Li'pidopfrra coJlcctcd in the Sha>i States. 518 



The reason for the gradual disappearance of the lakes 

 is not far to seek, and is primarily due to the porosity of 

 the limestone. Streams disappearing into extensive 

 crevices and sometimes caverns of limestone are by no 

 means infrequent in the Shan States. The best instance 

 of this is that of the Nyoungwe (Eulay) Lake itself. 

 This very considerable sheet of water is collected at its 

 southern end into the Balu Choung, which flows at an 

 elevation of about 3000 ft. in a south-easterly direction 

 into Eastern Karenni. Here, after a course of some 

 forty miles, mostly through an open plain, it enters a 

 limestone gorge, and immediately at its exit opens out 

 into a marsh, and disappears into the ground through 

 holes and fissures in the limestone. Its further course 

 is at present unknown, but it probably joins the Pan 

 Eiver some ten miles off, but flowing at a level of only 

 800 ft., and in this case the whole drainage of the lake 

 must descend over 2000 ft. by an underground course. 



The valleys of the Shan States are almost entirely 

 devoted to rice culture, and in prosperous times con- 

 tinuous miles of country were under cultivation. But 

 during the time I was there (1887-88) an entirely 

 different state of things prevailed. For two years after 

 the removal of Theebaw the Shan chiefs, who had 

 previously paid some sort of allegiance to the Burmese 

 monarchs, were left to themselves, and they signalised 

 their emancipation by quarrelling among themselves to 

 such an extent that the whole country was laid waste, 

 villages and cattle destroyed, and many of the inhabitants 

 fled to Lower Burma. Famine of course followed, and 

 in the Legya Valley alone 2000 people were said to 

 have died of hunger, and we saw their bones lying 

 months afterwards in the main street of the town ; the 

 few surviving inhabitants having fallen into such a state 

 of despondency that they were too apathetic to remove 

 them. Under our rule this state of things is happily 

 fast disappearing, and in another year or two the Shan 

 States will unquestionably become one of the largest 

 rice-producing districts in our new province. 



By far the greater number of the insects enumerated 

 below came from Bernardmyo, Koni, or Fort Stedman ; 

 and a few words concerning these places will not be out 

 of place. I am indebted to Surgeon Philson, M. S., for 

 all the butterflies from Bernardmyo. I have never been 



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