1864.] The Question of British Trade with Western China. 421 



rise were to take place, no boat could even approach where we then 

 reached, much less go beyond. There was seen indeed more than 

 enough to verify the description given by the Shans of the utter impos- 

 sibility of using the stream for navigation. As to depth, we could reach 

 no bottom at 12 feet, even between rocks only 6 or 8 feet apart. 

 Below these rocks the river was like a long placid pool, at the bottom 

 of a deep ravine whose sides were clothed with luxuriant jungle. It 

 is about 50 yards broad, the current on the surface scarcely perceptible, 

 but the depth must be great, for within three feet of the water's edge, 

 the 12 feet pole could find no bottom 3 Immediately on leaving the 

 hills, the river spreads itself and begins to form large sandbanks 

 and islands between its banks as above noticed. 



The mountains just spoken of are the next claimants to atten- 

 tion. I regret very much that I have only been a few miles among 

 them. From what I saw at that partial close inspection, and from 

 the neighbourhood of Bammo and Sauwaddy, and from the information 

 I have gathered from various sources, I believe that they consist of 

 an irregular triple range of hills composed of limestone, mica-schist, 

 gneiss and other primary rocks, running down from the mountain 

 chaos at the east end of the Himalayas, where the Irrawaddy has its 

 sources, and forming the boundary wall, as it were, between the high 

 lands of Yunan, and the valley of the Irrawaddy. On the north it 

 joins the mountains of the first defile, and on the south is connected 

 with those pierced by the second, and it is, I believe, continuous with 

 the range that passes east of Mandelay, down through Karennee to 

 Martaban. The general width of the range, opposite the Bammo basin, 

 varies from thirty to fifty miles. The Irrawaddy slope, about 15 

 miles east of Bammo, is much deeper than that towards Yunan. The 

 average height of the western ridges, I guessed to be about 2000 feet. 

 The number of passes into and through them as shown by Map No. 2 

 confirms the belief suggested by their appearance, that they do not 

 form any thing like the obstacles to transit that the more southern 

 portions of the range do. They can be traversed, in fact, from the 

 Bammo to the Yunan side in as little time as is required to merely to 

 ascend from the plain opposite Ava to the plateau of the Shan country 

 by the Netteik Pass. Of the various routes marked in the Map No. 2 

 those from Ingtha to Wannim and from Monmouk to Lucylin, are 

 the most used ; but those to Maingmo have to traverse the least difficul- 





