1862.] Literary Intelligence, 8fe. 295 



While at Bouk, I obtained information of some iron stone similar 

 to that at Seebeing being found on the east side of the same moun- 

 tain whose west foot shows the oxide at Seebeing. From Seebeing 

 to that spot is four miles, from it to the foot of the mountains two 

 miles, from the foot of the mountain, carts can come to a ferry on 

 the Ongbringle, and all difficulty ceases. From Seebeing itself the 

 villagers can come to Mandaley and return half way the same day, 

 by a rugged pathway through a pass in the mountains. If the ore 

 be, as I see no reason to doubt, in immense quantity, the reduction 

 of it on the spot where wood and charcoal are to hand ad libitum, 

 or the transit of the ore to the river, would be both feasible and 

 immensely profitable. I assayed the ore and obtained 68 per cent, of 

 pure iron. I smelted some with limestone, and made it into steel, 

 by the Woots process. 



It was pronounced by the French mechanic in charge of the 

 Prince's foundry equal to the best steel purchased from Calcutta, as 

 English steel, and made into chisel, &c, that cut the said English 

 steel. The mechanic told the Prince, that if he could get this steel, 

 he should require no more foreign steel for the purposes of the work- 

 shop. The price of the " English steel" mentioned is seventy-six 

 rupees a hundred viss. 



Mandaley, May 2nd, 1862. 



If you know from other accounts the real state of Yunan, you will 

 not be surprised that I am still in Mandaley. Nothing could be 

 done, beyond getting one's throat cut in vain, in the Chinese terri- 

 tories bordering on Burmah. The rebellion is over, the suspicious 

 calm I spoke of in my last to you, has broken up into general 

 lawlessness, rapine, and anarchy. Village plunders village, every 

 man's hand is against his neighbours. Famine and distress have 

 swelled the numbers of robbers and pillagers. If a Chinaman comes 

 through the passes it is in flying from his enemies without goods or 

 property and often leaving his children or his wife in the hands of 

 the successful insurrectionists. 



The Kakoos or Kakhyens have been drawn into the strife, or ra- 

 ther the universal scrimmage. They are plundered and forced to join 

 their plunderers in the next expedition of rapine. 



Again I think it would have been useless to attempt the journey 



2 q 



