( 199 ) 



illhealth necessitated his going home : I have not heard Mr. Theo- 

 bald's decision on the subject. Here was a large Shan-Burnian 

 village named after the choung, the inhabitants of which appeared 

 comfortably off and contented. I was surprised to find that both 

 the male and female population of this and Winelone were opium- 

 smokers. They spoke of the frequent raids committed by the high- 

 landers to the east, but expressed themselves sufficiently strong to 

 confine the depredations to cattle-lifting. I was amused at their 

 primitive manner of expressing oil from til-seed. Through, the 

 stem of a tree about three feet from the ground a large hole was cut 

 for the reception of a lever thirty feet long : at four feet from the 

 trunk was a block of wood three and-a-half feet high, with a slight con- 

 cavity at the top. Serving as a fulcrum on this was placed a fine 

 open work bamboo basket filled with partially bruised ftf-seed, and 

 at the top rested a slab of wood four inches thick, corresponding 

 in size with the top of the block below, the lever being weighted at 

 the extremity by a huge mass of clay, and the process of expression 

 assisted by the additional weight of the owners who sat at the end 

 singing merrily, and dangling their legs as they watched the oil gradu- 

 ally exude from the preparations of the basket and trickle into the 

 hollow, eventually pouring through, the opening left for the purpose. 

 Broussonetia Papijrifera, which is plentiful enough here, is manufac- 

 tured into paper or, rather, card-board (the parabeik of the country) 

 by these people. Raspberry and wild rose continued, and wild 

 Asparagus and three different Ipomcea were noticed. Brijophijllum 

 cahjcinum grew in the vicinity of this village. 



332. Tuesday, 10th March 1874.— Thermometer, 59° at 6 a.m. 

 Dew overnight, and fog in the morning. Continued round the lake. 

 Spurs from the main range reached to the water's edge untill little 

 south-east of the Wan-maw choung, when the country takes the 

 low swampy character I described on entering this lake. The hills 

 attain a good height, and are densely wooded, the intervening valleys 

 being partially cultivated by the Thainbows with paddy, but toungya 

 clearings on the hill slopes are few and far between. When 

 abreast of Nan-pau choung, I ascended the highest ridge, and my 

 barometer read 1,600 feet; here I came on extensive forests of two 

 varieties of pine, both apparently rich in resin : I did not recognize 

 either, but collected specimens of the wood, leaves, and cones. 

 They were growing among Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, Diospyros, 

 Nauclea, Mclanorhea Usitatissima, Briedelia, Fici (but no F. elastica), 

 Careya, Lagerstramia grandirlora, Guttifera, Cedrela toona (few) and 

 sprinkling of teak, together with numerous other shrubs and trees, 

 specimens of which have been preserved. I did not deem it pru- 

 dent to shoot here, for it would only have attracted the mountaineers, 



