32 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
tion of the Irawadi, at this season, is precarious 
and uncertain to the last degree. The bed of the 
river every where consists of sand, and the chan¬ 
nel seems to change every season, so that former 
experience and observation are of no avail. By 
emptying the boiler, and otherwise lightening her, 
the vessel was fortunately got off at seven in the 
evening. 
Jan. 10.—We prosecuted our journey early this 
morning. At ten o’clock Dr. Wallich and I landed 
a little below the town of Pingyi, and visited the 
promontory called by the Burmans Kyaok-ta-ran, 
the last high land on the eastern bank of the river. 
This is a very romantic and pretty spot, and our 
visit to it was extremely satisfactory. The pro¬ 
montory is about eighty feet high, and the rocks 
rise perpendicularly from the river. About thirty 
feet up there are niches, or excavations, in each of 
which there is a, stone figure of Gautama cut out 
of the rock, but plastered over every where, and in 
some places gilt. There cannot be less than fifty 
of these in all, of various sizes, and some of them 
very large: they are divided into two or three 
groups, separate and distinct from each other. The 
only rock we saw was a calcareous breccia, and 
there was neither loose sand nor clay, as in some 
other places. Fossil shells again occurred, and ap¬ 
parently of marine origin. The hills are covered 
with abundant verdure and considerable forests. 
Many of the plants were in flower and fruit, and 
