THE MENDOON PAGODA AN EARTHQUAKE 223 



One portion of the deserted pagoda is said to contain images 

 in gold, life-size, of the past and present members of the ruling 

 dynasty ; and if so, there must be wealth enough to satisfy 

 even the greed of a miser. The country is hilly, covered with 

 jungle, and we could hear the cocks crowing and francolins 

 calling all around ; the people also said that hares were 

 plentiful, but they were of no use to us, as no one was allowed 

 to fire a gun within a radius of twenty miles of the capital. 

 The big gun which I had seen at Umrapoora had also been 

 taken to Mandalay, but no care had been taken of it, and it 

 was badly honeycombed, and I would rather not be the man 

 to fire it. We saw about fifty tusker elephants at work 

 removing teak logs. Adjoining the walls of Umrapoora 

 there were two enclosures, where they used to catch wild 

 elephants, who were decoyed there by tame females. The 

 officials told us that as many as twenty to twenty-five males 

 had been caught there in one year. The Burmese, when going 

 down-stream during the freshets, to save themselves the 

 trouble of rowing, throw overboard branches of trees and 

 attach them with ropes to the prow of the boats ; these catch 

 the full force of the stream and drag the boat along at a good 

 rate. I adopted this idea, but constructed a large kite with 

 mats and bamboos, and, weighting it on one side, launched it 

 overboard. It remained upright, and dragged us along about 

 five miles an hour. The river was pretty well at its height ; 

 the greater part of the sand-banks had disappeared, so we 

 went down merrily without any exertion on our part, until one 

 afternoon, when a heavy sea drove us back. We could not 

 understand it. We took in our kite and tried the oars, but it 

 was of no use, the waves broke over the boat, so we made for 

 the bank, and, finding a sheltered spot, anchored. The moon 

 rose brightly, it was full ; but after a while a total eclipse took 

 place, which we noted in our journals. About 3 a.m. the 

 waves went down ; we pulled into the stream, let down the 

 kite, and again went on rapidly. As we passed the different 

 pagodas, notably those of Pagan Myo, we noticed that the 

 Thes, or umbrellas that surmount their crest, were either down 

 or all askew, and wondered what had caused it. Near Yay- 

 nan-choung the wind veered round to the north and blew half 



