, so I went on shore, got a
Burman as guide, and in a half-hour's run, got seven snipe and twelve
pigeon. Pigeons, I was told, would help the larder; they were very
tame, otherwise I'd hardly have cared to have let off at them.

[Illustration]

Sabendigo for the night. In afternoon, stopped painting with reluctance,
and if I'd stopped sooner might have beaten my small records at snipe.

The ladies elected to walk with me on shore, so, to give a sense of
security, I took my gun! and as we went across the gangway, picked up a
Burman, who I was told knew where there was game of some description,
and the captain sent one of the Chittangong crew, and other two Burmans
joined unofficially, so we made quite a party. The ladies shortly began
to collect flowers, and not being so keen about sauntering as the second
Charles, I set off at a mighty quick walk, the Burmans following at a
dog-trot, whither, I'd no idea; but it was nice going, through lanes at
first, past an occasional transparent house of cane and matting, past
cow-byres and cattle feeding, then into a sandy track through jungle of
tall trees and thick undergrowth. Then the bamboo clumps got thicker and
met overhead, and the afternoon sun came through in golden threads and
patches on the whitey-grey sand of the path. We hoped to see jungle-fowl
in some of the more open places, and for an hour we dog-trotted, till we
got a trifle warm--but never a sign of any really open snipe ground, and
I almost turned back; but my Burmans pointed on and we soon turned to
the left, crawled under thick bamboos and came on a clearing with water
and paddy fields, and hope revived. But we walked round the edges of two
or three fields without seeing anything, then just as the sun went down,
the first snipe got up and flew straight at a Burman behind me, so it
got away, and in five minutes--no, one minute--we were in ground
absolutely alive with snipe, thick as midges and about as visible. I saw
faintly a wisp get up, fired at one and it dropped somewhere, and heard
the old familiar scraik, scraik on all sides as snipe got up at the
shot, but it was hopelessly dark. It was a horrid sell, barring the
satisfaction there always is in finding your game--I am not sure that
killing it adds much--then we dog-trotted home to the river, along the
soft sand track; it was very dark under the bamboos, but a new moon
helped in the more open land. It was pretty going, all afternoon, with
scenes like p