TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
79 
son, we should not have been able to detect 
it. Accordingly it had not been noticed by 
the officers of the army, or other travellers 
who had passed, when the tree, which is de¬ 
ciduous, was not only out of flower but leaf. 
We did not expect to find the teak-tree so 
thinly interspersed in the common forest, until 
we had an opportunity of determining, by per¬ 
sonal examination, that this was the case in the 
hills before Prome. In what is properly called 
a teak forest, the teak prevails over all other 
trees, sometimes nearly to their entire exclusion. 
Sept, 19.—We left Tong-taong early this 
morning, and soon reached the village of Tha- 
ret (the Mango), which is situated on the west 
bank, and has the rank of a Myo. This was 
one of the largest places we had yet seen, and 
to all appearance the most thriving. A great 
number of boats were moored along the bank. 
Judging by the concourse of people who came 
down to gaze at the steam-vessel, it must con¬ 
tain several thousand inhabitants. The houses, 
as every where else, consisted of a light and 
frail fabric of bamboos, grass, or palm-leaves. 
Such a house is seldom worth more than forty 
current ticals, or 4/., and it is a splendid man¬ 
sion that costs 400, or 40/. With very few ex¬ 
ceptions, there exists no substantial structures 
