Part of Bengal and the Kingdom of Ava. 55 



watered. It is properly called the Gomuti, which Major Ren- 

 nell writes Gomut (Bengal Atlas, map 1,) or Goomty (Ibid, 

 map 9,) and which seems to be derived from its crooked na- 

 ture. I am persuaded, that by some mistake the rivers, 

 which, in the 9th map of the Bengal Atlas, appear as the 

 heads of the Chingree river, in fact belong to the Gomuti, 

 the Chingree, or Chimay, as the natives call it, terminating, 

 according to all the information received by me, at the hills 

 on the south side of the tropic. The Gomuti, therefore, 

 either passes through, or springs from the hills laid down in 

 the above-mentioned map as the boundary of Ava, although 

 I have reason to think, that the great central ridge is pro- 

 bably 20 or 30 miles farther to the east. Whether or not 

 this space is altogether unoccupied, or whether it be inha- 

 bited by tribes subject to Ava, or by people that are alto- 

 gether independent, I have not learned ; but the last is pro- 

 bably the case ; as farther south, this farther ridge, at the 

 sources of the Karnaphuli, is peopled by an enterprising tribe 

 of the Kungki race, and the same is probably the case at the 

 sources of the Gomuti. 



The hills lower down these rivers consist of clay and sand 

 slightly indurated in thin plates, involving in some places 

 small masses of a more solid nature, that admit of being cut 

 with the chisel, and in a few places masses of petrified wood. 

 In two places north from Islamabad there continually issues 

 from chinks in these strata an inflammable gas, the burning 

 of which has been successfully employed by some priests as 

 a means of extracting gain from the superstitious. These 

 hills rise to a considerable elevation, seldom exceeding 150 

 feet perpendicular, while the streams that run through the 

 intermediate valleys or ravines have a very gentle current, 

 and a sandy bottom ; so that canoes can be pushed along 

 to a great extent, especially in the rainy season. Unfor- 

 tunately the country becomes then so unhealthy, that even 

 the Bengalese do not venture to remain, but quit the hills 

 with the first showers of summer. This prevented me from 

 attempting to penetrate into the country of the Kungkis, as 

 the rainy season had commenced when I was at Komila; 

 and all the information that I can give concerning the route, 



