222 Account of a visit to Puppet doling. [No. 3, 



passing rapidly over the highest peak, to clear off, I preferred sitting 

 in the sun, and out of the wind, which came roaring up from the 

 great central hollow. The crater is about a mile across, and the sides 

 stretch down in black precipices to a depth of probably not less than 

 2000 feet. I regretted, much that I could not devote a day to the 

 examination of the interior of the crater. Dense jungle filled the 

 bottom, and trees grew upon the sides wherever there was a hold for 

 their roots. On the North side or a little East of North, the side of 

 the crater has been broken down, so that no lake exists within. The 

 South side, opposite to the gap, is far higher than to the East or 

 West, and the two highest peaks, one about 300 feet above the other, 

 are about half a mile apart, and owe their prominence to being com- 

 posed of dykes of a very granular and ill crystallized rock, which has 

 resisted the wearing effects of decomposition and rain better than 

 the softer beds of volcanic ash which form the cone, and the bedding 

 of which is beautifully seen inside the crater. Their slope is about 

 35° to 40° in most parts. The whole upper portion of the volcano 

 is formed of these ash beds, the lava flows having apparently been 

 lateral. 



I regret much that my ignorance of botanical science prevents me 

 from giving any detailed account of the vegetation of this peak. 

 There appeared to be a peculiar mixture of tropical and temperate 

 forms, and the latter must be interesting from the complete isolation 

 of the hill. The common brakes, Pteris aquilina, is abundant, toge- 

 ther with two other ferns* of more tropical appearance. A large 

 thistle with formidable spines is common, and the only plant which 

 has any claims to be considered a tree is, strangely enough, the wild 

 date palm.f A few straggling trees inside the crater were dwarfed 

 and covered with lichens and mosses. 



* One is I think Nothocldcena argentea. 



t I have heard that the same is the case on the Western Ghats of India. 



The complete change in the vegetation below 4000 feet upon a hill in Burma 

 is very curious, when it is remembered that no such alteration takes place upon 

 Parasnath (4500 feet high) in Bengal, a mountain which may fairly be compar- 

 ed, as being very nearly as high as Puppa, and equally isolated. The lower level 

 to which temperate plants descend East of the Bay of Bengal has been attributed 

 to the greater moisture of the climate, but, in upper Burma, the rain fall must 

 be far less than in Bengal, and little if at all heavier than in the plains of the 

 Carnatic. It is scarcely possible that more rain falls on Puppa, separated from 

 the sea by the high range of the Arakan Yoma, than on Parasnath, with no such 

 barrier to intercept the moisture. 



