her wake. Flags and streamers flutter in the air, and
slow grey rafts of timber, the produce of primeval forests,
float down the yellow stream. It is yellow and thick
with loam, and far away on the fringes of the ocean
it is building up a new world, as in bygone days it built
up all that the eye now rests upon here.
Through the gaps in the endless avenues which line
the river’s banks, I
get a glimpse of
th e wo r l d of
tropical splendour
that lies beyond.
H e a r t - s h a p e d
creepers cluster up
the giant trunks of
trees : p a r r o t s
shriek, and king-
fishers tremble in T IM B E R JRAFT
the air. An added
richness of colour comes with the afternoon. The trees
in shadow gather new depths of green, and look as if
they were cut in velvet; the slant sunlight falls with
a new glory on the opposite shores, and the face of
the river grows beautiful with lustrous calm.
I cease to ask the names of villages as they pass
b y ; to take account of the passing hours ; to count the
miles. Nothing seems here of much account beside the
dreamy, endless river ; nothing of any consequence at
all in this El Dorado of peace.
A culmination comes with the setting of the sun. At
this season of the year, when the sky is not overcast with
rain, this last hour of the day is inexpressibly beautiful.
The river turns to a flood of gold, and the marble
clouds become transfigured in mysteries of light. It
would be useless to attempt the description of so much
glory in words, the “ shadows of a shadow world.”
Lastly, there comes the night, and the crickets cheep
from the thickets, and the frogs croak from the marshy
fringes of the river. And here it may be noted that
this paradise breeds the largest and most virulent
mosquitoes in Burma. “ At this place,” wrote an
ambassador of England a hundred years ago, “ we
A T ANCHOR
spent a very comfortless night ; it is a part of the
river remarkable for being infested by mosquitoes of
an unusual size, and venomous beyond what 1 ever felt
in any other country ; two pair of thick stockings were
insufficient to defend my legs from their attacks.”
235