224 Account of a visit to Puppa doung. [No. 3, 



tion has removed all traces of the vent and left a solid projecting 

 mass, with a shelving top. It is precipitous on every side, and all 

 my endeavours to climh it were useless, for although, in one place, 

 I reached within ahout 100 feet of the top, I could not get higher 

 without a ladder. The Burmese said that formerly it could he scaled, 

 but some rocks had since fallen down, and now they could only get 

 up by means of bamboos. As I had so little time, I would not waste 

 it by waiting to make a ladder, but went on to examine the beds 

 forming the scarp already referred to as surrounding the mountain. 

 The results, which I only made out clearly on the following morning 

 on my way down from the mountain, when returning to Pagan, were 

 the following. 



The great terrace consists of sands and sandy clays generally 

 horizontal, but occasionally disturbed, probably by dykes, which 

 abound in the neighbourhood of Toung -gala and in some other places. 

 On the top is a cap, varying in thickness, of ash beds and lava flows. 

 This cap is beautifully seen on some small outliers detached from the 

 terrace and called Toung-thong-loon (the three hills) which lie 

 about three miles west of the village of Puppa, and consist of sand 

 with a covering thirty or forty feet thick of volcanic ashes, upon 

 which rests lava of about the same thickness. All of these lavas 

 are of the same character as the rock of Toung-gala, but less dis- 

 tinctly crystallized.* From opposite the most southerly of the 

 Toung-thong-loon, a valley excavated by a stream, the head-waters 

 of which supply the village of Puppa with water, extends for some 

 distance into the hill, and its precipitous sides, where not concealed 

 bytatees, shew the fine section given beneath. The thickness assign- 

 ed to each bed is only approximate, as the sides of the valley were, 

 in most places, too nearly vertical to be accessible. 



1. Lava of variable thickness capping the whole. 



2. Soft sands and sandy clays, yellow and greenish 



with black specks ; micaceous, about 80 feet. 



* I am not quite certain whether the mineral I have called augite may not 

 be hornblend. A few detached crystals which I found among the ash beds near 

 the top of the mountain had the crystalline form of the latter mineral. The 

 mass of the lava is grey and somewhat resembles phonolite, but is beautifully 

 marked by the black nugite (or hornblend) crystals. It would be a beautiful 

 etone for ornamental purposee. 



