A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan StatesHallett, Holt S. (Holt Samuel)
History
A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States
Hallett, Holt S. (Holt Samuel)
Laos -- Description and travel; Thailand -- Description and travel
Rain again commenced to pour down at seven o’clock, but we could not
afford to delay, so struck our camp and departed. After crossing four
spurs, we halted for breakfast at eleven near two deserted houses. The
path, owing to the rain, was rendered so slippery, and was so steep,
that the elephants at times had to slide down on their bellies, with
their legs stretching out behind and before them. To see these great
clumsy-looking brutes constantly kneeling down, crouching on their
haunches, and then rising again, as they ascended and descended the
hillsides, in order to keep their equilibrium and reduce the leverage;
never making a false step; putting one foot surely and firmly down
before lifting another, and moving them in no fixed rotation, but as if
their hind and fore quarters belonged to two independent bipeds; every
movement calculated with the greatest nicety and judgment,—forced one to
admire the sagacity and strength of the animals, and the wonderful
manner in which their joints are adapted to their work.
As soon as breakfast was over we resumed our march, and crossing two
more spurs, descended from the last one to the Meh Ngor, a stream 100
feet broad with banks 18 feet high. After following this stream for a
mile, we camped for the night. Limestone and sandstone, with occasional
shales, were the only rocks previously noticed: here trap cropped up for
the first time, and teak-trees again appeared in the forest. We were now
66 miles from Hlineboay, and 396 feet above the sea.
Elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, wild cattle larger than buffaloes,
elk-deer, pigs, and other wild animals, are said to abound in these
hills. We had heard tigers and deer round our camp nearly every night
since we left Teh-dau-Sakan. The boys were at first frightened, and used
to borrow my gun to scare the tigers away, but now had become accustomed
to the peril, and ceased bothering me. Pea-fowl were plentiful, as we
frequently heard them screeching in the morning.
Next morning, starting a little after seven, and skirting the stream for
four miles, we crossed the Meh Ngor not far from its junction with the
Meh Nium, and soon after entered the teak-clad Huay Ma Kok hills, which
separate the Meh Ngor from the Meh Laik. Up and down again we went over
hill and valley, instead of following the level path along the Meh Nium;
past the Huay Ma Kok, which is a circular subsidence or depression 150
feet wide and 20 feet deep, on the top of a spur, until we came to and
crossed the Meh Laik, by which we camped near a cliff of blue slate
rock. The rocks exposed in the latter part of the journey were indurated
clays and sandstones, both veined with quartz and shales and
conglomerates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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