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first at a loss to understand what the noise was, never having 

 heard so many trumpeting at the same time : for the moment, I 

 imagined it was the shouts of hundreds of Kakhyens bearing down 

 upon us, but the delusion was not for long. Towards evening it 

 came on to thunder, and rain, and two of my boats remained behind. 

 The tortuous windings of the choung separated us by water some 

 considerable distance, though in a direct line we were within hail 

 of one another, and I found that the boatmen declined to come on 

 in the storm ; but a threat of an unpleasant nature, if I was com- 

 pelled to return, soon brought them to their senses, and we all made 

 fast together for the night. 



328. Friday, 6th March 1874.— Thermometer, 62° at 6 a.m. 

 Dense fog up to 9 a.m. From where we made fast last night, the 

 Endow choung widens out considerably, and there is a gradual fall in 

 the country, towards the Endawgyee lake, which we entered by 2 p.m. 

 Here the Endawshwe Toung-gyee range gives off a low spur reach- 

 ing to the water's edge f it is capped by a small pagoda, where my 

 people asked permission to make offerings for our future safety. 

 Continued to skirt the western bank, until reaching the Nanpatoung 

 choung, where we remained for the night. We had not made fast 

 over quarter of an hour, when a band of mountaineers from Nansay 

 came to inquire if we had met a boat with four Kullars, natives of 

 India, anywhere on this side of the fishing weir of the Mahwine 

 tribe ; finding we had not, they left us. The hills here present a 

 barren, inhospitable appearance, and are principally covered with 

 grass which had been recently burnt. I took a ramble over the hills, 

 and found iron cropping up everywhere, and the party that accom- 

 panied me picked up iron pyrites eubically crystallized, mistaking 

 them for gold. As usual, before turning in for the night a peon 

 was sent to the top of a Ficus, some three hundred yards further up 

 the lake, to get a view of the surrounding country ; he reported that 

 there was an encampment of a hundred Kakhyens seated round a 

 fire, on the hills to the N. N. W. ; for my own satisfaction, I climbed 

 the tree, and found, as I had expected, facts were exaggerated ; 

 there was an encampment in the direction indicated, but with the 

 aid of my night glass, I could not distinguish more than twenty men 

 gathered round a blazing fire. I descended, and made arrange- 

 ments for reliefs to be perched on the tree, throughout the night, to 

 watch the movements of these men. 



329. Saturday, 7th March 1874.— Thermometer, 62° at 6 a.m. 

 Heavy mist, which had a charming effect as it gradually ascended 

 from the lake, and unveiled the surrounding mountain scenery. 

 Started my boats to Winelone, a Shan stockaded village on the banks 

 of the lake : I followed up by land. The country is of a rolling 



