^70 Dr Hamilton 0 ^ a Map hy a Slave to the 
think, hardly be questioned. It is by no means injprobable that 
it was occasioned by fires, rumiing on those immense prairies 
that furnish annually such vast quantities of combustible mate- 
rials. We are told that these prairies are covered with a 
coarse kind of grass, which, before the country is settled in their 
vicinity, grows to the height of six or seven feet This ve- 
getation, another writer observes, becomes sufficiently dry to 
burn during the long dry season, called the Indian Summer ; 
which commences usually in October, and continues a month 
and a half or two months, daring which the vegetation is killed 
by the frost, and dried by the sun ; the wet prairies are also 
dried, and before the season has expired, the grass is perfectly 
combustible *f*.” In order the more easily to take their game, 
and to facilitate travelling from one hunting ground to another, 
the Indians, we are informed, occasionally set fire to the prairies 
towards the close of the Indian summer.” 
Aet. X, — Account of a Map hy a Slave to the Heir-apparent 
ofAva. By Frai^cis Hamilton, M. D. F. B. S. Lond. & 
Edin., and F. A. S. L. 8? E. Communicated by the Author, 
This Map (Plate IX.) contains the Mranma territory between 
Pre or Prin, and Taunu on the south, and Amarapura on the 
north. It is evident, that no scale can be adapted for this map, as 
the five days’ journey between Pre and Taunu are longer than 
the six days’ between the latter and Taunduaengri; and the seven- 
teen leagues between Taunu and Mrofla, are much longer than 
the thirty-seven leagues between the latter and Gnaunduaen. 
The reason, perhaps, of • these inaccuracies was, that in these 
southern parts, the composer had qo places of consequence to 
fill up the space, and, therefore, did qot proceed from stage to 
stage, taking room for each, as in the more occupied parts to- 
wards the north. 
* See Atwater’s Letters to Professor Silliman on the Prairies of the West, pu- 
blished in The Arfiencan Journal of Science^ vol. i, p. 116. 
See R. W. Wells’s communication on Praip^s, published in the same work, 
vol i. p. 334 
