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distinctly heard. I stopped for the night at Nang-haing, a Shan- 

 Taloke village, on the right bank, consisting of nine stockaded 

 houses situated on a creek twenty-two yards wide at the mouth, 

 taking its rise in the mountains to the west. Here the banks are 

 less overgrown with grass, and the Salix is on the increase. 



320. Saturday, 28th February 1874. — Thermometer, 61° at 

 6 a.m. There was a thunder-storm, accompanied by rain, over- 

 night. I left my boats at Nang-haing, and explored the country 

 for about six miles inland, joining them again at new Kamine. It 

 was cloudy throughout the day. The horn-bill (Hydrocissa albi- 

 rostris) we were constantly coming on. Moung Oplah, for that was the 

 name of the guide provided by the Governor, was much opposed to 

 this excursion, endeavouring to make me believe that there were no 

 Ficus elastica anywhere in this vicinity ; but plenty of wild high- 

 landers, who would not lose the opportunity of killing myself and 

 party. This statement about the Kakhyens I accepted for what it 

 was worth ; but, regarding the non-existence in this locality of the 

 tree I was in search of, I knew better, having already gained infor- 

 mation on this subject during my stay at Mogoung. It was here 

 that Mr. Henri first collected india-rubber by order of the King, and 

 I came across the Shantees, which himself and party occupied 

 while the operation was going on. The huts were situated on a 

 mountain stream that discharges itself into the Mogoung river, 

 about half-way between Kamine and Nang-haing. A Shan from 

 the latter village, who had worked with Mr. Henri, accompanied 

 me, and described the method in which the trees were tapped. 

 Incisions were made in the stems and roots with a dah, regardless 

 of method, apparently, for the cuts were at irregular distances 

 apart — some vertical, others oblique — while those on the roots 

 were cross-ways ; and from two to four feet distant ; at the lower 

 end of the inscisions in the trunk were driven hollow bamboos, 

 shaped in the form of a pen into which the juice poured; and the 

 exudation from the roots was allowed to coagulate round about 

 the wound, and subsequently collected and formed into a ball. 

 According to the Shan, a full-grown tree yielded from thirty 

 to forty-five viss, which was collected in the space of a month. The 

 rains were said to have been the season when the operations 

 were carried on, but what the strength of the establishment was, 

 I could not ascertain : some days Mr. Henri was said to have had 

 thirty men, others twenty, others ten, and so on ; but there is 

 one thing certain, viz., that the labour was forced ; and, I was told he 

 committed great oppression, which one day led to his being very 

 roughly handled by some of the highland coolies. The Ficus 

 elastica, I saw, were growing on side slopes of hills of foliated lime- 



