TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
301 
ing. As far as we could determine, every part 
of the range is marble. At the foot, and close 
to the river, the rock contains, embedded, horn¬ 
blende and serpentine. This, which from its 
situation is most easily obtained, affords lime of 
inferior quality. The quarries towards the top 
of the ridge exhibit nothing but white marble^ 
in a high state of crystallization, and with few 
extraneous ingredients. It is however in small 
blocks, often undergoing decomposition, and its 
colour is less pure than that of the statuary mar¬ 
ble brought from a distance: it makes the best 
lime, which is sold on the spot unslaked, at the 
rale of twenty ticals of coarse silver for two 
thousand viss, or about eleven shillings and four- 
pence per ton. The quantity manufactured is 
very great, chiefly for the construction of tem¬ 
ples. With these the hills are crowded to an 
inconceivable extent. 
Two days ago, we had crossed the Irawadi to 
its eastern bank, where there is a rocky pro¬ 
montory, called Shwe-kyet-ret, (“ where the 
golden fowl scratches,”) with some spacious tem¬ 
ples built upon it. This exactly fronts the ter¬ 
mination of the ridge of Sagaing hills, which 
is also a bluff promontory; the river between 
them being very narrow, not, I suppose, ex¬ 
ceeding nine hundred yards in breadth. From 
