o stop and look, and sketch vistas of sunlit foliage through
shadowy aisles of feathery bamboos, or splendid open forest views with
mighty trees, and the river and its great salmon pools. There were
splendid butterflies, some large and black as velvet, with a patch of
vivid ultramarine, others yellow with cerulean, and another deep fig
green with a blazing spot of primrose, and pigeons, and of course jungle
fowl, because I had not my gun!

[Illustration]

Our caravan arriving here was picturesque. They came round the corner
over the burn bridge, walking briskly, the sick sowar riding in the
rear, the cook and his Burmese wife leading--she so neat, with a pink
scarf, green jacket, and plum-coloured silk skirt, her belongings in a
handkerchief slung over her shoulder from a black cotton parasol, and in
her left hand, carried straight as a saint's lilies, a branch of white
flowers for G.; then came the Burman youth, also with some bright
colour, a red scarf round his black hair and tartan kilt; he carried my
gun, and the Chinamen in weather-worn blue dungarees, loose tunics and
shorts, and wide yellow umbrella hats slung on their backs, with their
shaggy brown and white ponies. We arrived at five, the mules and baggage
at six, and already dinner is almost cooked, our belongings in place,
beds made, mosquito curtains up,--and this day's journal done!

... Wish somebody would write this day's log for me--I must fish! The
burn in front is in grand spate, so is the Taiping river, roaring down
discoloured. If I know aught of Highland spates, they will both be down
in the hour and fishable. The glen is full of sun from behind us, and
the mist is rising in lumps. It rained in the night; when we turned in,
the mist had come down in ridges on us, and it felt stuffy and warm
under blankets, and the sound of the waters was muffled by the mist. I
awoke with a world of vivid white light in my eyes, the glen was
quivering with lightning, and the gods played awful bowls overhead!
Green trees up the hillsides and contorted mist wreaths showed as in
daylight, and then were buried in blackness and thunder. Then the rain
came! to put it intil Scottis--a snell showir' dirlin' on the thatch.
There was the bleezin cairn, and the craig that lowped and dinnled i'
the dead-mirk dail, the burn in spate and the rowin flood o' the Taiping
dinging their looves thegither at their tryst i' the glen--ane gran' an'
awesome melee. But I don't like these