1864.] The Question of British Trade with Western China. 415 



slope that the most enterprising engineer would think of attempting 



to make available to a Eailway Company who wished to make their 



undertaking pay. The passes by which the natives go from the plains 



to the high lands are few, and are all reported to be difficult and 



tedious, even for the pack animals that now form the only means of 



transit for goods. The ascent once accomplished, hills and undulating 



ground at a general level of about 3000 feet continue to be the 



features of the country till the valley of the Salween is reached. 



Here a descent is to be accomplished, and if the Salween be navigable, 



the difficulties are over. But if, as I fear and expect, that river is 



not available for either steamer or extensive boat traffic, another ascent 



has to be made on the other side of the Salween, and a still less 



known series of mountain ranges and high lands must be traversed to 



reach the Cambodia. This, a much larger river than the Salween, has 



the character in Upper Burmah at least, of being like it, too rapid 



and too rocky to serve as a highway of trade. It is at any rate from 



just below Kiang Hunggyee to Kyangtsen, (i. e. from Lat. 20° 30' to 



22°) full of rapids, over which only small boats can be dragged safely. 



Beyond the Cambodia, are mountains again, and no one knows 



what difficulties lie between that river and Esmok, wherever that may 



be, so that, after all, the route ends in the same unknown region 



and reaches the same undesirable goal as that advocated by Capt. 



Sprye. 



It has been proposed as the best route by H. M. the king of Burmah 

 himself, to start from the river at the capital and follow the ancient 

 trade route of Thongze, Theebo and Theinnee ; and, as far as I am in a 

 position to judge, I think this route to be freer from physical 

 obstacles than any more Southern one. The Irrawaddy conducts you to 

 within 20 miles of the passes up into the Shan plateau. These passes, 

 however, I believe to be quite impracticable for either rail or tram- 

 way. In 1861 passing along the westernmost ridges of the mountains 

 where the Theinnee route pierces them, I had to go by paths at a 

 height of over 5,000 feet (by barometer) above the river flats. I 

 have been up and down the western face of the range in that 

 neighbourhood by four different routes, each of them precipitous and 

 not only at present impracticable, but, as far as one, without engineer- 

 ing experience, can judge, such that it appears impossible to make them 

 available for any kind of rail or even tramway, without an expenditure 



