Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1912. 
VOL. LXX1X.— No. 18. 
127 Franklin St.. New York. 
Travel and Colonization 
Blank Days in the Arakan Hills, Burmah 
By W. R. GILBERT 
“it’s curious how groovy a tiger is.” 
1 THINK Sahib is a little tired,” said Moung 
Gyee with a smile in which sympathy and 
appeal were happily blended. “He has 
walked since there was light to see the veins in 
the hand, and certainly this place is very good 
to stay to-night.” 
Moung Gyee was always anxious lest I 
should tire myself, or him, and for the merits 
of a camping place he had an eye which grew 
hourly keener after noon. He was lazy even 
for a Buflman, and that is saying much; but 
then he was such an admirable tracker, and so 
good at organizing a beat that one could over¬ 
look his disinclination to over-exert himself. 
This place was, as he said, a good one to camp 
for the night, even if we had not fairly earned 
the right to halt by hours of scrambling along 
rocky water courses and game paths more or 
less choked. The track we had been following 
brought us abruptly out of the jungle gloom 
upon the crest of a perpendicular bank which 
overlooked a wide strip of sand overgrown 
with rank grass in the middle, and with the re¬ 
mains of the rain floods that had cut this road 
through the forest, lingering in deep, clear 
pools under either bank. “This place,” said 
Moung Gyee, crouching on his heels and jerk¬ 
ing his head sideways, “is all water in the rainy 
season. The Illustrious One sees the water 
below and over there.” Moung Gyee had a 
tendency to insist upon the obvious. I did see 
the water, particularly the deep, black pool be¬ 
low which must be crossed to reach the hard, 
dry sand which promised so. excellent a 
bivouac; the strip of water on the opposite 
side was bridged at intervals by trees whose 
roots had been undermined by the rushing 
floods, and whose crests had stuck in the now 
dry part of the bed. There must be similar 
bridges on this side, but the path struck the 
bank at a sharp convexity, and we could not 
see a dozen yards on either side for the dense 
undergrowth which overhung the very edge of 
the miniature cliff. “When the other men 
came up,” said Moung Gyee, surveying the 
scene with the air of a proprietor, “one shall 
swim across and find a place where the Illus¬ 
trious One may get over.” Moung Gyee was 
always anxious to save me trouble at some¬ 
body else’s expense. Having made this ar¬ 
rangement he laid down my express, and sought 
in his waistcoat for a chew of betel nut, which 
he mouthed contentedly till the rest of my fol¬ 
lowing arrived, and deputed one of their num¬ 
ber to scramble down and swim across. Half 
an hour afterwards we had everything safely on 
the sand, having crossed by a convenient tree- 
bridge which our pioneer pointed out, and to 
which the men quickly cut a path with their 
dahs, that useful tool which is ever in the jungle 
man’s hand, to cut firewood, trim a toenail, 
carve meat or an enemy. 
There was still a good hour of daylight, so 
marking the spot where my bed was to be 
made—I had no tent—Moung Gyee and I 
started for a stroll. These flood-worn rifts— 
choungs—in the jungle are numerous up 
among the hills, and have an interest of their 
own; for to them to roll, drink, or bathe, comes 
every beast that can leave a tantalizing foot¬ 
print on the sand, ere he retires again to the 
dense thickets, where he is only too safe from 
the rifle. 
Following the water’s edge, now daily shrink¬ 
ing back, we came on tracks of sambhur, 
leopard, bear and tiger pugs in plenty, some 
old, some new; the last were so frequent that 
we set to work to quarter the ground in search 
of that well-trodden path, which indicates a 
tiger’s regular beat. It is curious how 
“groovy” the tiger is when he pursues the way 
of life undisturbed; he will take the same walk 
night after night, and if you can by luck happen 
upon his beat he is yours; you have only to 
choose your place and wait for him. We made 
the ground good for half a mile up the winding 
choung, but though tiger pugs crossed and re- 
