1865.] _ Notes of a trip up the Salween. 137 
hanging it by nearly half, is perched this wonderful boulder, which is 
about 30 feet high, and is surmounted by a small Pagoda about 15 
feet high. A rude bamboo ladder is leant against it on the inside, 
which enables an adventurous person to ascend. Every native will do 
this, but we, being both heavier and more awkward, preferred to 
remain at the bottom. 
Viewed on one side, it is difficult to understand why this rock does 
not slide off its shelving support into the valley below! As one looks at it, 
it appears as if, assisted with a little grease and a slight push, it must go ! 
But there it hangs, as it had hung, and I suppose, will hang yet,—one 
might indeed almost say, there it s/zdes and will s/¢de,—for many an age : 
*Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis evum;” unless some earth- 
quake (and a very slight one surely would do it) should rudely shake 
it from its precarious foundation. This place is annually visited for the 
purpose of worship by people from all parts of the country round ; 
many, I am informed, going to it even from Moulmein. Many were 
already there, and very many more shortly expected, as was shewn by 
the temporary booths of grass which had been erected, and were 
calculated to hold several thousand people. Altogether, this is a 
remarkable place, very little known, and well worthy of the trouble of 
visiting it from a long distance. 
I was disappointed, however, here, in a botanical point of view. 
I expected great things from a high mountain in a totally new part of 
the country; but I gathered scarcely anything. There were no 
Orchids at all. The Ferns, if any, were dried up; one or two new 
Acanthaceous plants alone rewarded my search. At this season the 
mountain is arid, and vegetation on it scanty, On the top there is 
little else besides long grass. 
We passed the night on the top; and descended on the opposite, or 
north side the next morning. Our ponies had been sent round, and 
were found waiting for us at the appointed place; and a ride of 18 miles 
: brought us by evening into Sittoung. From Sittoung to Shway- 
gyeen the distance is about 40 miles. After two or three days spent at 
Shway-gyeen in making preparation, Capt. Harrison and I started 
upon our walking trip to the Yoonzalin district. 
The Yoonzalin river is a tributary of the Salween and takes its rise 
in (about) Lat. 18° 30’ and flows in a very tortuous course, but in 
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