422 Itinerary in the district of Amherst, Tenasserim. [No. 5. 



along the Thanlweng {Anglice Sal ween) river as high as about 

 Lat. 17° 52' N. about which parallel commences the Shau territory 

 of Zimmey. 



Between the above parallel and that of 15° 20' N. the land slopes 

 down from N. E. and S. to the basin of Moulmein, so that at, or 

 close to that town, the waters of the Thanlweng from the 1ST., the 

 Gying from the N. E., and the Attaran from the S., all join together, 

 ere pouring iuto the sea. It is a rare topographical feature to 

 find rivers running in such directly opposite courses in so small an 

 area, and having their confluences at such obtuse angles as the 

 Gying and Houngthrau. It is evident however that the great 

 watershed is to the S. E. from whence the rivers flow, until stop- 

 ped by the drainage from the north, the main receivers of which 

 are the Thanlweng and Gying, into which the rivers from the 

 southward of necessity flow, and are forced back by the former into 

 a common current debouching into the Thanlweng. 



These rivers may be briefly thus described. The Thanlweng 

 which comes from far to the northward in a straight course and 

 from very elevated regions (perhaps 15,000 feet above the sea) is 

 clear, sandy and rapid ; until within forty miles of its mouth. The 

 Gying, a very short and tortuous river, is muddy, deep, and sluggish ; 

 and the Thoungyen, and Houngthrau are narrow, rocky, sandy, but 

 not very swift hill streams, of great length for their size ; wmile the 

 Attaran is muddy, narrow, slow, very deep, and navigable for one 

 fathom draught for about fifty miles from its junction with the 

 Gying. At this spot (fifty miles up) two hill streams, the Zum- 

 mee, and the Wenyau, clear, sandy, shallow, and not very rapid, 

 join ; and their united waters constitute the Attaran. 



The whole of the country traversed by these rivers may be briefly 

 described as buried under one vast forest, dense in the hills and 

 their spurs, and on the banks of the streams running from them ; 

 and opening out into extensive swamps between the rivers, where 

 the ground usually sinks below the level of drainage, and, being 

 annually flooded by heavy rains, does not admit of the growth of 

 forest trees, or of more persistent vegetatiou than giant grasses and 

 Arundinaceous plants. Between these two extremes, the natural 

 slope of the land admitting of drainage, and consequently of 



