CHAPTER VII 
FORESTERS’ LIFE IN BURMA AND THE ANDAMAN 
ISLANDS 
In 1899, after eight busy years in Oudh, I proceeded 
to England on furlough, with the knowledge that I 
should not return to those forests. The prospect of 
a change was not unwelcome, because the most 
interesting work—that of the organization of the 
area—was practically complete ; moreover, the head- 
quarters of the Conservator had been transferred to 
Lucknow, with the option of spending two and a 
half months at Naini Tél, involving the prohibitory 
expense of renting a house at each of these stations. 
Yet the last place I desired to visit was Burma, for 
there a total ignorance of the language cut me off 
from intercourse with the people, and both the 
climate and the mode of life were different to those 
to which I had become inured after twenty-six years’ 
service in Northern India; but there was no escape, 
and I arrived in the Northern Forest Circle in that 
Province in the beginning of January, 1900. 
Of the sport in Burma I can record nothing, owing 
to the fact that I never enjoyed any, for it afforded 
me no pleasure to be led up to a beast whose local 
name even was unknown to me, and whose habits 
could only be learnt at second-hand through an 
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