( 32 ) 



55. En route, we met numbers of old and young well-dressed 



women, going down to the steamers 

 Sundry observations on vendors yrffa different articles for sale— 



and conversion ot timber. -,, . , i i ■ 



principally rice, vegetables, sweets, 

 pan-leaf, betel-nut, and various other minor products. Groups 

 of men were also noticed busily engaged cutting up logs on 

 the stream into small pieces of firewood. The timber being 

 converted, seemed principally Dillenias, Erythrinas, Gmelinas, and 

 one or two others ; among them were also a few teak logs, but of 

 small dimensions. I was told that seldom any first-class teak 

 reached Mandalay, owing to the difficulty in extraction. None 

 but the King is allowed to possess elephants ; buffalo labour has 

 therefore to be substituted, and the logs reduced to dimensions that 

 they can drag. When travelling in the Mogoung District, I had 

 an opportunity of seeing the system on which timber operations 

 are conducted in Upper Burma, and shall have occasion to revert 

 to the subject when describing my journey in those parts. 



56. Teak timber sells at absurdly low prices in the Upper Pro- 

 Low price of teak as compared vince, and it would be found a most 

 with British Burma. remunerative speculation to purchase 



teak up there for the Rangoon market. I have seen timber, aver- 

 aging thirty-two cubic feet, sold at Rs. 7 per log, and that, too, 

 on the river's bank. 



57. I was not sorry when the Residency was in sight, and I 



bade my companions good morning, 



brid-ef t &c nofpublic works ' roads ' for a more filth y' dust y town than 



Mandalay it is impossible to imagine. 

 The roads are unmetalled, and ankle-deep in dust ; the furrows 

 caused by cart traffic are in many places so deep, as to make it 

 next to impossible for carts to turn without risk of capsizing when 

 once started, or until a cross-road is met, where the opposite traffic 

 works the ridges into an impalpable powder into which the wheels 

 sink axle-deep, often resulting in a block of half an hour or more, 

 while the unfortunate bullocks flounder and strain to get out of 

 their difficulty. All works of public utility represent an equally 

 dilapidated condition. Many of the bridges, principally wooden, 

 are in such a state of decay, that it seems almost dangerous to 

 venture across them; yet no repairs are attempted, plank by 

 plank, and rail by rail, are allowed to rot away, and fall into the 

 stream unnoticed, simply for want of a little of the money now 

 squandered on his Majesty's hobbies, which, like a child's toy, no 

 sooner loose their novelty, than they are forgotten. Every- 

 where at the capital may be seen machinery of a most costly 

 description lying idle, partly set up, and partly in detached 



