MALAYAN PENINSULA. I49 



incrusted with a calcareous salt. The water has no peculiar taste. There 

 is a mound on the eastward of the spring ; but no volcanic indications 

 were perceived in any direction. 



The great Tenaserim river was crossed in this route in a track, where 

 either perpendicular cliffs of granite, or wooded hills, hem it in on both 

 sides. Its bed is strewed with large blocks of the same primitive rock. 

 By leaping and stepping from one to the other of these, we crossed to the 

 east bank. The breadth is here, as far as I can recollect, (in the absence of 

 my notes) about thirty yards. It is quite impassable in the rainy season. 

 From the appearance of the stream here, I should be inclined to fix its 

 source somewhere about 15° 30' north. The road, distance to the top of 

 the Naye Ddiig Pass, is about sixty miles. In a direct line it is about 

 fifty miles. It was found impossible to march early in the morning, 

 owing to heavy dews and mist, and the whole day was often employed in 

 getting over ten or twelve miles — so difficult was the march rendered by the 

 necessity of crossing (often twenty times in a day ) mountain torrents, and 

 the streams they feed, and of ascending rugged beds of streams and 

 ravines, where the guides were not unfrequently at fault. A considerable 

 tract of tableland was passed over during the route. The average tempera- 

 ture of Fahrenheit's thermometer *was at sun-rise 64° — and at mid-day 

 74°. But it was often 72° at the former period, and 69° or 70° at the latter. 



The rocks at the pass could not be well examined, owing to the thick 

 jungle — but the surface is evidently a decomposing granite. From this 

 elevation, which I am not inclined to rate higher than three thousand feet, 

 four very distinct and higher ranges of hills were seen within the Siamese 



frontier 



* The month was one of the dry ones, 

 p 2 



I 



