640 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
western bank ; but the river became clearly impracticable, and at 
Chieng Itoong they struck across to the north-east to Sumao, up to 
Talifu and into China. 
Prom Chieng Sen downwards we enter upon a very different 
phase of the river ; and to the Lao peoples along its banks, differing 
as they do, it becomes a high road — and therefore useless as a true 
frontier. To them it takes the place of elephants, mules, or oxen ; it 
provides them with fish and gold ; they build and live along its edge, 
and people it in tale and story by the aid of their wondrous imaginations 
until it is to their minds the source of all things — a great Presence and 
almost a being. 
Railways and Yunnan. — M Chieng Sen we are at the entrance to 
a fine plain which may in the future become better known ; for here 
•we are in the track of the railway which Messrs. Holt, Hallett, and 
Colquhoun have so long and so earnestly advocated, and we are at the 
one door of South-western Yunnan which can ever be opened to 
trade. That, at least, is their opinion, as it seems to be that of Mr. 
Archer, who is the British vice-consul at Chieng Mai. 
And when one comes to look at the facts of the Bhamo, Tacaw 
Perry, or Toughing routes (and the latter can after all only touch East 
Yunnan) one is fain to think they have judged rightly, although I 
take it they have slightly under-estimated their heights in the Mekok 
Talley, as I think they have over-estimated the populations to he 
passed through, 
The question, of course, rises as to whether the trade of South- 
western Yunnan is worth the expensive process of tapping by railway. 
Arguing ou the number of caravans which come through (in lattor 
years as many as thirty and as few as six) will give no clue to go upon, 
nor. in my opinion, does the existing state of trade in Yunnan, or the 
existing density of population in the Lao States and the Sibsong Para, 
seriously affect the question. Por it must be remembered that war, 
rebellion, and robbery have devastated all these countries but recently. 
Their evidences are on every hand, and their results terribly apparent. 
At the present day it looks as if the population, which has 
received a series of checks, is reviving under the present influence of 
peace and by the aid of the steady migration from peoples on the 
north and east, According to those who have travelled in them, the 
countries themselves, whether the rice plain of Talifu, the tea lands 
of Puerh, or the plains and teak forests of Chieng Sen, are capable 
of supporting large populations and of enormous improvement. 
Nature has made these places hard of access, and man has not done 
them justice. 
If man will at last make an opening for them, and by the magic 
of the iron road tame the spirits which so much interfere with com- 
munication between place and place — the jungles are full of them I 
assure you on the evidence of the most reliable Lao you could meet — 
ihen I for one, who am an enemy of railways, because they generally 
bring in their train billycock hats, brandy, and bad manners, cannot 
but admit that there is a most hopeful outlook for British trade. 
Both Lao and Yunnanese, even malgre the present difficulties of 
travel, are eminently traders, and enterprising to boot. Many a Lao, 
for want of elephant or oxen or a handy river, will shoulder his pack 
