TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
127 
proceeded inland to a hill, on which we per¬ 
ceived the ruins of a temple or monastery. This 
eminence was about one hundred feet high, and 
composed of breccia. A flight of steps, consist¬ 
ing of blocks of sandstone of great length, led 
to it. The building, which had stood upon the 
hill, was a confused ruin, of which nothing 
could be made. It was said to have been a mo¬ 
nastery. The face of the country was prettily 
diversified with swelling grounds, and near the 
town were, as usual, many fine fig-trees, tama¬ 
rinds, and palmyras. There was a good deal of 
cultivation divided into small fields, surrounded 
by a hedge, composed of the dead branches of 
a thorny tree, the Indian plum, or %i%ijplius ju- 
juba. The soil, both here and at Pugan, is sin¬ 
gularly sterile, consisting of little else than sand 
and gravel, with occasional fragments of petri¬ 
fied wood. Even at this season the surface was 
covered with very little vegetation, but the little 
grass there was seemed of a good quality. At 
Pugan we had seen in the morning the pea¬ 
santry at work in the fields which lay among 
the ruins : their labour was harrowing,—the im¬ 
plement used consisting of a large rake, drag¬ 
ged by from three to four oxen abreast, which 
were managed by one man sitting on a cross¬ 
beam raised on two stanchions over the rake, 
