272 Notes on the Geology, #c. of Maulamyeng. [May, 



their neighbourhood. Attaining a considerable elevation, and run- 

 ning parallel to each other with a distance of some miles between 

 each chain, these mountain ranges form extensive valleys, covered 

 with water during the S. W. monsoon, and devoted for the greater 

 part to the cultivation of paddy ; what remains untilled abounding 

 with long grass, the coarser kind serving for house-thatch, and the less 

 rank affording pasture for cattle during the dry season. Except in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the limestone, where a fine black 

 loam prevails, and on the banks of the rivers and islands formed by 

 the constant accumulation of mud and silt, transported from a clay- 

 slate and limestone country, the greater part of the soil found in the 

 plains contiguous to Maulamyeng is an arenaceous clay, mixed with a 

 small portion of saline and vegetable matter*. 



The only ore that has been hitherto found in connection with the 

 sandstone is a " Sulphuret of Antimony," in a vein of quartz ; it is 

 found in the neighbourhood of Guangdey, and appears abundant. 

 Leaving Maulamyeng, and proceeding to the north, a few limestone 

 hummocks are seen on the right banks of the Than-lweng river, form- 

 ing part of the long but broken chain extending to the south-east via 

 Joe-ka-beng, Damatha, Nyown-beng-zeite, and Kyema-row. With an 

 aspect so different from that of the sandstone, these limestone rocks 

 present peculiarities of structure deserving mention ; although imme- 

 diately succeeding the sandstone, the S. W. chains of limestone, or 

 those first seen in contact with it, (advancing to the N. E.,) present 

 little or no signs of stratification. The limestone appears in detached 

 masses, rising, as it were, perpendicularly out of the earth ; and as 

 each mass preserves a similar direction with the one preceding it, the 

 range has, at a distance, the semblance of an extensive chain, conti- 

 nually broken and interrupted by some great convulsion in nature. 

 That the sea has covered the whole of this country, and probably at 

 no very distant period of time, is perceptible at the first view. Four 

 distinct epochs would also seem to be marked out. The two first 

 will include the formation of the primitive and secondary strata ; the 

 third, the up-heaving of these strata ; and the fourth, the presence 

 of the sea upon the whole. The shattered and divided limestone, 

 with its mural precipices and caverns ; the saline depositions so con- 

 stantly met with on the plains, and other appearances of a no less 

 conclusive character, attest the former existence and desolating 



* This saline matter is in some places so abundant, that the soil is collected by 

 salt manufacturers for lixiviation ; the liquid is strained off, and subjected to the 

 usual process of evaporation. 



