ovel nor pleasant; it
was cold and very uncomfortable getting from warm blankets into the
chilly morning in the draughty bungalow, and reminded me of the way we
are turned out in winter starts for Black Game, and woodcock in
Morven--being routed out half awake in the dark by a certain energetic
sportsman, hurricane lamp in hand.

I had to meet Carter at the Fort where we were to take canoes, and an
elephant, across the Irrawaddy to a jheel, five miles through jungle.

The sun came up splendidly, hot and yellow over China, and warmed me
comfortably as I drove to the Fort, and the mist off the plain rose and
became sunlit cumuli to lie for the rest of the day on the shoulders of
the Kachin Highlands.

Carter, I found in the midst of impedimenta; servants, Burmese, Kachins
and natives, lunch boxes, cartridges, guns and a Mauser rifle; for
though we were going for snipe the country we were to go through holds
all sorts of big game, though the chance of our seeing any was remote
as the jungle is dense and covers great areas.

[Illustration]

A quarter of a mile across the exposed sand of the river bed brought us
to the canoes in which we were to cross. Our elephant swam, or waded,
across higher up. We divided our party into two, and we crossed in the
dugouts. These are graceful long canoes, cut from a teak tree trunk,
with a fine smooth surface and with a suggestion about them of being
easy to roll over; bamboos lashed alongside steadied them, and allowed
our Kachin and Burman to walk along the side when poling. We made use of
a slack water on our side, and another behind a sandy reed-covered
island half-way across to make up our leeway. Silvery fish were jumping,
pursued by some larger fish, and C. and I laid plans to try harling for
them after the Shannon or Namsen fashion. On the far side we got all our
baggage made fast to the sides of the pad--a sort of mattress on the
elephant's back--as it knelt on the shore, and on the top of the pad we
stretched ourselves and held on to the ropes as the elephant heaved up.
Quite a string of men tailed out behind us over the sands with cartridge
bags, and gun cases on their shoulders. On the bank we found a Burman
guide at a little village beside a small white pagoda. There were
yellow-robed priests walking in the groves of trees and palms, and they
noticed us I daresay, but made no sign that to their way of thinking we
were doing harm to ourselves by going to kill snipe--the Ph