274 Captain Hannay's Route [April, 



route from Kam-mien which runs in a north-westerly direction. The 

 whole tract of country is hilly, and several hot and salt springs are 

 reported to exist near the Engdau-gyi lake, which is said to cover what 

 was once the site of a large Shan town called Tumansye. The natives 

 affirm that it was destroyed by an earthquake, and from the description 

 given of a hill in the vicinity, the catastrophe may have been produc- 

 ed by the immediate agency of volcanic action. 



On the 21st of March, Captain Hannay visited the amber mines, 

 and his description is the first that has ever been given of the locality 

 from whence the Burmans obtain this mineral. 



"We set out at 8 o'clock," he says, "in the morning, and re- 

 turned at 2 p. M. To the foot of the hills the direction is about 

 south 25 west, and the distance three miles, the last mile being 

 through a thick grass jungle, after which there is an ascent of one 

 hundred feet, where there is a sort of temple, at which the natives, on 

 visiting the mines, make offerings to the ngats or spirits. About a 

 hundred yards from this place, the marks of pits, where amber had been 

 formerly dug for, are visible, but this side of the hUl is now deserted, 

 and we proceeded three miles further on to the place where the people 

 are now employed in digging, and where the amber is most plentiful. 

 The last three miles of our road led through a dense small tree jungle, 

 and the pits and holes were so numerous that it was with difficulty 

 we got on. The whole tract is a successsion of small hillocks, the 

 highest of which rise abruptly to the height of fifty feet, and amongst 

 various shrubs which cover these hillocks the tea plant is very plen- 

 tiful. The soil throughout is a reddish and yellow colored clay, 

 and the earth in those pits, which had been for sometime exposed to 

 the air, had a smell of coal tar ; whilst in those which had been recently 

 opened, the soil had a fine aromatic smell. The pits vary from six 

 to fifteen feet in depth, being, generally speaking, three feet square, 

 and the soil is so stiff that it does not require propping up." 



" I have no doubt," Captain Hannay adds, " that my being 

 accompanied by several Burmese officers, caused the people to secrete 

 all the good amber they had found. For although they were at work 

 in ten pits, I did not see a piece of amber worth having. The people 

 employed in digging were a few Singphos from the borders of China 

 and of this valley. On making inquiry regarding the cause of the 

 alleged scarcity of amber, I -was told that, want of people to dig for 

 it was the principal cause ; but I should think the inefficiency of the 

 tools they use was the most plausible reason : — their only implements 

 being a bambu sharpened at one end, and a small wooden shovel." 



