FORESTERS’ LIFE IN BURMA 175 
designed to protect him against himself will merely 
delay, but not prevent, his final disappearance. It is 
doubtless the good manners of the Burman, his 
cleanliness, his dainty attire, the cheerfulness of his 
disposition, the buoyancy of his demeanour, which 
make him a favourite wherever he goes ; the reverse 
of the picture is too seldom seen to have much effect 
on the general appreciation of these attributes, and 
yet many a Forest Officer, entrusted with the 
management of an area extending over thousands of 
square miles, must have felt it almost hopeless to 
cope with the attitude of those around him; and thus 
the good work that has been accomplished is all the 
more a splendid record of devotion to duty and a 
proof of the effects of personal influence. 
In the winter of 1900 I marched through the 
forests on the west bank of the Chindwin River, and 
thence, crossing above Kindat, traversed the water- 
shed between the Chindwin and Irrawadi Rivers, 
reaching Katha about the end of March. The chief 
impressions conveyed by the forests of Upper Burma 
were those of vastness and solitude; villages, often 
only a collection of huts in a forest clearing, were eight 
or ten miles apart, and in the whole of the Chind- 
win District, with an area approaching, I believe, 
some 20,000 square miles, there were only about 
2,000 square miles under cultivation, and this was 
situated principally in the south. Camp was most 
frequently pitched in a hastily-made clearing in the 
forest, but wherever a monastery was found, its 
courtyard was occupied after permission had been 
asked ; and there was unfailing interest in watching 
the monks—often apparently earnest, holy men—in 
