LIFE IN THE WILDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 290, 7 December 1928, Page 12

LIFE IN THE WILDS

REMOTE JUNGLES OF ASEAM AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S LETTER Au Englishwoman's “Letter from the Jungle” published in a London paper, gives an interesting outline of life in tho wilds of Assam. The writer says:— “Forty miles from the nearest white woman, under the shadow of hills inhabited bv a tribe of people described a few years ago as the most ruthless savages on the Indian frontier surrounded by jungle so dense that if 1 left my little garden unattended for a year it would be grown over and become one with the surrounding forest —this is my life between the landmarks of leave in England every five years or so. 4 ‘Our method of transport is far more interesting. We start with a mile of troll} line to the river, seated on a trolly from which at every bump we expect to be thrown off. Arriving at the river we embark in a launch —a small twenty-five foot boat with a petrol engine which carries us to our destination. “What does one do? To those who have never lived in the back of beyond the idea is beyond conception, even without the vagaries of climate which have to bo taken into consideration. Five inches of rain in twentyfour hours is common, and in a month we sometimes have half as much again as you in England get in a year. With such a climate, says the to our ways, what is there to do? “In the cold weather we can have picnics and camping in the forest. I can accompany my husband ix. treks through the forest on an elephant, or I can try my hand with a fly rod to catch a speckled hill trout, while he wields a heavy rod at the mouth of the stream to land a 301 b. mahsecr.

“There arc golden days when tho joy of out-of-doors calls and life is worth living, but tho picture changes punctually in season and with unfailing regularity. You who live within easy reach of shops cannot imagine the nearest dependable shop 800 miles away, and a fortnight’s wait before the stores materialise!

“Try your hand at making frocks when you have not seen civilisation for three years, except in the fashiin papers, and realise, when the time comes, that this is the only alternative, unles you wear a cast-off of the year before the year before last. “Cake-making—for the brute must be fed —occupies many a morning; a tasty dish, when my husband has shot a jungle fowl or green pigeon, has to be cooked, for it is unwise to leave such a luxury to others, and this fills up an odd moment. “Next to the joy of a good gramophone, there is tho joy of reading. Our bungalow’ walls are shelved with books —life can never be dull even in the wilds with good authors, and I, personally, can read my favourites over and over again, “So much for indoors; beyond the bungalow lies much of interest—and otherwise. Everywhere I go the local inhabitants are interested, often to my embarrassment, but they stand always in awe of the white woman. “The animals in the jungle often fill me with far more nervousness than the people who live round about. Safe in the bungalow, to hear a tiger roaring in the distance may make my flesh creep, but to be out on the trolly line when dusk falls is another matter. Every shadow promises a new terror; lhe absence of man and the pre-emin-ence of spirits of darkness are never more appreciated. “The greatest boon, I suppose, is the English mail. The connection with home is renewed. If you have friends in the jungle write to them, write often, and keep on writing.”