£2 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
forms the beds of the torrents, and consists of very 
large blocks, some of them four and five feet in 
circumference. 
Dec. 31.—The impossibility of getting the 
steam-vessel off the sand-bank after many at¬ 
tempts, had still detained us here, and enabled 
us to add to our Geological and Botanical collec¬ 
tion. On the £8th, accompanied by Dr. Stewart, 
I took a walk of three miles on the carriage road 
which leads from Renangyun to the towns of 
Mait’hila and Ram a than, which are near each 
other, and distant fifty taings, or about one hun¬ 
dred miles. The way was over barren sand-hills 
intercepted by frequent ravines, and a country 
quite uncultivated, indeed incapable of cultiva¬ 
tion. We proceeded as far as a hill, a little higher 
than the surrounding ones, called Man-lan, which 
was strewed with broken fragments of a stone 
used by the natives for making tobacco-pipes. 
The rock looks as if it had been cracked or bro¬ 
ken into small fragments by a hasty drying, so 
that in some places the loose stones on the surface 
presented the appearance of a regular pavement. 
This, I may say, was the only place in this neigh¬ 
bourhood, where we had found a perfect rock; 
all the other stones which had any appearance of 
being so, having proved on examination to be 
nothing more than an alluvial formation or re¬ 
composed rock. The dry grass and shrubs on the 
hill had been just burnt, and it appeared that 
