GEOLOGY. 13 



containing the carbonized stems of plants, and casts of small 

 shells, some of which bear a strong resemblance to shells of 

 the genus onchus. In the river a«d on the banks below, a 

 breccia appears, which in some part3 is a hard rock with nu- 

 merous crystals of lime inclosing angular bits of shale; in 

 others, it is a loose conglomerate with rounded pebbles of 

 quartz, angular bits of white quartz, grains of mica, bits of 

 decomposing felspar, large pieces of shale that seem to have 

 been united with the mass in the form of clay, and numerous 

 small rounded pebbles of chlorite, a rock which I have no 

 where seen in situ in the Provinces. Below this conglomer- 

 ate are the thick beds of shale, which have furnished the 

 conglomerate with its fragments. 



The river after leaving these shales, passes out of the open 

 country, in which it has been rushing, into a hilly region, and 

 the character of the rocks is immediately changed. Green- 

 stone slate appears, and that is followed by a rock which some 

 geologists have called an altered rock, but which corresponds 

 almost precisely to a variety of claystone porphyry from Hun- 

 gary, which I saw in the museum of the Asiatic Society. A 

 few yards from the bank of the river, just below these rocks, 

 are sulphureous hot springs. 



For several miles further down, there is a succession of clay 

 slate and sandstone strata, and they are followed by a conglo- 

 merate or breccia or grauwacke or claystone prophyry, for it 

 admits of all these names. It is formed of a paste of claystone 

 porphyry, imbedding more or less fragments of the clay slate 

 on which it lies, and the fragments are usually angular. On the 

 islands opposite Palau, a similar rock is found with rounded 

 quartz pebbles. Resting on this rock in one place near the 

 bank of the river, is a large mass of white limestone with 

 veins of red oxide of iron running through it, that give it a 

 fantastic appearance ; and the Karens call it the " Giant's 

 scull." It lies at the base of a high hill, from the summit cf 

 which it appears to have fallen, and where the limestone is 

 doubtless in situ. This conglomerate continues for several 

 miles, farther down, when clay slate re-appears, and after a few 

 miles, it is followed by a basin covered with tertiary beds similar 

 to those seen above. 



Just above the mouth of Moung khyoung, from one to two 



