TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
29 
Waiting for one about four or five miles below 
Lungyi, I landed about noon, with Dr. Wallich, 
on the western bank, and made a shox t excursion 
into the forest, which was low and scanty. In¬ 
stead of the verdant appearance which it presented 
in coming up during the rains, it was now parched 
and withered, and had a very dreary aspect, the 
trees already beginning to lose their foliage. In 
March and April, the scene is still more unpro¬ 
mising. The soil was poor and gravelly, and at 
the place where we landed there was not the 
least appearance of cultivation. We observed* 
however, several cart-roads intersecting the forest, 
and villages surrounded by patches of culture 
were at no great distance. The rock presented 
itself in one situation on the river-side : it was 
a calcareous sandstone breccia, and in several por¬ 
tions of it were embedded numerous small fossil 
shells. 
In the forest we saw no game except wild cocks 
and hens, which seemed to be very abundant, for 
we started one covey which consisted of not less 
than fourteen or fifteen birds. In the evening 
we stopped at a small village, about fifteen miles 
above Meaday. 
On the 7th, at eleven o’clock, we passed Mea¬ 
day, where above eighty merchant-boats, in con¬ 
sequence of the piracies and murders lately com¬ 
mitted on the river, were glad to take advantage 
of our safe convoy as far as Prome. Here, on 
