o the more usual style of Irrawaddy scenery, the
valley very wide, the sandy river's edge capped with a jungle of waving
kaing, or elephant grass, eighteen feet high, and over and beyond
bluey-green tree-clad mountains, not very high, but high enough to be
interesting and to raise hope.

[Illustration]

I made a sketch of cottages at Sinkan. The blue and black of the Shans,
and light blue colours of the Chinese dresses, begins to tell more
distinctly among the tulip colours of the Burmans. The men here are
armed with swords. The Shan's blade is slightly curved and pointed,
with no guard, the hilt sometimes of ivory and the scabbard richly
ornamented with silver, and the shoulder belt is of red or green velvet
rope; the Kachins' swords that I have seen are more simply made as
regards their scabbards and are square across the end of the blade.

Only you who fish can understand what great restraint I was obliged to
exercise here; as I painted on the fore-deck a grand fish rose in the
stream that comes in beside us, within casting distance of our bow, and
with the surge of a thirty pound salmon! And yet I went on painting! I
confess I very nearly did not.

At Bhamo the river broadens into a lake again, something like what it is
between Saigang and Mandalay--beautiful enough to travel a long way to
see.

There is a little desert of sand between the water's edge and Bhamo,
across it were trekking in single file Burmans, Shans, and Chinese, to
and from our steamer with lines of ponies, with bales of merchandise on
their pack saddles.

We look at the distant mountains beyond Bhamo that bound the
horizon--they tempt us and we wonder if we should not venture further
north; and take the caravan route into China--rather a big affair for
peaceful tourists. Captain Kirke came in strongly here, said, "Go, of
course--I will show you how to do it, give you ponies, and find you
guide and servants." So we have taken our courage in both hands and
decided to go. One of his men in the meantime, had gone and brought an
elephant, an enormous beast, over the sand; I am sure it was twice the
height of any I've seen in Zoos. It went down on its knees and elbows,
bales of cotton were piled alongside, and Miss B. and G. climbed up
these on to the pad, and I got up by its tail and the crupper. Then up
it heaved, and on we held, to ropes, and went off for half a mile over
the hot, soft sand; Captain Kirke riding a pretty Arab pony. I'd never