August i, 1890.] 
usiannnoiaov nvoidoai awj. 
95 
A great deal of money has been spent by Grovernment, 
and some by private individuals upon the advice of 
the srentleman from Johore. Naturally, I went in 
this direction, first of all, to see for myself. I had 
the good fortune to be accompanied by the Deputy 
Commissioner, wlio was attended by an Extra Assistant 
Commissioner, a Burmese gentleman of many years’ 
residence in the district, and who had accompanied Mr. 
Watson to Natyaydoung. We traversed the tract 
which had been aligned in 1882, which may be described. 
There is a good driving road from Tavoy to Thatyat- 
choung, 18 miles, which is the anchorage of the mail 
steamers. This was our first stage, halting for the 
night in a Public Works Department resthouse. The 
second day’s fourney was a bridle path through forest 
11 miles to Pyweboogyee, 28 miles on to Sousin, on the’ 
Mindat river. We passed the night in the house of a 
villager, The next day commenced with the business 
of getting ferried over the Mindat river, which in this 
part is a broad stream. On the opposite bank the path 
runs over raised earth through paddy fields, and winds 
its way through the village of Yayngai across one or two 
nullahs, one in particular large and deep, the haunt of 
alligators, to Khedive. Prom hence the most direct 
wav would be onwards along the course of the old 
military road known as the Alompra Road, but the path 
here strikes to the coast. 
At Boktaung, literally on the sands, we breakfasted 
at midday. The track from here turns inland over 
slightly rising ground, and is entirely obliterated by 
numerous water channels impassable in the rains, and 
in which event at this, the most favourable season of 
the year, the water was sometimes up to the saddle. 
The last few miles of th'S stage run over open 
ground, offering poor pasturage from the inferior 
see't-bearing grass, and extending by a gradual slope 
to the base of the Natvaydoung range. The prospect 
is very picturesque. There is a perennial stream of 
good water dividing the lands which lie quite at the 
base of the range from the hither side, Kayinchoung, 
where we encamped for the night. This made three 
day.s’ iourney from Tavoy. On the following morning 
we visited the site of Mr. Schwaiky’s and the other 
plantations, and made the ascent of the hill side. The 
soil at the base I found to consist of clay and sand, 
each occasionally predominating, and at small depth 
the soil becomes gritty or gravelly. This arises from 
numerous concretions similar to kunkur some of a 
brick red, some of a black colour, forming strata run- 
ning in wavy lines through the soil. It was on land of 
this character that Mr. Scliwalky attempted to 
raise tobacco, and Messrs. Dixon and Theobald coffee. 
The ascent of the hill and the existence of a large tank 
of water at the highest point, evidenced that the 
character of the rock was igneous. The forest growth 
was so dense that with a number of coolies cutting 
the way ahead we were unable to ascend beyond 1,600 
feet (registered by the aneroid) without being belated 
or having to spend the night on the mountain side. 
But we obtained a sufficient view of the prospect to 
make it incomprehensible to my judgment how it 
should have been fixed upon as suitable for planters 
There is no hill side, but a series of stony ridges as 
it were buttressing the hill with steep declinations 
in narrow gorges between the ridges. The blocks 
have a general wesferlv aspect, exposing them to 
the force of the S. W. monsoon and a saline 
breeze all the year round. Again, if the soil were of 
the finest, the absence of properly maintained com- 
munication places the locality quite out of touch with 
the town of Tavov, 60 miles distant, where the s“ttler 
mu.st nccisionallv proceed for the transaction of busi- 
ness and for supplies. Supposing a party of coolies 
were sent down from Matvaydonng — the jnurn^v would 
take three days, and if they had to return wi’h loads, 
not. less than fo>ir or five days to get ba^W For four 
or five months in the year under existing circumstances 
it would he impossihle for coolies to get down without 
many risks from the flooded stste of the streams. Ten 
out of 20 coolies would never return, some would assur- 
edly bolt, and others would be stricken down with 
fever. The coolie difficulty in a wild region where the 
coolies were alien to the soil, and where they could not 
get their Ourrystuffs and accustomed food, and where 
the climate is tropical, would occasion, in respect of 
labour imported from Behar, a certain failure The 
latitude is exactly that of Jamaica, capable of produs 
cing coffee, and various remunerative products, such 
as indigo, which I found to be growing wild on 
the land skirting tbe ' base of Matyaydoung, 
There is no doubt that it is indigenous, and 
could be cultivated with profit. But the pros- 
peoting of land requires special knowledge of the 
onaraoter of the soil and of the most suitable 
crop to be planted thereon; and in this connec- 
tion the experienced planter will not so much regard 
the surface of the laud in growing coffee and other 
fruit trees as that the subsoil mnst be friable and drain- 
able, Olay land and rocky land is always water-logged, 
and especially detrimental to the cultivation of coffee 
and cinchona, 
£ have stated that the Burmese Extra Assistant Oom. 
