412 



Captain Ilannaifs Route 



[Oct. 



On the 22d lliey at length set out, and the style of march was as 

 little in accordance with the military experience of our traveller, as 

 the previous encampment. " The men, to the number of 800, march 

 in single tile, and each man occupies a space of six feet, being obliged 

 to carry a bangy containing his provision's, cooking pots, &c. besides 

 his musket, which is tied to the bangy stick. This is the most common 

 mode of marching, but some of them carry their provisions in baskets, 

 which they strap across their forehead and shoulders, leaving their 

 hands free to carry their muskets ; but as to using them it is out of 

 the question, and 1 should say the whole party are quite at the mercy 

 of any tribe who choose to make a sudden attack upon them." On 

 reaching the encamping ground, however, these men gave proof how 

 well they were adapted to this mode of travelling, for in an hour after 

 their arrival, every individual had constructed a comfortable hut for 

 himself, and was busily engaged cooking the rice, which, with the ad- 

 dition of a few leaves plucked from certain shrubs in the jungle, forms 

 the diet of the Burman soldier on the line of march. 



The tract of country through which the party passed on the first 

 two days was hilly, and abounded in a variety of fine forest trees ; but 

 on approaching Numpoung, the second encampment, the country be- 

 came more open, and the pathway led through a forest of very fine 

 teak trees. The principal rivers all flowed from the Shuedoung-gyi 

 range of hills on the east of their route, and are at this season of the 

 year mere mountain torrents, with so little water in them, that the 

 path frequently passes over their rocky beds. The whole route from 

 Mogaung to the Hukong valley, may be described generally as pass- 

 ing between defiles, bounded by the inferior spurs of the Shuedoung-gyi 

 range on the east, and numerous irregular hills on the west; these de- 

 files form the natural channels of numerous streams, which, flowing 

 from the heights above, and struggling amidst masses and boulders of 

 detached rock, make their way eventually to the larger stream of the 

 Numkong, which unites with the Namyen at Mogaung. The only 

 traces of inhabitants perceptible in the greater part of this route were 

 a few cleared spots on the hills in the vicinity of some scattered Kakh- 

 yen villages, and a few fishing stakes in the mountain streams. Near 

 the mouth of the Num&ing Khyoung the party met with a few Kakh- 

 yen huts, which appear to have been constructed by that tribe, during 

 their fishing excursions ; and at Tsadozout, an island in the bed of the 

 Mogaung river, on which the force encamped on the 28th of January, 

 they passed the sites of two Kakhyen villages, and found the ground 

 completely strewed with graves for a considerable distance, the proba- 



