358 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
only child of the King and Queen. The amount 
paid by each family of the salt manufacturers 
is two ticals and a half of flowered silver, besides 
corvees and personal services. 
The portion of the Sagaing range of hills 
which is composed of granular limestone, or 
marble, is steep, craggy, and with a very scanty 
vegetation. Proceeding northward, the range 
is lower, less steep, and the blue limestone is 
much decomposed. The hills are here covered 
with a tolerably thick brush-wood, and cultiva¬ 
tion then commences for the first time, in a nar¬ 
row valley extending nearly to the salt lake: it 
consists of cotton and millet in the dry lands, 
and in the lower parts of rice: the crops ap¬ 
peared very thriving. 
We had the pleasure to receive this evening 
a large packet with newspapers, public dis¬ 
patches, and private letters from our friends at 
Rangoon, India, and England. This was the 
first communication that we had had from Ran¬ 
goon after a stay of near six weeks. The op¬ 
portunity was purely accidental; and for the 
security of the packet, Sir A- Campbell had 
found it necessary to send a party of Sepoys in 
charge of it. The bare sight of letters, especi¬ 
ally those of strangers, excites the utmost sus¬ 
picion in the minds of the officers of the Bur- 
