56 GRIMES: MYiNGYAN, MAGWE AND PAKOKKU DISTRICTS. 



or no grass growing on it ; on the pliocene hills almost the only 

 vegetation is the low almost shrub-like thorny acacia-trees (Acacia 

 ferruginea) and on the miocene hills the great majority of the trees 

 are either this same thorny acacia or a thick leaved euphorbia. 



Between the ranges of hills, however, there are large areas of 

 Plains between the flat or slightly rolling country which are covered 

 hl With recent alluvial vvit ^ recent deposits of an alluvial character 

 deposlts ' and here the appearance of the country is 



strikingly different from that in the hills ; a great part of it of which 

 and abundance of toddy the surface is covered by a sandy soil, is under 

 palms " cultivation being divided into fields or planta- 



tions of toddy palms, of which many hundreds may often be seen at 

 a. time ; in fact over a large part of the country covered by recent 

 beds the cultivation of the toddy palms and the manufacture of 

 jaggery from its juice is the staple industry. 



Along the western side of these districts the Irrawaddi river 



flows in a bed which is in most places about 

 The Irrawaddi. . ' * . 



three miles wide, but which is Only filled by the 



river at the end of the rainy season. At other times the river only 

 occupies a small part of its bed, the remaining part of it, which is 

 filled with alluvial sands, being largely under cultivation, and these 

 river deposits form the best agricultural land in the districts as the 

 crops on them do not suffer to such an extent as those in the adjoin- 

 ing country from the long drought during the dry season. Numer- 

 ous temporary villages are everywhere built on the sand-banks, 

 which are only deserted by the inhabitants when the floods rise up 

 to them. 



Running into the Irrawaddi there are very numerous stream beds 



Tributaries to the which with one exce P tion were all perfectly 

 Irrawaddi; mostly dry. dry during the whole of the time, November to 

 April, that I was in the country. The only permanently flowing 

 stream was the Pin Chaung which has its sources on Popa 

 mountain and the hills to the east of Myingyan district, and 

 along the greater part of its course it receives no permanent 



( 55 ) 



