36 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



to voice an opinion, believes that it would prove a sound, paying 

 concern very soon after its completion. 



RAILWAYS. 



Early Railway proposals. — The idea of drawing the trade 

 of Western China to Burma is not a new one, for as long ago as 

 1831 Captain Sprye advocated the opening of a trade route for 

 this purpose. In later years Sprye proposed the construction of 

 a railway line from Rangoon into Siam, and from that country 

 northwards into the Shan States of Keng Tung and Keng Hung. 

 The first survey of a line northwards from Rangoon to Toungoo, 

 (a direction now followed by the main line of the Burma Railways), 

 was the only practical outcome of these proposals. About 1867, 

 when it became known that the Irrawaddy was navigable by 

 steamers as far as Bhamo, the railway question was again revived. 

 Cooper, who was at Batang in 1868, heard from a Chinese trader 

 " of the existence of a trade route from Bathang to Rooemah, a 

 town in the Tibetan province of Zy-yul, situated near the borders 

 of Assam, 20 days' journey distant." In later days there have 

 been others who have proposed to construct railways in this direc- 

 tion, thereby showing a lack of appreciation of the main points at 

 issue, for besides being almost an impossibility on account of the 

 topography of the country to be crossed, it is exceedingly doubtful 

 if such a line would benefit British trade if it were constructed. 

 In 1868 a British Mission under Colonel Sladen proceeded through 

 Burma and penetrated as far as Teng-yueh, the object being, In 

 the words of General Fytche, "to discover the cause of the cessation 

 of the trade formerly existing by these routes, the exact position 

 held by the Kakhyens, Shans, and Panthays with reference to that 

 trafl&c, and their disposition, or otherwise, to resuscitate it, also 

 to examine the physical conditions of these routes." 



A second mission under Colonel Browne in 1875 was repulsed 

 and attended by the tragedy of the death of G. A. R. Margary, 

 which resulted in the reports of the Grosvenor Mission, and the 

 published opinion of Baber on the Ta-li Fu Bhamo route, which 

 has been responsible for a greater amount of misunderstanding 

 on the subject than any other expression. Baber was not an 

 engineer, and it is a pity that his remarks on this route should have 

 been accepted for so long. In 1881 Colquhoun brought forward a 



