1859.] Itinerary in the district of Amherst, Tenasserim. 431 



In the evening wandering gun in hand, I was fortunate enough 

 to shoot an entirely new (undescribed) species of wood partridge 

 (Arboricola) . It was running so fast down a small hill that I took 

 it at first for a rat or some such animal. 



February 8th. — Halted — all our elephants not having assembled. 

 Took Observation at noon, and made Thalaya Zyk Latitude 15° 

 43' 16" N. and Longitude 98° 15' E. 



The heat in our little bungalow was frightful. The people of this 

 country thatch with the sole view apparently of keeping out rain, not 

 sun. We tried to make matters bearable by heaping boughs over- 

 head. In the evening saw a specimen of that superb bird Eurosto- 

 podus cerviniceps high in the air. It has much the flight of our 

 fern owl or goat sucker, but on a grander scale. 



February 9th. — Started at 6b. 45m. a. m. and walked till 10 through 

 dark scrubby jungles, affording cover for any amount of wild beasts : 

 but saw nothing out of the common way, except two or three wood 

 partridges, one of which I shot. Hills were perceptible through the 

 jungles to the eastward. Our course seemed S. E. At 10, mounted 

 my elephant and at llh. 20m. reached Py'ngwen, distance about ten 

 miles. Our encamping place was in a low dell near the Meetaget 

 river, in jungle so close and dark that it seemed twilight all day. 

 The Karens are very expeditious in clearing and felling, and in 

 running up the little booths in which we eat and sleep, and lucky 

 it is for us they are so, for with houses we have now done. About 

 a mile from our resting place is a Karen clearing, stocked with 

 plantains, some cotton and two or three halt' dilapidated huts, 

 utterly uninhabitable to us from their filth. The Meetaget runs 

 through forests at one time abundantly stocked with teak trees, 

 which have now, however, been nearly all felled and taken away to 

 Moulmein. The clear rippling waters of these brooks gave us a most 

 delicious bath after the heat of the day's journey. 



February Vdth. — Our march to-day was to JHeepra, on a branch of 

 the Meetaget. Latitude 15° 37' 5'' N. and Longitude 98° 17' E. 

 Course S. W. through dreary and dark jungles ; distance about eight 

 miles. Some Karen women and girls came to see us from their 

 clearing about a mile off. One of them was remarkably pretty and 

 seemed to know it. 



3 K 2 



