534 
PROCEEDINGS OE SECTION E. 
I fear the geographical discussion which followed displayed con- 
siderable ignorance and much ingenuity; but when, as chairman, I 
summed up, and told them its whole length was probably over 112,000 
sen* and that it took its rise among mountains 2,500 wahf in height, 
whereon the snow never melts, the air resounded with ejaculations 
such as u Mother ! it must bo very cold there”; and an elementary 
discussion ensued regarding the physical properties of ice, and the like, 
but the fact was evident that I was unanimously accorded a high place 
among good liars. 
Until the famous French expedition under de Lagree, practically 
nothing was known of the great river, and very little of the countries 
it flows through ; great hopes were entertained of its possibilities as a 
highway, and great anticipations were built on these hopes, and it was 
that expedition which first caused people to suspect they were illusory. 
Navigation . — Gamier gave his opinion against the navigability of 
the Mekong, and in weighing the value of that opinion it must be 
remembered that he was a sailor, and that when he wrote his opinion 
he had actually surmounted the rapids and experienced the difficulties 
which he concluded Avere too great for “ navigation.” 
And by navigation he did not mean a laborious hauling of small 
dug-out boats over the rapids, which by their journey the Frenchmen 
knew Avas possible, as they saAV the Lao people doing it every day of 
their lives, hut a regular and reliable passage of craft of some size and 
capacity at frequent intervals. 
We hear now that Avith infinite labour and pains the French have 
got a steam launch up above the Kemmarat rapids in the 16th parallel, 
whence she has reached Wien Chan at the upper end of a long reach 
of still waters in the 18th ; and that therefore the river is navigable. 
Navigability might be as Avell claimed for the jungles of East Africa, 
because steam craft have been taken through to the great lakes in 
pieces. 
A second fact which gives weight to Garnier’s opinion is that he 
saw the moods of the Mekong in all seasons of the year. No greater 
contrast can he imagined than that between the Mekong in dry 
weather and the Mekong after the rains and the snow-meltings, over 
forty feet above its old level ; and the tourist who sees it in one has 
no conception of the altered aspect of things in the other. 
That steamers can ply regularly in the intervals betAveen the bad 
rapids is obvious, as the average depths below Luang Prabang are from 
4 to 8 fathoms at low water; but for any regular navigation 
tramlines or roads will have to be constructed along the course of the 
worst series of rapids, if frequent danger and great expenditure of 
time are to be a\ r oided. 
Rapids . — The great series of rapids below Luang Prabang are 
four in number— the Keng Luang, Chieng Kan, Kemmarat, and 
Khong ; and above that place boats from Chieng Sen must go through 
the Fall Pa, Keng HaoAV, Keng La, and Ban Tanoon series. 
The length of disturbed waters varies. Those at Chieng Kan extend 
for the best part of 40 miles in succession, and the Keng Luang 
series are some 20 miles in length at low- water season. 
*40 sen=l mile. 
f Wah : Siamese fathom =6' 8". 
