YENANGYOUNG. 53 



g^oung the plateau represents the aspect of a perfect plain, slowly 

 risino- inland as far as the eye can see. But on closer examination 

 one is surprised to find this plain intersected by innumerable ravines 

 and gullies, producing thus the most rugged ground which it is 

 possible to imagine. 



At its highest point, Minlindoung, the plateau rises to 534 feet above 

 sea level, but its average height is not much above 480, that is to say, 

 about 250 feet above the high water level of the river. Excepting 

 the Pin-choung, which does not exactly come within the area here dealt 

 with, there is no stream containing water all the year round. Although 

 deeply cut into the ground the ravines are dry for nearly the whole 

 of the year, and only during the rainy season do they contain water - 

 but owing to their rapid fall the water is quickly discharged, and the 

 ravines remain dry till another downpour causes a fresh flood. It 

 is hardly possible to imagine the suddenness with which these tor- 

 rents appear after a heavy shower of rain, and how quickly they 

 subside again. I once witnessed the Yenangyoung stream, which 

 was nearly dry, rise within half an hour about five feet, and subside 

 to its former level within less than an hour, leaving its bed strewn 

 with masses of debris. 



It need hardly be mentioned that a country of this kind offers the 

 most serious obstacles to communication. The roads have to 

 wind about along the spurs and on the plateau, in order to avoid the 

 continuous descents and ascents when crossing ravines, so that a 

 distance of a mile in a straight line is generally doubled along the road. 



From a geological point of view, these ravines are very 

 favourable, as, owing to the dryness of the country, vegetation is 

 scarce, and thus the strata are scarcely hidden by the vegetable 

 growth, which in Burma generally conceals all stratigraphical features. 

 It is chiefly owing to these favourable physical conditions that it was 

 possible to study the geological structure of the Yenangyoung 

 oil field ; otherwise it would have been quite impossible to recognize 

 any of the subdivisions in this great thickness of arenaceous and 

 argillaceous beds, which are all exactly alike whether found at the 



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