214 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
countries, and in having some share in introducing 
improvements either in management or in the con- 
ditions of service of those with whom he has been 
long associated; for amongst his other duties he 
should be the representative of a constituency with 
which he is intimately acquainted, and should be 
ready to promote its welfare whenever this coincides 
with those public interests that it is his first duty 
to forward. 
Six weeks in Calcutta and a fortnight at Dehra 
Dun, in order to be present at the yearly examina- 
tion of forest students, brought us to the beginning 
of April, when the transfer of the public offices from 
Calcutta, and the recommencement of work in the 
mountain headquarters of Government, necessitated 
a sojourn at Simla. It is not proposed to describe a 
Simla season, or to compile a record either of its 
official or social occupations ; but it may be of 
interest to show how these impressed one official 
who spent six seasons in Elysium after nearly five 
times that number of years in the waste places of 
the earth. 
Simla is undoubtedly the queen of mountain 
settlements so far as climate is concerned. Standing 
7,000 feet above sea-level, near the thirty - first 
degree of north latitude, and far towards the west 
of the Peninsula, she enjoys a dry climate, and the 
monsoon rains are seldom excessive or prolonged. 
In the spring the greatest drawback is the dust, 
which is driven from the south and west, and some- 
times obscures the landscape with a yellow haze; 
but the autumn weather is superb, and those who 
remain during the winter do not complain of the 
