TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
IS 
breccia with much iron. The debris of it was scat¬ 
tered over the sand-bank, and consisted of quartz 
pebbles and clay iron ore, among which were many 
fragments of petrified wood with calcareous incrus¬ 
tations formed upon branches and roots of trees. 
We found one fragment, which we supposed to be 
fossil bone. Scattered through these ingredients 
were to be seen pieces of wood, and a few bones 
of quadrupeds undergoing the usual process of 
decomposition without the slightest appearance of 
being turned into stone, according to the popular 
opinion; which shows plainly enough that the 
waters of the Ira wadi have no power of petrify¬ 
ing such objects, and that the process by which 
petrifactions of vegetable and animal substances 
are formed is owing to some other agency. The 
steam-vessel passed the reef of rocks this morn¬ 
ing, and we followed her about eight o’clock. At 
twelve we passed the flourishing village of Pa- 
kok’ho, where, in going up, we had seen so many 
trading vessels. There were now few, for the 
greater number had taken their departure for 
Rangoon and other parts of the lower country. 
We stopped for the night at Nyaong-ku, which, 
as before mentioned, is a suburb of Pugan, and 
the most noted place in the country for the manu¬ 
facture of lacker-ware. Immediately above this 
place, and to the distance of about a mile, the 
banks of the river are high, often not less than 
sixty feet, and nearly perpendicular: they chiefly 
