impression is always
favourable. What brilliant but beautiful colours they affect in their
head-clothes, jackets and silken gowns. They are a cheerful,
light-hearted and good-natured people, lazy perhaps, but all apparently
well enough to do. The boys and the young men play the national game of
football, the ball, made simply of lightly-plaited bamboo strips, being
kicked and tossed into the air with wonderful skill and activity, never
being allowed to touch the ground. The way they can "take" the ball from
behind, and with the heel or side of the foot toss it upwards and
forwards, would be a revelation even to the Newcastle United. The women
and girls have utmost freedom and are to be seen everywhere, often
smoking enormous cigarettes: merry and careless, but always well, and
often charmingly, dressed.

A fine view, and good idea, of the great Irawadi River may be obtained
from Mandalay; but time was pressing, so I railed back to Rangoon
instead of making the river trip, which my friends, the D----s, did.

The steamer to Calcutta was unusually crowded, but I was again fortunate
enough to secure the use of the pilot's cabin all to myself. The Hugli
River was familiar even after thirty-four years' absence, and in
Calcutta I noticed little change. The hotels, including the Grand and
Continental, are quite unworthy of the city, only the very old and
well-known Great Eastern approaching the first-class character. Calcutta
was getting hot, so I at once went on to Darjeeling, hoping to get a
view of what my eyes had ever longed to see--the glorious high peaks of
the Himalayas, and the roof of the world. After a few hours' run through
the celebrated Terai jungle, the haunt, and probably final sanctuary, of
the big game of India, the track ascends rapidly and picturesquely
through the tea district of Kangra, and arrives at Darjeeling, elevation
7500 feet, the summer home of the Bengal Government and the merchant
princes of Calcutta and elsewhere. I had been forewarned that the
chances of seeing the high peaks at this time of the year were extremely
slim; but my experience and disappointment in connection with Korea and
Peking taught me to disregard such warnings; and, as it turned out, I
was rewarded with a perfect day and magnificent views of Mounts
Kinchinjunga and Everest, and all the other majestic heights; seen, too,
in all their phases of cloud and mist, of perfectly clear blue sky, and
of sunrise and sunset effects. It