54G 
PROCEEDINGS OE SECTION E. 
crops, and the sun, a big red ball, blazing through the haze, which 
forms a peculiarity of the whole country between the 19th and 22nd 
parallels in February, March, and April. 
Luang Prabang owned a considerable territory on the right bank 
opposite the town, and signs are not wanting to show that the French, 
notwithstanding that their original claims only reached to the left 
bank of the river, are now inclined to claim beyond that line. Should 
they be consistent they would have, for the Cis-Mekong Luang 
Prabang territory, to give back to Siam the Trans-Mekong territory 
belonging to Muang Nan, and Bassac on the Middle Fiver. Of this 
at present there are no indications. 
Southward . — The great southerly reach from Luang Prabang to 
Chieng Kan is very poorly peopled. The hills become low and 
retiring, and the bamboo nods its head more frequently on flatter 
ground. But the rapids are by no means done with, and there is a 
long series of them, of which the finest to the eye and ear is Keng 
Luang, or the great rapid. Below this the only habitations, besides 
those of the leopard, crocodile, and heron among the reeds, are one 
or two small villages, the most important of which is Paklai. This 
formerly was the place of embarkation for officials going up to 
Luang Prabang from Bangkok, the track coming over from Pechai 
on the Meinam, up the valley of the Nam Pat. On the water parting 
northward are teak forests, for which, so far, no outlet has been 
found. 
Not 150 miles from Luang Prabang, Paklai is about a fortnight 
off by boat, which gives a very fair idea of the slow rate of travel usual 
in these countries. 
Marches . — The rivers are the quickest roads, as a rule, even going 
up stream, and when it comes to marching, especially on the hill trails, 
w here every man goes, dhap in hand, lopping and cutting as he thrusts 
his way through behind the leader, the distances traversed must seem 
ludicrously small to those who are accustomed to open country. 
Though one has covered 220 miles in eleven days, this is distinctly fast 
travelling for jungle work, and in the rains ninety miles has taken 
one a day longer than that. 
If one goes by Lao reckonings, great and wondrous sometimes 
are tlie results, for Lao distances depend on the digestion of the 
speaker, the aim he has in view, and other circumstances. Does a 
venerable Chow Muang (or district governor) find you to be a 
nuisance in his place with your curiosity and your questions, you will 
be astonished to hear what a short and an easy stage it is to your next 
stopping-place, where, too, there are said to he fowls, bananas, and 
rice galore to be bad for the asking. So away you go light-hearted 
for your one day’s march, but at sunset, alas ! you are in the jungle 
still two days from your goal, and you begiu to suspect that the old 
gentleman has made a fool of you. 
Elephant men and bullock-drivers generally contrive to get 
further and further away from the next village on the march, and at 
noon when you are — by your own reckoning — within two hours of it, 
up they come with long faces, saying that you have eight hours’ march 
(about twenty miles), and no water before you. You can then back 
yourself with safety to do ten miles an hour, for you are sure to be 
