480 Note on the Discharge of Water, by the Irraivaddy. [No. 5. 



Note on the Discharge of Water, by the Irrawaddy. — By J. McClel- 

 land, Esq. F. L. $., Commissioner of Forests, Rangoon. 



At the request of Capt. Phayre, Commissioner of Pegu, aided by 

 Lieut. Nicholson of the 4th Seiks and the boats of the Hon'ble 

 Company's Steam Frigate Sesostris, I took the soundings and velo- 

 city of the current, at different points, across the bed of the Irra- 

 waddy at Prome, on the 14th and 25th of April last, with a view of 

 ascertaining the quantity of water discharged by the river into 

 the sea. 



From a river-guage kept on board the Sesostris anchored opposite 

 the wharf at Prome, (extracts of which are annexed,) it appears that 

 there was a fall of about twenty feet from October 1852, when the 

 place was taken, to February. 



How much the river had fallen prior to October when the guage 

 was first noted, is uncertain, as also the daily ratio of the fall during 

 the subsequent months of November, December and January, the 

 entries in the Sesostris' s log-book having at first been irregularly 

 made. 



The river, however, continued to fall until the 23rd of February ; 

 on the 26th and the three subsequent days, a rise, in all of eleven 

 inches, took place. 



This partial rise of eleven inches in February, was followed by a 

 fall of fourteen inches in March, with a slight rise of f of an 

 inch on the 24th, and again of two inches on the 29th of March. 



From this date until the 7th of April, the river again fell about 

 an inch daily, when it rose again five feet seven inches from the 

 8th to the 13th of April. 



These changes in the river appeared to take place without refer- 

 ence to the changes of the weather, or even of the season in Bur- 

 mah. On the contrary, the rains or S. W. monsoon, may be said 

 to have set in at Prome on the 16th of May, when some inches of 

 rain fell, and probably still earlier in the Arrakan and Moneepore 

 mountains, from which direction the Irrawaddy receives a consider- 

 able tributary, yet the river continued still to fall, so that on the 

 5th of June, it stood one foot lower than it stood on the 14th of 

 April. 



