420 The Question of British Trade ivitk Western China. [N 4 



for one day's journey, and then for five days to be a most intricate 

 series of shallows, islands, channels, and sandbanks, to where the 

 Momeit river falls into it. One day leads to Momeit town, and at two 

 or three days' boat journey from the junction, the Kakhyen mountains 

 are met with, and further progress stopped by the rocks of the ravines 

 from which the river issues," 



In the dry season, boats drawing three feet can ascend to Momeit. 

 In the summer floods, the largest boats, of 80 and 100 tons can go up 

 for two or three days' journey beyond the junction of the Momeit stream. 

 The river is so winding however, that nine days' journey by the river 

 can be accomplished in four by land, and except for rafts of timber, 

 bamboos and pickled tea, and boats with heavy cargoes, the river is not 

 much used, the land routes along its course being much more convenient 

 for the lighter traffic. The lands near its banks are very low, are flooded 

 in the rains, and reported to be very unhealthy. I may mention too 

 that Kakhyens are " about," even to within a few miles of its month. 

 They come down from the hills, and burn the jungle lands on the 

 plains for " Toungya" cultivation, and make all the roads unsafe. 



The other river is the Taping. This too comes from Yunan 

 through the same ranges of mountains, and falls into the Irrawaddy. 

 Like the Shoaylee, it is worthless as a guide. I went up it as far as 

 a boat could possibly go, except in the driest season. Issuing from 

 the hills, about 15 miles E. N. E. of Bammo, near the site of the 

 ancient Shan town of Tsempenago, or the " old Bammo," it is so far 

 a quiet river, of a breadth varying from 100 yards to half a mile, (and 

 now and then enclosing islands, half a mile or more in length, between 

 its channels,) and of depth sufficient even in the driest seasons to give 

 passage the whole way to boats drawing two or three feet of water, 

 and often showing no bottom at two fathoms. In the freshes it rises 

 some 15 feet or more and overflows its banks ; it takes a moderately 

 winding course to reach the great river at Suseewah, a couple of miles 

 north of Bammo. 



At the point reached by my boat, a few miles within the defile by 

 which the creek comes through the hills, I found the first of the rocky 

 portions that make navigation impossible, and from the manner in 

 which, at that season of the least water, the stream poured through 

 between immense rocks of silicious mica schist, polished and burnished 

 by the friction of the summer flood, I was convinced that if but a slight 



