INTRODUCTION. 



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plateau. In order to reach similar ground in the Himalaya it is 

 necessary to travel over a thousand miles from the sea-board by 

 rail, and then march for many days by slow stages through the 

 outer hills, before reaching the field of operations. Even then the 

 fossil if erous strata must be sought along the faces of mighty pre- 

 cipices in an extremely rarefied atmosphere, where physical powers 

 of no mean order are requisite, in conjunction with a trained head 

 and steady nerve, to preserve the collector from accident ; and 

 although the magnificence of the scenery is some compensation for 

 these drawbacks, the labour and expense of such an expedition is 

 sufficient to deter all but a few, and those for the most part 

 professional geologists, from attempting it. In the Indian Penin- 

 sula the only easily accessible fossiliferous rocks are the plant beds 

 of the Gondwana coal-fields ; and though I would not depreciate 

 the interest and systematic value of such relics of the past, there 

 is no comparison, in my mind at least, between the satisfaction, 

 or I would rather put it the joy, of collecting specimens of leaves, 

 and that of knocking out with the hammer a trilobite or a 

 graptolite. 



In the Shan States the conditions are much more amenable. 

 The railway journey from Rangoon, which is connected with Liver- 

 pool by a direct and excellent line of steamers, to Maymyo, on 

 the plateau itself, is only one of 428 miles. It is possible to visit 

 some of the most prolific and interesting fossiliferous localities by 

 leaving Mandalay in the morning and returning to one's hotel the 

 same evening ; while by means of the railway most of the geology 

 of the plateau can be studied in comfort, and a little forethought 

 and arrangement will enable the geologist to visit places at a 

 considerable distance from the line. It is a delightful country to 

 travel in, one of open park- like savannahs watered by clear rivers, 

 whose waters afford fair sport to the angler, and whose banks 

 furnish the most pleasant camping grounds. It is inhabited by a 

 peaceful, hospitable people, industrious in their own way and much 

 addicted to trade, who, if the traveller can find no open spot on 

 which to pitch his tent, will freely place the enclosure of their 

 picturesque monasteries or pagodas at his disposal, and are generally 

 willing to assist him. The ethnologist would find a wide field of 

 research open to him here, for types of several races and tribes 

 may be met with in the course of a single day's journey ; and 

 equally so the zoologist and botanist, for these subjects have hardly 



