( 05 ) 



above and at this season not more than one-fifth of its bed is covered 

 with water. I am indebted to Mr. Graham, for information regard- 

 ing the character of its windings in the interior, which he obtained 

 from some Shan passengers we had on board, who had often fol- 

 lowed it down from its rocky home, to where it discharged itself 

 into the Irrawaddy. The stream is tortuous in its course, becom- 

 ing more winding east of the Naumeil creek. Throughout the 

 year it is a timber-bearing stream, and teak trees and bamboos 

 floated down it. For boats in the low season Naumeil is the limit 

 to which it is navigable, but during the floods, it may be ascended 

 a few days' journey higher. Its banks are populated by Shans, but 

 the frequent raids committed by the Kakhyens of the neighbouring 

 hills, render life and property unsafe. 



122. Onward we speed, and in afew hours are abreast of the pros- 

 m , _ .. perous and well-populated town of Ka- 



Town of Katlia. U , x / , „ 



tna, where we stop a quarter of an 

 hour to land some Chinese passengers and cargo. The town is 

 established on a commanding eminence, composed of dark red beds 

 of tolerably hard ferruginous conglomerates, and pebbly sandstones, 

 irregularly distributed, or developed, in thick masses of sand, and 

 soft sandstones of a yellowish colour. It were almost needless to 

 remark that emblems of the Bhuddist faith, are as prominently re- 

 presented here as elsewhere, and, as seen from the river, grouped 

 among groves of plantain, mango, jack, tamarind, and other wide- 

 spreading trees, above which tower the graceful areca, cocoanuts, and 

 borassus, present one of the most picturesque and striking views we 

 have yet seen. 



To the back of the town are extensive paddy-fields, which 

 extend, as well as the eye can judge, to the foot of the high hills in 

 the far west : the remaining three sides are more or less surrounded 

 with vegetation, of a scrubby or arborescent nature. The pagodas 

 are somewhat of a different style of architecture to what I have 

 hitherto noticed. They are more of a spiral type, raised on a square 

 base, the first convolution above the plinth being made up of a 

 series of recesses which are filled with marble statuettes. A brisk 

 trade in paddy is carried on here, and a ready sale is found for 

 general merchandise, which is chiefly in the hands of Chinese 

 and natives, representatives of the firms at Mandalay. The cutlery 

 here is also regarded remarkably good. 



123. Hopea, sprinkling of teak, small and gnarled, T. hamiltonii, 



v , . Shorca robusta, Fid, Gardenia, Bauhinia, 



Rosa, Vitex, Salix, Andropogan, (lemon 



grass), Arundo, bamboos (small variety) Myrtacece, Randia oliginosa, 



9 



