Up to Sadôn we climbed with labour and heavy sorrow, each height surmounted revealing our goal apparently as distant as ever, till we were fain to sit down in the dust and weep. Drever, the post commandant, an athlete of renown, explained the special advantage of life at Sadôn. Whenever you went for a walk you had to descend 2,000 feet and climb up again. So you kept in condition. In posts like this one or two civil and military police officers spent the months guarding the marches. Occasional tours were welcome interludes. The work was not very arduous, and there was a blessed lack of files and records. But it was a hard life, with few amenities, often drearily monotonous. Our frontier officers cheerfully endured this isolated existence, and kept bright their country’s honour among the hill tribes. Still passing northward, we reached the bank of the ’Nmaikha, the main branch of the Irrawaddy, which, starting from a source still unascertained, joins the Mali-kha some thirty miles above Myitkyina. We camped at ’Nsentaru Ferry, forbidden to cross, as the _enclave_ between the two rivers is unadministered territory. A scene of savage beauty, with hills on every side, the distant peaks on the Chinese border white with snow. We rambled upstream and along the bank of the ’Nmaikha, farther than any of our officers had yet penetrated.[240] Returning to camp at midday, we bathed in the ice-cold water of the river, fresh from the snowy hills. From ’Nsentaru we marched through Kwitu and across the Irrawaddy to Myitkyina, then the headquarters of a subdivision. It was but a small village, with very humble public buildings, well placed on a high bank of the river, whose waters flowed clear as crystal. Now it is the terminus of the railway, a flourishing town, with many Indian settlers, the resort of fishermen who catch mahseer of ever-increasing weight. We rode to the confluence where the ’Nmaikha and Mali-kha join to form the Irrawaddy, more than a thousand miles from the sea; a very picturesque spot, with the mountain-streams rushing and tumbling over rocks and boulders. We returned on rafts, and were privileged to shoot the rapids which impede the navigation of the river above Myitkyina. They are not much to boast of as rapids, but the raftsmen made a fat fuss, shouting and hustling as we toiled through the eddies.