220 Account of a visit to Pwppd doting. [No. 3, 



It is close to the foot of the volcano, and is said to have heen a place 

 of importance in the days when Pagan was the capital of Burma, 

 but it is now only a small village of about forty houses, built in the 

 usual Burmese fashion. I am inclined to doubt its ever having been 

 a place of large size, for I saw no remains of pagodas around, and 

 such usually abound in Burma in the neighbourhood of all towns 

 that have once been wealthy. 



The climate here is evidently very much altered; the neighbour- 

 hood of the mountain and the increased elevation rendering it much 

 moister than below. The temperature at sun-rise, on the three morn- 

 ings I was at Puppa, viz., 28th, 29th and 30th October was 73°, 74° 

 and 76°. At Pagan on two mornings, October 26th and November 

 1st, it was 80°. The change from the barren sand of the Pagan 

 country to the rich soil produced by the decomposition of the vol- 

 canic rocks, causes perhaps an even greater alteration in the vege- 

 tation than would result from the increased moisture. Pice grows 

 around the town, and fruit trees of many kinds replace the tamarinds 

 which alone seem to nourish around the villages of the sandy coun- 

 try. The elevation by aneroid is about 1,600 feet above Pagan, or 

 1,900 above the sea.* Water is obtained from a fine spring, which, 

 besides supplying the inhabitants, irrigates several paddy-fields. In- 

 dian corn is also largely grown, and in one house I saw it stored in 

 the same peculiar manner as is practised in Sikkim and Nepal, viz. : 

 hung around the top of a post, It is generally, however, strung 

 upon a beam. 



October 28th, I started early for the peak. The path led for two 

 or three miles through jungle, the trees being large at first, and 



* At Pagan, October 26th, 1861. 



Aneroid at 6.30 A. M. 29.665, thermometer 80°. 



October 31st, ditto at 12 noon, 29.505, ditto 84°. 



November 1st, ditto at 6 A. M. 29.515, ditto 80°. 



At Puppa, 



October 27th, ditto at 6 P. M. 27.905, ditto 86°. 

 28th, ditto at 6 A. M. 27.905, ditto 74°. 

 29th, ditto at 6 a. m. 27.72, ditto 73°. 

 30th, ditto at 6 A. M. 27.74, ditto 76°. 

 Very little reliance can be placed upon any of the altitudes mentioned except as 

 approximations. Those of the mountain are much above the level at which an 

 aneroid, the only instrument I possessed for measuring the height, is trust- 

 worthy ; and my only means of comparison is the mean of the Calcutta observa- 

 tions. Still 1 have no doubt that those mentioned above are approximations, 

 and as such better than mere guesses. The higher ones are probably in excess, 

 and I suspect the peak i3 not really more than 4,700 or 4,800 feet in height at 

 the outside. 



