18 



appear as if made in two different countries, but in the rainy season tliese insects as well ns 

 other animals spread themselves all over the forest-country, although the breeding of the 

 Malayan types appeared to me to be restricted to the tropical forests alone. 



At 12 A. M. we moved down to our old camp at the Gyo gyo choung. Our elephants 

 had now made quite a respectable path up this ridge, where on ascending it no vestige of a 

 path could be perceived. At the advice of our Karen guides we packed our elephants at once 

 and moved upwards the Gyo gyo, where we encamped at the fork of the last two feeders, due 

 west of the second highest peak of the Kambala. The choung is very winding and was bor- 

 dered by evergreens up to a spot near wliich our camp was located. Here water ceased and 

 dry upper mixed forests prevailed nil over the terrain. Euphorbia trigona was plentiful. 



21th February, 1871. My ineu had to start this moruing without a meal, for their pro- 

 Tisions were exhausted and for this reason they did not shrink from making the longest 

 march I ever made in the hills, nearly IG miles over the highest crests of the Yomah. Wo had 

 to ascend the spur at the root of which our camp was pitched and after passing through up- 

 per mixed forest with teak we soon reached the crest of the main range of the Yomah at the 

 junction of the Kambala ridge and found ourselves again in upper dry forests of the character 

 of those on the Kambala itself. The rocks seemed to be decomposed calcareous sandstone. 

 Our further route was S. S. W., following ths crest of the main range which is often very 

 narrow and precipitous on both sides. Unfortunately these, like all the other ridges we had 



1)assed, had been swept by jungle fires, and I had therefore no opportunity of noticing the 

 lerbaceous vegetation of the locality. B dow, in the valley of the Oghae myoung, destruc- 

 tive fires were raging, and the dense volumes of smoke prevented me from noticing the 

 arrangement of the numerous spurs which run down from the main range, but the forests 

 appeared to be a mixture of dry forests, and of very dry upper mixed forests with myin wa 

 (Bambiisa stricta). The E. or rather N. N. E. slopes had their trees in full foliage (at least 

 those in the more sheltered valleys) and were succeeded by upper mixed forests. On an 

 opposite spur we caught sight of the first Rhinoceros we had met in these hills. He stood 

 unmoveable in spite of our shouts, but when our 3 elephants came up, and truinpetted at him, 

 he went down into the burning valley. Passing the head waters of the Kun choung we soon 

 branched off eastwards and descended on a very sharp ridge down to the Oghae myoung 

 and Lhayga choung, a feeder of the Yan choung, which latter we soon reached. The bed 

 of the Yan was broad and sandy without any water and looked almost like a well-kept corso. The 

 forests surrounding it, were still drier, and were a mixture of dry and mixed forests, stunted 

 and leafless with leafless myinwa as undergrowth. Eugyin [Pcntacme Siameniiis), sha.{Acacia 

 catechu), Woodfordia fruticosa, Holarrhena antidysenterica and other limestone loving trees ap- 

 peared. The formation was calcareous sandstone in a very decomposed state, which was thus 

 transformed into a smoky-grey coarse permeable sandstone, variously interlaid with shales 

 and siliceous sandstone making the demarcation of the forests obsolete. The country itself 

 was very level with occasional flat spurs only 30 to 80 feet in height. Teak was not un- 

 frequently met with, but like all other trees it was low and rather crooked. The Yan choung 

 is very winding and shews a tendency to cut away its banks in an Eastern direction. We 

 arrived in the evening at a place about a mile from Yan yua, a Karen village, where w 

 encamped in the bed of the chouug, near a pool of water. 



28<A February, 1871. The vegetation assumed more and more the character of the 

 Prome vegetation as we went in a S. E. direction. The hills and ranges we crossed were 

 all low and covered with dry forests with myinwa [Bamhiisa stricta}, teak, engyin (Pentacine 

 Siamemis), sha {Acacia catechu), Kusan (Hymehodictyon thyrsijfonim) etc., while in some 

 tracts of a more prevailing siliceous substratum, Kyattoun wa with the usual upper mixed 

 forest-trees re-appeared. Passing Yan-yua our march led us through a great many deserted 

 toungyas until we crossed the Poh chouug, where a dry forest with Eug (Dipterocarpus turbina- 

 tus) occupied the terrain. Between the small Kyouk pyu choung and Gna toung myoung a 

 small patch of Eng forest or rather dry forest with eng is met with on decomposed smoky- 

 grey calcareous sandstone, while in the narrow gorge of the myoung itself evergreens made a 

 scanty appearance. Crossing another ridge with upper mixed forests we soon came down to 

 the Bhoben choung, a fine stream with plenty of running water, where we encamped opposite 

 the village of Gna gyi. The upper mixed forests here offered some shade, and the formation 

 seemed siliceous permeable sandstone. 



1st March, 1871. To-day only a very short march was made. Ascending the steep 

 ridges on which Gna gyi lies, we marched over ridges covered by upper mixed forests and, 

 descending suddenly, fell in with eng forests on laterite, where we encamped at Thekkay 

 byeng, a village which I had passed in 1868 on my march from Choungwa to Taragyo. 



2nd March, 1871 . The eug forests terminated shortly before arriving at Myouk loke 

 choung, on the alluvium of which lower mixed forests with teak were found. These con^ 

 tinned, with many interruptions caused by cultivation, till we came to Toukkyan gnu tu and 

 here, although all the country was occupied by paddy cultivation, the wild sugarcane indicated 



