506 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



without any covering, and I don't think I ever felt the sun 

 more in my life ; there was not a breath of wind and our 

 progress was very slow, as we had to pole against the stream 

 the whole day. 



By dusk we were still three miles from our destination, and the 

 branch of the river going past Jynteeapore had dried up. We 

 put up in a namghur on the banks of the stream and sent into 

 the town for coolies ; the river where we halted was muddy 

 and sluggish. 



November 5. The coolies, for a wonder, turned up at 8 a.m., 

 and we reached Jynteeapore about ten. This place many years 

 before had given us a good deal of trouble to reduce and 

 subjugate ; even then there were many dismantled cannons 

 lying about, and the ramparts were in a fair state of preserv- 

 ation. 



The people are a ruffianly lot Sylhetian Moslems who 

 are not kept in the order they ought to be ; these people were 

 too grand to carry loads, so we had to send for Cossyahs, and it 

 was pretty late before we got a sufficient number to carry all 

 our traps. Our ponies were here all right ; as neither Wilson 

 nor Lightfoot had any steeds, Ommaney and Wilson took it turn 

 about to ride, and I walked, giving Lightfoot mine. We had 

 only ascended about half-way up the ghat when darkness set 

 in and the coolies refused to go on, as they said there were 

 many man-eating tigers about. So on reaching a fairly open 

 spot, we halted ; the coolies lit huge fires and sat up all night, 

 but we turned in. In the middle of the night there was a cry 

 of a tiger ; Lightfoot fired his rifle off in the air and there 

 was a general commotion, but it was a false alarm. 



November 6. I saw a peacock-pheasant to-day, but could 

 not get a shot at it. We got off early, passed Jarain, and put up 

 in some huts which had been built for the survey. There was 

 a cold drizzling rain all day, and we were glad to get under 

 shelter and to light fires. We reached Jowai the next day, 

 and Shillong the day after. 



I visited these fishing-grounds and also the Lahat river several 

 times afterwards, and always had good sport, which I need not 

 detail here. At Terreah-ghat there used to be good fishing, 

 but the boatmen who ply from Sylhet took to poisoning the 



