TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
207 
from the report of the Myo-Thugyi, who rents 
the tax on the wells, which is five in a hun¬ 
dred. His annual collection is 25,000 ticals; 
and he estimated, or conjectured, that he lost by 
smuggling about 8,000, making the total 33,000. 
The value of the whole produce, therefore, is 
660,000 ticals. The value of the oil on the spot 
is reckoned at three ticals per hundred viss, and 
consequently its amount will be as above stated. 
Nitre, natron, and culinary salt are found in 
many of the arid and calcareous tracts in the up¬ 
per provinces of the Burmese empire, and chiefly 
in the neighbourhood of the capital. The first of 
these is found in the state of an efflorescence or 
incrustation on the surface of the earth, as in 
Bengal. What we obtained from the market of 
Ava, was fine and in large crystals, appearing to 
have been well prepared. It was, however, a 
great deal dearer than saltpetre of the same qua¬ 
lity in the market of Calcutta; indeed much is 
imported from the latter place into Pegu. Na¬ 
tron is also found in the state of an incrustation 
on the ground: what we saw had undergone no 
purification, but was full of earthy impurities. 
In this state it is used by the Burmese instead 
of soap, a preparation with which they seem to 
be unacquainted. The price by retail does not 
exceed forty shillings per ton, and no doubt, 
in the large way, it might be obtained much 
cheaper, so that it may be concluded, that it 
