( 107 ) 



dosa, cedrela toona, Borassus flabdliformis, and Cocos nucifera (stray 

 trees, cultivated in the plains, both stunted in growth anil barren) ; 

 Aspidopterys tomentosa, Ehwcarpus varuna, Beinwardtia indica, Hiptage 

 obtusifolia, Buettneria pilosa, Melochia corchori folia, Pterospernam aceri- 

 folium, Sida corijlifolia, Eopea odorata, Schima mollis, Sauranga armata, 

 Drijmaria cordata (in garden in plains), Brassica campestris, 

 Viola patrinii, Aspidocari/a unifera, Delima sarmentosa, Dillenia indica, 

 Ranunculus difusus, bamboos, wild plantain, and Areca, a sort of 

 grass growing epiphytically on a stunted Phoinix, and Bauhinias 

 butcas, Robinias urccolas, canes, and other giant-creepers span the 

 forest with then huge limbs in strange fantastic shapes and forms 

 joining tree to tree. These, again, are clothed in moss and decorated 

 with parasitical orchids and the more delicate of the Orontiacce, Bigno- 

 nitv, and Convolvulacecc groups, which add materially to the richness 

 of the forest drapery — the whole presenting a scene as grand as 

 any pictured by Salvatorrosa. 



191. 2nd January 1874. — This morning Mr. Cooper enquired 

 Preparations for another excur- whether I remained unchanged in the 

 sion - views expressed last night, and on 



replying in the affirmative, he said I would have to arrange for a 

 Kakhyen interpreter, as he could not spare the man attached to his 

 Office : at 11 a.m. he started for Bhamo, and I was left alone to mature 

 my own plans. The absence of the Government Kakhyen interpreter 

 — whose services, in the first instance, I had been promised — was 

 my greatest difficulty, for I knew not where to look for a substitute 

 and to attempt an excursion among the mountaineers, without some 

 one who could speak their language was altogether out of the ques- 

 tion. Just then, Yan Sing, my Burmese interpreter, made his appear- 

 ance, and on consulting him, he said he had over-heard the whole 

 conversation that had transpired last night, — as he lay in bed in 

 the compartment next to where we dined, — and had already anti- 

 cipated my wishes in the matter of arranging for a man to accom- 

 pany us, who could speak Kakhyen, Shan, and Burmese ; this 

 was capital news, and my spirits rose from zero to zenith at once. 

 He further went on to say that he had been told that the Governor 

 regarded me a harmless traveller, and that the Court officials 

 had left instructions with the Loogyee to render me every assist- 

 ance, and had also provided an escort of six men, if I determined 

 to explore the neighbouring hills. TYhat more could I have wanted '? 

 — sol dismissed Yan Sing, with instructions to mature his plans, and 

 immediately developed, to bring all concerned before me. This 

 was a most anxious time for me, knowing that if anything went 

 wrong, I should be doubly blamed, and perhaps given my conje : but 



