BEST LOCALITIES FOR GAME 391 



be made at either of these places, provided you land there 

 from the steamer supplied with stores, and are equipped in 

 every way, ready for your start inland. Fowls, vegetables, 

 rice, and salt may be purchased at Tagaung or Pongon, an 

 adjacent village. Fowls cost from 8 to 10 annas each (about 

 8df.). Other stores, such as tinned milk, biscuits, candles, sauce, 

 flour, lard or ghi, and lamp oil, may be purchased on any of 

 the cargo steamers which ply up and down the river. 



Elephants, gaur, tsine, sambur, barking deer, leopards, tigers, 

 and rhinoceros are obtainable inland, within forty miles of the 

 river. To obtain rhinoceros the sportsman should visit Twinge, 

 a village situated on the Irrawady, some thirty miles below 

 Tagaung, and between that place and Thabeitkyin. From 

 Twinge he should proceed to Tsaizin-gon, and from thence, 

 after getting one or two men acquainted with the locality to 

 accompany him, he should go straight inland towards the 

 hills already mentioned, known as Thaung-bwet-taung (pro- 

 nounced exactly as it is spelt). The whole range should be 

 thoroughly worked up as far inland as possible. The Tsaizin- 

 gon thugyi and his son are both sportsmen and fair trackers, 

 and both are thoroughly well acquainted with the Thaung- 

 bwet-taung hills. I have not shot rhinoceros myself there, 

 but have seen their tracks, and know from what I have heard 

 that they are to be found among these hills. Father and son 

 accompanied me on one expedition into the hills ; the former, 

 however, was not very keen on going, as he had his cultivation 

 to attend to, and should his services be required, he will 

 probably say, in order to avoid going, that he knows nothing 

 about the jungles. The sportsman should of course make it 

 worth his while. A present of Rs.25 down, with the promise 

 of another Rs.25 at tne end of the shoot, works wonders. 



Another locality for rhino is the range of hills known as 

 the Shwe"-u-taung or Kin valley, also in the Ruby Mines 

 district. To reach this part of the country, the sportsman 

 should land at Thabeitkyin, and cart all his kit up the road 

 which leads to Mogok as far as Shwe-nyaungbin, two or three 

 days' journey at the outside from Thabeitkyin, i.e. a distance 

 of about thirty-five miles. On entering Shwe-nyaungbin, the 

 sportsman will notice a valley on his left, and a range of hills 



