1 iO Notes of a trip up the Sahveen. [No. .5, 



and cover the mountains from top to bottom. In many places it is 

 the only tree visible. It attains a considerable height, 80 to 100 feet, 

 and are, (the full grown ones) 8 to 9 feet in girth. The temperature 

 of the tract or belt of country where the Fir grows, as I said just now, 

 is extremely low. In the month of January, Capt. Harrison informs 

 me, (for he had been here in that month) there is hoar frost, and a 

 thin covering of ice forms on a basin of water by the morning. Even 

 in March we found the nights and mornings so cold, that we were glad 

 of thick over-coats and a blazing fire of Pine logs. At 11 and 12 

 o'clock in the day, and while walking in the sun, the heat was not 

 unpleasant. The vegetation gave indications of low temperature. I 

 gathered violets in the valleys. Bubus was met with ; and instead of 

 the Acanthacece and Zingiber acece : which cover the hills to the south 

 but which were not seen here at all, Composites (among them a large 

 Carduus) abounded ; many of them attaining to the dimension of large 

 shrubs. The Comjiositce, however, were not confined to the Fir tract. 

 Of Epiphytic Orchidece, there were none : though I dare say that, in 

 the rainy season, the terrestrial kinds would be numerous. As the 

 forests were dry, ferns were scarce, though I was gratified at finding 

 that singular little tree fern " Brainea insignis" in large quantities. I 

 had never met with it before. I gathered also Adiantum flabellulatum 

 and Lindsa-a tenuifolia* 



Immediately we crossed the watershed to the eastward, though still 

 among the mountains, the Fir trees ceased, and it became very hot ; 

 and so it continued when we turned southward and crossed again into. 

 the Yoonzalin valley. It is only in the upper Yoonzalin that the tem- 

 perature is so remarkably low, and that the Fir forests exist. Strange, 

 however, to say, the Fir reappears in the Tenasserim provinces at 

 Myawaddee, on the Thoung-yeen, some 50 miles due east of Moulmein,. 

 and thence stretches southwards for several miles, as I have myself 

 seen. The tree there does not form forests, but is sparsely scattered 

 among other trees ; nor does it grow so large. But, and this is most 

 ^emarkable, in the Thoung-yeen valley, it is found on hills only about 

 1000 or 1500 feet high, and descends nearly to the river ; therefore in 

 many places, cannot be more than 300 or 400 feet above the level of 

 the sea ; and this in N. Lat. 16.° ! 



Shortly after passing out of the Fir forests I was delighted to come 



