TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
139 
from it,—oneof them to Ava: these are of a deep 
sand, and so narrow that two carts cannot pass 
abreast. The country on both sides of the river 
had been far better cultivated in the course of 
our journey to-day, than we had yet seen it. 
Still, a hilly range ran not far from both banks 
of the river, leaving the amount of level ground 
for cultivation very inconsiderable. These hills 
at Kyauk-ta-long came almost to the river-side. 
We ascended them, and found them from fifty 
to one hundred feet high, composed of sandstone 
in various states of induration, with embedded 
breccia and indurated clay, some of the last of a 
slatey texture. The rock had a more distinct stra¬ 
tification than we had before observed, the strata 
from the river side appearing at an angle of about 
fifteen degrees. Nothing in a tropical climate, 
at least, can be imagined more bleak and bar¬ 
ren than these hills* The bare rocks, even in 
this season of general verdure elsewhere, are con¬ 
stantly visible, and in the interstices between 
them the sand and gravel give birth only to 
patches of brushwood. The narrow valleys are 
however cultivated, and in these were growing 
rice, cotton, and sesamum, but in a very scanty 
soil. We met large flocks of very fine black 
cattle returning from pasture. The males are 
generally emasculated, and these alone are used 
