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JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
herst to Maulamyaing is twenty-seven miles. We 
found that the new cantonment had already made 
great progress, and that necessaries and even some 
comforts were already commanded. 
Jan. 27.-—We made a long excursion yesterday 
into the forests, near Maulamyaing, which was re¬ 
warded by a large collection of new and magnifi¬ 
cent plants. A range of low hills, or rather of 
high land, skirts the left bank of the Saluen in 
this quarter, which is covered with a forest of mo¬ 
derate size, without much underwood. The soil 
is here thin and gravelly. The rock is quartz, and 
it is in this range that an ore of antimony is found 
in such vast abundance. Behind this again are 
extensive and fertile grassy plains, without wood, 
which in better times had been cultivated with rice. 
We resolved to make the best use of the time 
which was likely to elapse before we should find 
an opportunity of proceeding to Bengal, in visiting 
and exploring as much as was accessible to us of 
our new acquisitions in this quarter. According¬ 
ly, accompanied by Major Fenwick, Civil Super¬ 
intendent of the district, and Lieutenant Scotland, 
who had just returned from a visit to the source 
of the Ataran, we commenced our expedition this 
morning by ascending that river, one of the four 
fine streams which water the province. 
The Saluen, the Gain, and the Ataran, join at 
the town of Martaban, and then proceed by two 
branches to the sea, these being divided from 
