FORESTERS’ LIFE IN BURMA 199 
Burma, I was deputed to Calcutta, to write the 
article on “Forests” for the “Imperial Gazetteer.” 
I remained in Calcutta for about a month, and on 
my return started on a trip to the Andamans. 
I had now completed twenty-nine years’ service, 
and had not yet qualified for the highest pension ; 
and I still found myself in a country where the 
enormous disadvantage of lack of intimate know- 
ledge of local customs and language could only be 
partially made good by continuous arduous effort, 
and where the process of acclimatization entailed 
somewhat severe physical disabilities ; and the ques- 
tion now arose, that sooner or later inevitably 
presents itself to every officer who has chosen foreign 
service as a career, whether a longer stay was worth 
the risks that accompanied it. In an undeveloped 
Province, life must necessarily be trying. Pioneer 
work involves the renunciation of many of the 
amenities of life, while sickness or accidents, in 
themselves trivial, may easily become serious when 
far from the reach of assistance. Men in the prime 
of their youth, and incited by the novelty of their 
surroundings, enjoy such a mode of life for a limited 
period ; but when it is indefinitely protracted it 
becomes intolerable even to the hardiest, and a long- 
ing arises for a fixed place of abode, and a change 
from an existence whose sole landmarks are afforded 
by hurried visits to the Homeland. The question is 
usually decided either by financial considerations or 
by the prospects of obtaining more congenial work 
under improved conditions; but for my part I had 
concluded that I must leave either the Province of 
Burma or the Indian Forest Service. Meanwhile 
