His first service lay in the then wild Khasia Hills, whither he was detached for the purpose of devising means for the transport of the local coal to the plains.  In spite of the depressing character of the climate (Cherrapunjee boasts the highest rainfall on record), Yule thoroughly enjoyed himself, and always looked back with special pleasure on the time he spent here.  He was unsuccessful in the object of his mission, the obstacles to cheap transport offered by the dense forests and mighty precipices proving insurmountable, but he gathered a wealth of interesting observations on the country and people, a very primitive Mongolian race, which he subsequently embodied in two excellent and most interesting papers (the first he ever published).[27]

In the following year, 1842, Yule was transferred to the irrigation canals of the north-west with head-quarters at Kurnaul.  Here he had for chief Captain (afterwards General Sir William) Baker, who became his dearest and most steadfast friend.  Early in 1843 Yule had his first experience of field service.  The death without heir of the Khytul Rajah, followed by the refusal of his family to surrender the place to the native troops sent to receive it, obliged Government to send a larger force against it, and the canal officers were ordered to join this.  Yule was detailed to serve under Captain Robert Napier (afterwards F.-M.  Lord Napier of Magdala).  Their immediate duty was to mark out the route for a night march of the troops, barring access to all side roads, and neither officer having then had any experience of war, they performed the duty “with all the elaborate care of novices.”  Suddenly there was an alarm, a light detected, and a night attack awaited, when the danger resolved itself into Clerk Sahib’s khansamah with welcome hot coffee![28] Their hopes were disappointed, there was no fighting, and the Fort of Khytul was found deserted by the enemy.  It “was a strange scene of confusion—­all the paraphernalia and accumulation of odds and ends of a wealthy native family lying about and inviting loot.  I remember one beautiful crutch-stick of ebony with two rams’ heads in jade.  I took it and sent it in to the political authority, intending to buy it when sold.  There was a sale, but my stick never appeared.  Somebody had a more developed taste in jade....  Amid the general rummage that was going on, an officer of British Infantry had been put over a part of the palace supposed to contain treasure, and they—­officers and all—­were helping themselves.  Henry Lawrence was one of the politicals under George Clerk.  When the news of this affair came to him I was present.  It was in a white marble loggia in the palace, where was a white marble chair or throne on a basement.  Lawrence was sitting on this throne in great excitement.  He wore an Afghan choga, a sort of dressing-gown garment, and this, and his thin locks, and thin beard were streaming in the wind.  He always dwells in my memory as a sort of pythoness on her tripod under the afflatus."[29]