TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
$09 
exist in the provinces of Lain, Ton go, Bassein, and 
Shwe-gyen; and the capital is supplied from a 
place called Mom-mai, fifteen days’ journey on 
the Irawadi, above the capital. This last timber 
is smaller generally than that of Sarawadi, but 
equal to it in quality, and equally cheap ; for I 
found on inquiry that timber of the same scant¬ 
ling cost at Ava only twenty-five per cent, more 
than in Sarawadi. The teak of Ava is considered 
less durable when employed in naval architecture 
than that of Malabar; but it has been determin¬ 
ed by experiments carefully made in the arsenal 
of Fort William, to be stronger than the last, 
and therefore fitter for gun-carriages and machi¬ 
nery. Among the Burmese the wood most priz¬ 
ed for its strength and durability, after the teak, 
is one called in their language Thingan; this is 
the Hopcea odorata of botanists, a large forest 
tree, very abundant in the lower provinces. It is 
used in boat-building, and the common canoes are 
often made of an entire tree of it, hollowed out. 
Another tree, highly esteemed in our Indian 
arsenals for the toughness and hardness of its 
wood, exists in great quantities and of large size 
on the sea-coast, and every where within the in¬ 
fluence of the tides, its natural locality. This is 
the Soondry of India, and the Heretiera robusta 
of botanists. My friend Dr. Wallich, when I 
left him, had already discovered seven new species 
of oak, many of them fine forest trees, of which 
vol. ir. p 
