146 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Notes made on descending the Irrawaddi from Ava to 

 Rangoon, 



[28M May. — I left Ava and halted about two miles above Menboo. 



29th May. — Continuing the journey, the country appears flat with 

 occasionally low hills as about Kioukloloing, no large villages occur • 

 the river is sub-divided by churs ; no large grasses to be seen, and 

 the vegetation is arid. Bombax is the chief tree : Mudar and Zizyphus 

 occur : Guilandina, Crotolaria a large Acanthacea, and a Jasminioides 

 shrub are the most common plants : Borassus is abundant : Fici occur 

 about villages. The banks are generally sandy, not high. 



Yandebo. This is a wretched village ; barren plains bounded to 

 the east by barren rather elevated hills ; base jungly. Observed 

 the tree under which the treaty was signed with the Burmese at the 

 close of the late war. It is an ordinary mango, near a pagoda on a 

 plain with two large fig trees. I counted to-day 28 boats sailing up 

 between this and our halting place of yesterday, mostly large praows. 

 The banks present few trees, are flat, barren, and from being occasion- 

 ally overflowed, adapted to paddy. 



Halted at Meengian, which is a middling sized village on the left 

 bank, about a mile below Tarof myoo. 



30th May. — I made an excursion into the country which is dry, 

 barren, and sandy, with a descent towards the banks of the river. 

 Zizyphus, Acacia, Euphorbia 20 feet high, Calotropis, Capparis 2, etc., 

 occur all the same as before, only one Ehretiacea appears to be new. 

 Hares are very common. Likewise red and painted Partridges, and 

 Quail. Carthamus and Tobacco are cultivated, specially the latter at 

 Meengian. The most common tree here, is Urticea procera ? which 

 has always a peculiar appearance. The country towards Pukoko 

 becomes prettier, the left bank wooded, and the ground sloped very 

 gradually up to Kionksouk, which is barren, and 2,000 feet high at 

 least, with the slopes covered with jungle. 



3\st May. — Passed Pagam, a straggling town of some size, famous 

 for its numerous old pagodas of all sorts. The surface of the country 

 is raviny, and the vegetation continues precisely the same. Below 

 Pagam, the range of low hills becomes very barren : altogether the 

 country is very uninteresting. 



