THE LAND OF THE CROSSBOW 



135 



deluge ensued. Camped as we were in 

 the open, surrounded on every side by 

 dense bracken and grass, averaging 4 to 

 5 feet in height, we were soon in the 

 depths of misery. Even with improvised 

 shehers over them it was with the great- 

 est difficulty we could keep our fires 

 alight. We did resort to the huts, but, 

 with the number of our men added to 

 the inhabitants, the accommodation was 

 so taxed, the smoke of the fires — for 

 which in the heavy state of the atmos- 

 phere there was little or no escape — so 

 acrid, and the stench of steaming, vile 

 humans so offensive, that eventuallv we 

 were glad to return to the cold, damp 

 comfort of our tents. 



The weather having become more set- 

 tled, we crossed the Irrawadi-Salwin 

 divide by the lonely but beautiful Pien- 

 ma Pass, 10,500 feet, and descended 

 the Ku-tan River, a small tributary of 

 the Salwin. From the village of Ku-tan 

 we turned north, and on October 30 

 (1906) reached the village of Lu-chang, 

 the residence of a semi-Lissoo chief, 

 Avhere Mr Litton had camped during his 

 previous journey. The village is in a 

 fine and healthy situation, some 3,000 

 feet above the river, and the people most 

 friendly. The chief, who is a boy of 10 

 years of age, came to call on us, and a 

 number of men offered their services as 

 porters. 



A DIFFICULT TRAIL 



From Lu-chang we sent back the bag- 

 gage animals and proceeded on foot for 

 three marches northward — ^2 miles by 

 the track, but scarcely 14 in direct line — 

 and here the difficult nature of the coun- 

 try was first thrust upon us. 



To travel continuously at the level 

 of the Salwin, or even 1,000 feet above 

 it, means fever in a very short time for 

 native or European, and that even during 

 the dry season ; to be completely out of 

 the danger zone one has to be from 2,000 

 to 3,000 feet above the river. The sur- 

 face of both flanks of the valley is corru- 

 gated with huge spurs, intersected by 

 deep and precipitous ravines, and the 

 tracks, such as thev are, lead up and 



down over a series of these ridges, which 

 descend right from the tops of the di- 

 vides to the Salwin. 



To negotiate them is a trial of strengih 

 to the traveler's legs. Thus, starting 

 from Lu-chang, at 6,400 feet, there is a 

 steep drop of 3,300 feet to the Salwin 

 in 4 miles ; then follows an ascent of 

 4,000 feet through grass and pine forests 

 to the top of the next ridge, 800 feet 

 above the scattered village of IMao- 

 chao — 14 miles from Lu-chang— -which, 

 like Lu-chang, among its log and bamboo 

 huts boasts one tiled house, the so-called 

 yamen, the residence of the hereditary 

 native chief. From Mao-chao there is a 

 rough track which, after some steep ups 

 and downs, plunges 1,500 feet into a 

 tropical jungle of palms and lianes. 

 through which runs one of the numerous 

 mountain torrents which are the only 

 tributaries of the upper Salwin. Then a 

 precipitous climb of 900 feet through 

 cultivated patches leads to the ridge of 

 Shih-pai-li-ti, 6,700 feet and 10 miles 

 from Alao-chao. Between Shih-pai-li-ti 

 and Pei-pa (8 miles) there is an even 

 steeper gully, the bottom of which is 

 2,000 feet below the level of the ridges. 



The above gives only a faint concep- 

 tion of the difficulties negotiated. Later 

 on, where there was practically no com- 

 munication between the villages, we had 

 to make our own tracks, and it was no 

 uncommon thing for us on rising in 

 the morning to have distinctly in view, 

 onl_y a mile or two distant, the site of 

 the following night's camp, invariably 

 reached only after a long day's exhaust- 

 ive toil. 



In all this country the villages are scat- 

 tered along the opener sections of the 

 ridge tops or on natural terraces in the 

 mountains at from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. 

 Above 7,000 feet to the top of the divide 

 the country is too steep and rock}- and 

 the forest too dense to admit of villages 

 or cultivation : below 5.000 feet the coun- 

 try is too malarious, but every village lias 

 its patch of rice-fields 2,000 to 3,000 feet 

 below it l)v the banks of the Salwin. 

 whither the inlial)ilants descend to sow 

 and reap nnich as they did in the time 



