74 
JOUIINAL OF AN EMBASSY 
half, the strand now described was interrupted by a 
bold rocky promontory, but recommenced beyond 
it, and continued as far as the eye could reach. 
This promontory, as well as Cape Kyaikami itself, 
afforded us an opportunity of examining the rock 
formation, which is very various; consisting of 
granite, quartz-rock, clay-slate, mica slate, indu¬ 
rated clay, breccia, and clay-iron ore. The soil, 
apparently of good quality, and generally from 
two to three feet deep, as might be seen by the 
section of it in the wells, commonly rests on the 
clay-iron ore, which sometimes gives the water, in 
other respects pure and tasteless, a slight chaly¬ 
beate flavour. The distance between the farthest 
rocky promontory and the river Kalyen we com¬ 
puted to be about two miles; the whole a table¬ 
land, nearly level, with the exception of a few 
hundred yards of mangrove on the immediate 
banks'of the Kalyen. The peninsula thus formed 
contains about four square miles, an ample space 
of choice ground for a town, gardens, and military 
cantonments. The whole receives considerable 
protection from the south-west monsoon by the 
little woody island of Zebo, above one hundred 
feet high, and lying about three-quarters of a mile 
from the shore. 
“ At eleven o’clock in the forenoon we ascended 
the Saluen river, for Martaban. During nearly 
our whole course up, we had the large and fertile 
island of Balu on our left hand. This is the most 
