we were lost in the jungle; I think I sent you an account of our adventures We had been from 9.30 a.m. till 12.30 a.m. on pad elephants and did not get to our camp till 2.30 a.m. Well, to make a long story short, we have in all seized thirteen elephants up to date, and have information of eleven more, which sooner or later must fall into our hands. Thar makes twentyfour! Not a bad haul for Government, as the men who caught them may be fined at the rate of 500 rupees for each elephant, so that we deserve well of Government. But it's all in the way of duty, and I've no doubt they will abolish us or cut down our pay to-morrow if it suited them. The Government and its sins, and their effects on us, the working bees of the service, is one of the burning questions of the day."
This long digression well illustrates the energy and activity of some of the ill-paid police officers on the Northern frontier, whose service is spent in a climate so unhealthy that only the toughest of them are able to carry on their work without frequent attacks of fever, whilst their constant endeavours to check and punish the almost universal corruption of their native subordinates meet with but little success.
I will revert to my own story. We found the shepherds established in little temporary bamboo huts in a small marshy open spot in the jungle. Their sheep, which were guarded by large dogs, were lying in groups close to the huts for safety, as tigers or leopards were in the close vicinity and had killed four sheep within a day or two. Whilst creeping through the jungle in search of plants, we came on the fresh tracks of what was either a small tiger or a very large leopard, and found the remains of two of the sheep. This life, in a constant state of wet, harassed by wild animals, and without any food except the milk of the ewes and Indian corn carried up from Pashiteng, must be very trying, but the children of these hardy Nepalese, clad in very scanty woollen jackets, and always barefooted among the broken stubs of the bamboos, seemed as happy and healthy as children could be, and I cannot help thinking that their savage life is preferable to the life of children bred in the slums of large English cities.
We explored the path for some little way along the ridge, but the drizzling rain which came on and the density of the bush made it impossible to see where we were going. As the shepherds said that the nearest inhabited place was many hours distant through dense forest of the same character as that we had passed through, we soon returned to camp, much disappointed with the results of our exploration. No doubt if a few thousand acres of this hill-top were cleared, it would, in a few years, become good pasture for sheep and cattle, like the top of Tonglo. The evening was very wet, but the night was clear and cold; we slept very comfortably in our tent, and the men, though they had no blankets and only very bad water for cooking, seemed very happy in the morning. I got a few moths at the candles before going to sleep but hardly any differing from those caught on Tonglo and far fewer of them.
In the morning we started before seven with the intention of getting back to Laba at any rate, and to Rississum if possible. The descent was much easier than the ascent, as the path was now more open and there were no delays in getting the ponies over the bad places; as there was
