transport available Hints on tracking game. 



LT us then suppose that all arrangements have been made 

 for a journey up the river, and that the sportsman has together 

 with all his belongings arrived on board the steamer. Two 

 services of paddle-boats leaving Mandalay for Bhamo are 

 available, viz. the mail or express and cargo boats. The former 

 leave Mandalay every Monday and arrive at Bhamo on Thurs- 

 day. The latter leave Mandalay every Thursday and arrive at 

 Bhamo on the following Tuesday. It is an amusing sight to 

 watch from the river bank, as the cargo boat arrives alongside 

 with its two huge flats or barges on either side, the busy 

 motley crowd, consisting of nearly every nationality, Burmese, 

 Shan, Karen, Chinese, Jew, natives of India, Eurasian, and an 

 occasional European, who are all ready to rush on board the 

 moment she has been made fast, some for the purpose of 

 buying stores for the forthcoming week, and others again as 

 passengers. For fifteen minutes at every halting-place the 

 vendors of the numerous shops or stalls on board do a roaring 

 trade with the villagers. Pins, needles, pick-axes, and spades, 

 rice, fruit, vegetables, fish and stores, tinned or otherwise, silk 

 and cotton goods, lamp oil, and, in fact, everything, from a 

 sack of potatoes to a box of Pears' soap or Beecham's pills, 

 may be obtained on board these steamers. How anxiously 

 the advent of these boats is looked forward to by European 

 officers living in small stations along the river bank and 

 inland who have run out of stores, and who are expecting 

 their weekly supply of aerated waters, liquors, ice, and other 

 luxuries ordered from European, Chinese, or Jewish firms in 



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