1861.] 
Thibet, Yunan and Burmah. 
379 
Now, this is the kind of preconception with which our worthy 
Vicar Apostolic starts, and we must try to eliminate this preconcep- 
tion from all his statements which it affects. 
It will be seen that he is describing a succession of parallel 
rivers, separated by parallel chains of mountains just as they have 
fixed themselves in his mind from his French map. His own 
position at Bonga he states to be in a valley of the mountains 
between the Lantsang Kiang (which is well known as the Chinese 
name of the Me-kong or great river of Cambodia), and the Louts 
Kiang, which is without doubt the Loo-kiang or Noo-kiang of 
our maps, the Salwen of Tenasserim. Bonga, he says, is near the 
great bending of these two rivers and in about 28° 15" latitude as 
well as he can judge. 
Westward of the Louts Kiang, at a distance of 30 miles, is a range 
of high mountains, and west of those “ a rather inconsiderable 
river” called the Kouts Kiang or Schete-kiang, which he describes as 
known in Yunan under the name of Loungchang-kiang, as flowing 
east of Tenine (or Theng-ye-choo,) and joining the Irawadi below 
Bhamo. 
This is so precise, that it is difficult not to accept it as derived 
from actual information. There can be no doubt that the descrip- 
tion of this Kouts Kiang in the lower part of its course applies ex- 
actly to the Shweli, a tributary of the Irawadi, which it enters in 
Lat. 24° nearly. It is variously described by the British officers who 
passed up the Irawadi in 1837 at from 300 yards to GOO yards wide 
at its mouth, full of shoals and discharging little water. The width 
however indicates that at times it carries a large body of water. 
It is mentioned by the Chinese geographers quoted by Klaproth 
under the name of Loung-cliuan-kiang, probably from its passing 
near Loung-chuen the Mo-wiin of the Burmese. It is on a small 
tributary of the Shweli that the celebrated ruby mines of Ava are 
found, and near its banks in former days stood two important cities ; 
that of Mweyen or Mauroya, the most ancient capital of the Bur- 
mese kings of sacred Indian descent, and supposed to be mentioned 
by Ptolemy as Maureura metropolis ; and Maulong the capital, in 
later times, of a Shan kingdom. 
Just a doubt remains whether this identity of the Kouts Kiang and 
the river Shweli is not suggested by his map rather than got from 
