22 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



and Teng-yiieh and a series of high mountain ranges 

 and deep narrow intervening valleys have to be crossed. 

 Lilley in 1907, after careful calculation, stated that the 

 ascents on the road pass through a total vertical height 

 of 26,680 feet, while the descents fall through 25,250 

 feet. The total rise and fall of the road amounts, there- 

 fore, to no less than 51,930 feet. The net difference 

 in elevation between Teng-yiieh and Ta-li Fu is only 

 1,430 feet, which means that the road, in the course 

 of its length of 170 miles, passes through a vertical 

 distance of nearly 10 miles. No less than eight great 

 depressions with high ranges between them are passed 

 in the short distance, and although there are only three 

 river basins included, viz., the Irrawaddy, Salween, and 

 Mekong, some of the tributary Streams are quite large 

 enough to be regarded as independent streams. 



Under the articles of the Man-waing agreement of 1902, the 

 proceeds of the mule tax, which is levied per head on 

 every mule which crosses the frontier may be devoted 

 for the repair, upkeep and policing of roads of the Teng- 

 yiieh and frontier areas, as well as for other municipal 

 and indemnity purposes. This tax was, prior to 1902, 

 collected by the Pao-chang office, which used to keep 

 up the obsolete Trade Protection Levy Corps, and by 

 the Sawbwas or chiefs of the States through whose 

 territories the trade routes ran. The tax is now collected 

 by the Customs Office in Teng-yiieh (founded in 1902), 

 and the funds, which are all allotted to the Sawbwas, 

 are sent to them, in return for which they have to 

 guarantee the safe passage of caravans through their 

 States. This agreement seems to work well on both 

 sides. 

 A road committee met from time to time to discuss questions 

 affecting the trade routes. This committee was made 

 up of the Commissioner of Customs and various Chinese 

 officials, while His Majesty's Consul in Teng-yiieh also 

 had a seat. In 1905-06 an attempt was made to improve 

 the road between Teng-yiieh and Yung-ch'ang Fu where 

 it crosses the Kaoliang Shan, the great mountain chain 

 which separates the valleys of the Shwe-li and Salween 



