58 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
In the evening, Dr. Wallich and I landed 
on the western bank of the river, opposite to 
the town. The rock was exposed in a great 
many situations on the shore, and consisted, 
wherever we examined it, of a calcareous sand¬ 
stone, of a pale red colour. The hills on both 
sides of the river are steep, but I think scarcely 
any where exceeding two hundred feet high. 
One cliff, which I attempted to ascend, consist¬ 
ed of red clay, in which was intermixed a large 
proportion of quartz pebbles. The ground was 
at once so loose and slippery that I could not 
succeed in scrambling up. These pebbles are 
probably the debris of a breccia, similar to what 
we met yesterday. I picked up on the shore 
the first specimen I had met with of the petri¬ 
fied wood, which is known to be so abundantly 
scattered over the face of the country between 
this place and Ava. In one spot on the shore 
I met with some blue indurated clay, and 
among it one piece of rolled petroleum, of the 
appearance and consistence of dark-coloured 
rosin. In many situations, mango and tama¬ 
rind-trees, with the Clitoria ternatea , balsams, 
and other exotics, were frequent, from which 
appearance there is little doubt but the bank 
of the river opposite to Prome must have been 
once inhabited. At present it is one deep 
