64 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
so steep that a vessel may range from side to 
side, touching, as we did, the boughs of the trees 
alternately on both sides. There is not a single 
rock or danger of any kind in all this distance. 
In the forenoon we ascended five or six miles 
in our boats, but found the river very shallow. 
Our chief object was to reach the teak forests; 
but this we found impracticable, without a deten¬ 
tion which our time would not afford. Mr. Scot¬ 
land, who had proceeded as far as the Siamese fron¬ 
tier at the “ Three Pagodas,” described the near¬ 
est forest as being fifteen miles farther up the river 
than we went, and from two to three miles distant 
from the banks of the river. He had passed 
through two of these forests. The first, and small¬ 
est, was in breadth about three miles and a half, 
and about one-half the trees consisted of teak. 
The largest forest is about five miles in breadth, 
and almost entirely composed of teak : this also 
contained the largest trees. In both, the timber 
very generally ran up to the height of from forty 
to sixty feet; and the average circumference of 
the trees, at the base, was from ten to fourteen 
feet. Some were found measuring from nineteen 
to twenty-three feet. The forests were on each 
side of the river, and the timber could be trans¬ 
ported to it, by means of buffaloes, with compa¬ 
ratively very little labour. 
The banks of the Ataran abound with the ele¬ 
phant, the rhinoceros, wild hog, and deer, but the 
