CHAP TEE IX. 



PLATEAU LIMESTONE. 



Devonian Section. 



Although the formation now to be described extend? beyond the 

 ^ t limits of that part of the Shan States which 



may be strictly denominated a plateau, often 

 forming rugged and precipitous hills (such as the Myaleit daung, which 

 is so conspicuous a feature in the landscape to the south-east of 

 Mandalay that it at once attracted the attention of the first geolo- 

 gist who visited that city, Dr. T. Oldham, 1 who ascended it in 1855) ; 

 yet the name now given to it seems as appropriate as any that could 

 be devised, for this limestone is not only the most widely prevailing 

 rock that is to be found on the plateau of the Shan Hills, but it is 

 to the peculiar constitution and mode of weathering of this rock that 

 the distinctive characters of the upland plateaux are due. It is indeed 

 remarkable how these characters are reproduced 

 Plateau type of land- wherever a detached outlier of the limestones 

 SCape " occurs among the older rocks, evtn if it be of 



small dimensions ;— at Zebingyi for instance, where the toiling loco- 

 motive obtains a brief breathing space on the long ascent fiom the 

 Irrawaddy plains to Maymyo ;--and after some little experience the 

 mere appearance of the ground will always indicate whether the rock 

 below the surface belongs to this formation or not, even though not a 

 single outcrop of solid rock may be visible through the thick mantle 

 of red clay which usually conceals it. The prevailing type of scenery 

 is somewhat monotonous, wide shallow valleys, separated by low 

 .swelling hills or ridges, succeeding eacli other, their outlines smoothed 

 off by the universal covering of clay, except in the few places where 

 a scarp, usually indicating the line of a fault, presents a succession 

 of precipitous cliffs to the view, or where, one of the numerous 

 canyon-like gorges crosses the path of the traveller (Plates 2 and 10). 

 These rolling uplands are as a iule not well cultivated, for the soil is 



of poor quality, and naturally supports little but 

 Nature of soil F 1 y ' u /.f 1 , , 



coarse grasses and scattered oak trees, ana where 



it has formerly been cleared for cultivation, a low scrubby jungle. 



it is only in Ihc shallow vallevs, where the soil is enriched by 



1 H. Yule, Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855, Appendix, p. 336. 



