526 Lt.-Col. G. liippon on the Birds 



three quarters of a mile from the hanks of a lake which, 

 during the rainy season, is upwards of fifteen miles long and 

 four or five miles wide. 



A large portion of the northern end and of the east and 

 west shores of the lake is covered with long grass growing 

 on the matted and decaying remains of generations of its own 

 kind. Birds swarm in this high growth and many breed 

 there. There is great difficulty in getting through it, except 

 along the channels kept open by the villagers and by the 

 current from the north. A boat can only pass in other places 

 by cutting a way, and an attempt to walk over the decayed 

 vegetation, with grass eight or ten feet high above and water 

 some feet deep below it, is soon given up. In the cold season 

 the Snipe-shooting on the rice-ground and other marshy land 

 round the shores is too good to permit of much collecting ; 

 in the hot weather work at higher altitudes is preferable ; in 

 the rainy season the lake is not pleasant, and there is not then 

 the same variety of birds as there is at the cold time of year. 

 These are my excuses for the comparative paucity of water- 

 birds recorded, though I confess that, on mature consideration, 

 they do not appear very good. 



The tract over which I collected consists chiefly of hill- 

 ranges running north and south, the enclosed valleys being 

 in elevation generally from 3000 to 4000 feet, and the 

 hills themselves from 5000 to 6000 feet, with peaks going 

 up to 8000 feet. Subsidiary valleys of 5000 feet and upwards 

 are found in the ranges. Limestone formations are common, 

 and the hills therefore take curious shapes, while the drainage- 

 system is often complicated. The stream from Fort Stedman, 

 up and down which boats carrying upwards of five tons travel, 

 "charges" a range of hills and disappears under it. The 

 hills are full of " pot-holes " (natural subsidences), without 

 any surface-exit for drainage. In one place a small lime- 

 stone hill is situated in the middle of a valley, the whole 

 drainage of which passes under it. 



Except in the rainy season and just before it, the greater 

 part of the Southern Shan States has an excellent climate. 

 At Fort Stedman, at about 3300 feet, I have seen hoar-frost 



