1837.] from Ava to the Frontier of Assam. 269 



am certain they could not proceed further without a halt of some 

 days." This interval Captain Hannay assiduously employed in col- 

 lecting information regarding the valley, which had from a very 

 early period been an object of great geographical interest, as the site 

 of the Payendwen or amber mines, and at no very remote era proba- 

 bly formed the bed of an alpine lake, which, like that of the Manipur 

 valley, has been subsequently raised to its present level by long con- 

 tinued alluvial deposits, and detritus, from the hills which encircle it 

 on every side. The tendency of every such deposition is to raise the 

 level of the water, and facilitate its drainage, until it becomes so 

 shallow, that evaporation suffices to complete the process, and render 

 the soil a fit abode for future races of men. The numerous and ex- 

 tensive lakes in the mountainous regions of Thibet and Tartary are 

 doubtless undergoing a similar change, and no great stretch of ima- 

 gination is necessary to anticipate the period when they will become 

 the sites of extensive towns and villages, and present a striking con- 

 trast to the rugged magnificence and solitary grandeur of the snowy 

 regions which surround them. 



" The valley of Htikong or Payendwen," says Captain Hannay, 

 " is an extensive plain, bounded on all sides by hills ; its extent from 

 east to north-west being at least 50 miles, and varying in breadth 

 from 45 to 15 miles, the broadest part being to the east. The hills 

 bounding the valley to the east are a continuation of the Shue'doung- 

 gyi range, which is high, commences at Mogaung, and seems to run 

 in a direction of N. 15 E." The principal river of the valley is the 

 Numtunaee or Khyendwen, which flows from the Shuedoung-gyi range, 

 and after receiving the contributions of numerous small streams quits 

 the valley at its north-western corner, and again enters the defiles of 

 the hills, beyond which its course is no longer perceptible. On the 

 western side of the valley there are but few villages, and these thinly 

 inhabited, the capital itself containing not more than thirty houses ; 

 but the north and eastern sides are said to be very populous, the houses 

 in those quarters being estimated at not less than 3000, nearly all of 

 which are situated on the banks of the Towang and Debee rivers. All 

 the low hills stretching from the western foot of the Shuedoung range 

 were under cultivation, and the population is said to extend across to 

 the banks of the Irawadi, in numbers sufficient to enable the Singphos 

 when necessary to assemble a force of nine or ten thousand men. 



" With the exception," says Captain Hannay, " of the village of 

 Meinkhwon, which has a Shan population, the whole of the inhabi- 

 tants of the valley are Singphos and their Assamese slaves. Of the 

 2 N 



