IRRAWADDI AT MALE*. 



103 



cultivated here ; plants taller than usual. The villages around are all 

 forsaken owing to one of them having been attacked by Khukeens, 

 and two men carried off. Hence the population at Tagoung, al- 

 though usually scanty, is now much increased from adjoining 

 places. A small river falls into the Irrawaddi immediately above 

 Tagoung. 



May \2th. — Reached Male* about 6 p.m. Passed en route a few 

 villages, none of any size or importance. The river varies in width, 

 t. e. the channel, from 400 to 600 yards. The banks are either al- 

 luvial or rocky, and there are hills on the right bank skirting the 

 river; those on the left, are more distant and higher. Borassus 

 commences to be common ; it is a taller, and more slender tree than 

 that of Coromandel, and the trunk is not covered with the persistent 

 bases of the petioles. 



The village of Tsebainago is opposite to Male, and appears nearly 

 of the same size. Both are situated close to the mouth of the third 

 Kioukdweng. Male contains 150 houses, all small; it is a place of 

 no trade. To the north is a hill forming the river bank, and cover- 

 ed with pagodas ; it is the prettiest place we observed after Katha. 

 The soil has now put on the dry sterile appearance of the Coro- 

 mandel coast, all the trees of which, except the figs, are common ; 

 and often render the banks very pretty. Tectona of Hamilton is 

 very common; it is a tree not exceeding in height 40 feet, much re- 

 sembling in habit the more valuable species ; the flowers are blueish, 

 particularly the villi ; the leaves have the same excessive rough feel. 

 Two other Verbenaceae, a curious Capparidea, caule laxo, foliis 

 lineari-oblongis, basi hastato-cordatis, and a Ximenia are common. 

 On the banks Stravadium, and an arboreous Butea, a Combretum, 

 are common. Low stunted bamboos likewise prevail; and all the 

 bushes are prickly. Nyctanthes is cultivated. The rocks as well 

 as those forming the Kioukdweng, are of coarse sandstone, here and 

 there affording nourishment to abortive Composite, stunted grasses, 

 Mollugo, etc. 



Left Male, and entered immediately the last Kioukdweng on des- 

 cending, or the first defile on ascending against the stream. This 

 is a pretty passage, and moreover has no dangerous places; the 

 hills are low, lower than those of the two former passes, con- 

 sisting of sandstone partially clothed with the same scanty vege- 

 tation, presenting the same barren appearance. Olax, Fici, Legu- 

 minosa, stunted bamboos, Hippocrateacea, Mimosa, and Stravadium, 



