74 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. X, 



planted space surrounded by walls twenty or more feet high 

 with a large summer-house over the gate : the roads were 

 pretty good and there were some fair residences : in the 

 Chinese stores plenty of tinned provisions were to be had 

 but there was little fruit. The place was dry and dusty, 

 larger than Pangnga but not nearly so picturesque. 



A few Europeans of the tin dredging company live and 

 have their repairing shops here and a good deal of Malay 

 is understood. 



On the 23rd we crossed the Pakchan estuary to Victoria 

 Point in Burma and anchored off the jetty (Lat. 10° N.). 

 The settlement seems to have grown a little since I was 

 there twenty years ago. Though with its paths, tree-dotted 

 grassy slopes and red-roofed houses it looks attractive from 

 a distance it does not improve with acquaintance — the 

 bazaar is small and squalid with little stock, the paths are 

 of clay and very rough and in the rainy season must be very 

 muddy, and the grass is lallang. But from the Wireless 

 Station on the ridge the view over sea, islands and main- 

 land to the mountains is wonderful. A road to Maliwun is 

 metalled for the first eight miles, beyond it has been aban- 

 doned and the bridges are down; but it can still be traversed 

 by motor-cycle in the dry season. The place was in charge 

 of a sub-divisional officer and a European Inspector of 

 Police : there were besides a Eurasian preventive officer, an 

 Asiatic doctor in charge of a small hospital, and the staff 

 of the wireless installation. No supplies were to be had 

 but water from wells was good. The surroundings are 

 beautiful : but as a settlement Victoria Point does not com- 

 pare well even with such a Malayan Sleepy Hollow as Lumut 

 in the Bindings. 



On the 24th we took in firewood and a pilot at Renong 

 river and left at 11 a.m. The Pakchan is a fine broad estuary 

 in the lower part, though interrupted by several islands and 

 almost entirely fringed with mangroves : inland the hills 

 rise to some height in places (1,000 — 2,000 ft.) but they are 

 set far back from the shore and are not impressive: Waring- 

 ton Smyth's reference to its appearance as resembling a 

 northern fiord and having an air of magnitude does not seem 

 justified.'^ 



There are hardly any signs of population in the lower 

 part except a few scattered houses and hamlets and a fish- 

 trap here and there : also there are practically no clearings. 



We had no difficulty in proceeding as far as Well Hill 

 (23 miles) but there we got onto our first shoal and after- 

 wards we had to sound a good deal — for the pilot proved use- 

 less — to find sufficient water for the launch which draws 

 6-7 ft. Above Well Hill there are more signs of hal itation 

 on both Burmese and Siamese banks : mangroves give 

 place to Nipa palms while a belt of flat coinitry begins to 

 border the estuary which now becomes more river-like. 

 We anchored at the landing place of Namchut or Kraburi, 



7 Op cit. II, p. 31. 



