GEOGRAPHY OF THE UPPER MEKONG. 
537 
relied on. His aneroid was carefully tested both before and after tbe 
journey, with excellent results. His readings at Tali correspond 
wonderfully with (xarnier’s ; and on comparison with his other 
recorded heights along the road there is every internal evidence of 
its correctness. The result is, then, that from the 25th to the 22nd 
parallel the Mekong succeeds in falling over 2,500 feet. The road 
crosses it at a spot where the river is deep and still, five marches from 
Talitu, where, as Mr. Baber says, it would be capable of boat 
navigation. It is impressive to think of what comes below that 
quiet reach. 
Shan States . — At Ohieng Roong, the head of the twelve States 
which used to form the Sibsong Para [I am adopting the spelling of 
McCarthy’s map, which represents the Siamese names], we have at 
last passed out of Yunnan and are among the Shans, a branch of the 
Tai race, first cousins of the Siamese.* 
Here it is that the Yunnanese caravans come down some 30 
marches out of Yunnan, crossing the Mekong on their way from Pnerk 
and Sumao, and striking up among the forests to Chieng Toong, a 
great central Shan market of some importance politically, and now 
under England, as having been one of the Burmese Shan States. To 
it Chieng Kheng, the small State lying to the east of it and on 
both sides of the Mekong, among others, owed allegiance ; and here, 
doubtless, will lie some of the work of the Anglo-French Boundary 
Commission, as that allegiance has been for some time uncertain and 
erratic. The commission is, in fact, to begin work in Muang Sing. 
The caravan route from Chieng Roong comes south along the 
water-parting, where it can clear the deeper streams, which, in the 
rains in all this country, become impassable torrents, hurling missiles 
in the shape of tree-trunks or boulders at the unwary traveller who 
thinks to swim them. 
Chieng Mai . — It is fifteen days’ march thence to Chieng Mai, the 
great Siamese-Lao trade centre, where there is quite a little colony of 
Europeans, consisting of a British vice-consul and outposts of several 
great trading firms, with a few American missionaries. This place, 
Lakon, and Raheiig are the centres of the Siamese teak trade. 
Caravans ( flaws ) . — The Yunnanese caravan men, known by the 
Siamese and Lao as “ Haws,” are many of them Mahomedans and 
remnants of thcTaiping rebellion. They were drawn principally from 
Yunnan, Kwangsi, and the neighbouring provinces of China; and 
mustering under different colours, from which they have got their 
names as Black Elags, Yellow Flags, and the like, they settled on 
Tongking, and have been a terror ever since alike to the French, the 
Anna mites, and the Lao districts round Luang Prabang and Chieng 
Kwang, which until lately were Siamese. 
As traders they are not much less objectionable to camp near 
than as warriors, if they substitute pitchforks and such simple arms 
for Remingtons and Sniders ; for, what with their habit of never 
* Since the above was written Chieng Roong, together with Muang Lein to the 
westward, have been ceded to China by the recent treaty. China, however, is not to 
cede any portion of either to any other nation without British consent. Northward 
the Salween, and to the southward the Mekong, form the frontier. The tendency of 
the treaty is to free trade between Burma and China, and free navigation is practically 
granted to Chinese trade on the Irrawady. 