missioner who piloted Mr. Watson accompanied the 
Deputy Commissioner on the occasion of my visit to 
Natyaydoung ; and from this gentleman, who has re- 
sided in the district for more than 30 years, I was able 
to gather a mass of valuable information with regard 
to oulturable lands elsewhere in the district. From 
what he told_ me I am inclined to the supposition that 
some confusion in two very similar names led to Mr. 
Watson visiting Natyaydoung in place of Nawadoung.' 
At anv rate, Moung Pet, the Burmese gentleman al- 
luded to, was very pressing that I sliou’d visit Nawa- 
doung, which lies in a vallev at the head of the Mindat 
stream on the eastern side of the Oxhump or Nawalabo 
range. There are said to be miles of rich undulating 
land, tbe produce of which might be carried away by the 
water carriage afforded by the Mindat river. The 
journey to this spot, however, involved three day.s by 
boat and canoe, and I was anxious to prospect the more 
central part of the district and the laud at the bead 
waters of the Tavoy river in a northerly direction. But 
still, in view of the Nawadoung valiey affordini' cul- 
turable lands accessible by the Mindat river, we" pro- 
ceeded to the mouth of that river, where it empties 
itself to the Tavoy river, as a likely site for the disem- 
barkation of coolies and stores, and for the establish- 
ment of a depot. The channel here is stated to be six 
fathoms, and navigable for some 14 miles. We en- 
camped on the river bank for the night, and returned 
to Tavoy by water in time for Christmas. It is note- 
worthy that there is an almost entire absencejof roads, 
and the interior portions of this district, which covers 
an area of 7,150 square miles, have apparently rarely 
if _ ever been visited by Europeans. No Deput Com- 
missioner in recent times has been here sufficiently 
long to^go much into the district, which is impenetra- 
ble during the rains, and malarious on their cessation. 
In these circumstances it cannot be too distinctly 
made known to the intending visitor desirous of pros- 
pecting for land, that he should provide himself with a 
complete camp ecquipment of furniture and cooking 
utensils, a cook, pony, and stores, and a well filled bag 
of rupees for the hire of elephants and coolie.s. 
I have pointed out that the demarcation of a pres- 
cribed area for the location of intending settlers was a 
blunder from the unsuitableness of the site fixed upon, 
and a double barrelled blunder in the sense that, while 
the varying soil of the district invites every description 
of cultivation congenial to the latitude and altitude, 
coffee cultivation would seem to have been a'one con- 
templated. The moral of it is that, in a district the 
area of which is 7,150 square miles, the re.spon.sihilitv of 
selecting land should rest with the settler. The dis- 
trict officer is not in a position to help him, at any 
rate much. Frequent changes of the Deputy Onm- 
misaioner have not allowed of the officer in charge 
gaining that knowledge of the district only to be ac- 
quired by person il visitation. Itis an absolute fact (hat 
the greater part of the Tavoy district is ferTO fncoyjnVa, 
and ])ortions of it would .seam never to have be n 
visited by any European within the memorc of local 
tradition. The absence of roads, the dense fore-t 
growths,and the consequent nnhealthiness of the interior 
certainly do not invito the district officer to penetrate 
the country^ and the obligation of his executive duties 
