TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 599: 
Early in the sixth century 3B.c., the Mau Shans entered the valley of the 
Trrawadi, and drove the Burmese tribes to the southward. About a.p. 1220, they 
annexed Assam, and became predominant over the Shan States to the east and 
west of the Salween as far south as Zimmé. By the end of the thirteenth century, 
they had shattered the Burmese Empire, driven the Yun Shans to Chaliang (from 
whence the latter descended and founded the kingdom of Siam), attacked Java, 
Malacca, and Cambodia, annexed part of Pegu, and extended their sway over the 
Malay Peninsula as far south as Tavoy. From this time to a.p. 1554, Shan princes 
were ruling in the valleys of the Inrawadi, Sittang, and Salween, as well as in 
the country to the south of Yunnan, as far eastward as Cochin China. 
The Laos Shans were settled in the country to the west of Tonquin at a very 
early date, and had already wedged themselves into the Yun country, as far south 
as Vien Chang, before the arrival of the Yun Shans in the valley of the Menam; 
they ave, therefore, known to their neighbours as the Lau, or Lao, which means 
ancient or old. 
4, Curiosities of Travel on the Tibetan frontier. 
By HE. Cousoryp Baser, F.R.G.S. 
In a paper illustrating the difficulty of the problems which a traveller in an 
unexplored country is called upon to examine, the author gave an account of the 
curious wax-insect of Western China, the eggs of which are transported from a 
valley on the border of Yunnan to a plain in Western Sst-ch’uan, a distance of 
more than 200 miles. A great multitude of carriers—ten thousand or more in 
number, travelling in single file all through the night, and resting by day—convey 
the galls to their destination, where they are attached to trees, on which the insects 
deposit wax and breed. He also described, in some detail, his discovery of the 
singular fact that a certain kind of timber, which is used to make coffins, and is of 
extraordinary value ou account of its resistance to the attacks of insects and rot, is 
found buried deeply in the soil, and is actually mined for, either by sinking shafts 
or by a process of ‘hydraulicking.’ The trunks are of great size, and a coffin made 
of the planks which they afford is worth some 3002. This valuable material is 
found imbedded in a hard yellow clay, which Mr. Baber suggests may be tha-till 
or boulder-clay. The sub-Himalayan region in question exhibits manifest traces 
of glaciers, by which, according to the latest school of geologists, the till has been 
formed. 
Some remarks on an analysis of the so-called ‘white copper’ of Western 
China, and on an antelope which may have given rise to Abbé Huce’s fable of the 
Unicorn, concluded the paper. 
5. On the Athabasca District of the Canadian North-West Territory. 
By the Rey. Eire Petiror. 
The author, who belonged to the Congregation of the Oblats-de-Marie French 
missionaries, commenced his explorations in the Canadian North-West so long ago 
as April 1864, continuing them from 1865 to 1873. He published a preliminary 
account of these in the Bulletin of the French Geographical Society for July— 
September 1875, which is here recast, with material additions and personal obser- 
vations acquired during subsequent travel as late as 1879. 
After defining the limits of the commercial district of Athabasca as settled in 
the latter year by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and briefly sketching its great 
natural features, M. Petitot describes in detail the systems of the Athabasca and 
Peace rivers, which after uniting and entering the Great Slave Lake, take the name 
ofthe Mackenzie, and he also treats Lake Athabasca in like manner, with its connected 
minor lakes and smaller affluents. In doing this he corrects various errors as to 
the nomenclature, position, and physical features of the very complex water-system 
of the region, with numerous observations on its geology, fauna, flora, and native 
inhabitants, and indications of probable sources of future development. The chief 
