34 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. IV. 
grateful feature in the landscape. The village of Yebile, on the Moo-choung (cloung or 
stream) is reached after a pretty sharp descent, and the same rocks as constitute the country 
traversed are alone to be seen in the bed of the stream. 
No sooner, however, is the Moo-choung crossed in a westerly direction than we 
find ourselves among roclcs of an entirely different aspect. These rocks (axials) are not 
only exceedingly disturbed, and along the boundary especially faulted and crushed, but are 
also indurated to a considerable extent, and often seamed with calcite. An excellent section 
of these beds is seen between Yebile and Kondaingzu (near Ivondaingkcng of map), and again 
above that village still going west, in the direction of Pathi, situated on a considerable feeder 
of the Mahton stream two and a quarter miles from the frontier. The scenery hereabouts is 
very beautiful, and I know no more wild or picturesque part of Pegu than the Mahton valley 
near the frontier with its rapid and flashing waters winding between rocky hills clad in virgin 
forest. From Yebile to Ivondaingzu the road lies up the valley and continues up it after 
passing that village ns far as Kyoungtb a, where, it somewhat abruptly commences to ascend 
the lofty ridge cast of Pathi. From the top of this ridge whose eastern slope is partly 
cleared for cultivation a magnificent coup d’ml is obtained displaying in panoramic 
order the lower ranges to the eastward and the more imposing and densely wooded ranges 
with their grassy peaks, west of Pathi. Of these the most conspicuous are Kyeedoung and 
Bomadoung which respectively mark the culminant points of the eastern and western 
Arakan range, though, strictly speaking, Bomadoung stands a little out of the general line 
of the range on a lofty spur, which stretches towards the Kyeedoung or eastern range, hut 
separated from it by the deep gorge-like valley of the Mahton. The Arakan range in fact 
here bifurcates some four miles south of Bomadoung which is given off’to the eastward, and 
of which the Kyeedoung range may he regarded as the continuat ion across the Mahton valley, 
whilst the westerly branch, or main range, after curving back a little runs north through the 
lofty peak of Myecn-ma-tonng above the frontier. On the frontier the eastern and western 
branches of the range are eight and three quarters miles apart measuring from the Kyeedoung 
peak to the triple boundary of Birina, Arakan and Pegu. The Kyeedoung and Bomadoung 
ranges are not only higher than those to the eastward, but unquestionably more densely wooded 
on their slopes,—and more so I think than is usually the case even on the main range further 
to the south,—though their summits are in many places covered with tall grass, which gives 
them rather a tame appearance. I do not think that this great contrast between the 
vegetation and forest of these hills and of the outer ranges depends to any appreciable extent 
on the rocks composing them, but results from the injurious influence of hill cultivation as 
practised in Pegu, the initial step in which is the extirpation, as far as practicable, of all 
vegetable life over large tracts of hill side from which only a few crops of cereals or other 
produce will he derived, when the same process will be repeated over some neighbouring area. 
In the ridge east of Pathi wo find an example of the incipient effects of the above process, 
which has as yet not gone the length necessary to produce the arid and meagre jungles of the 
outer ranges ; but even here, there is an unfavorable contrast with the more westerly slopes of 
Kyeedoung and Bomadoung. whore, I believe, no cultivation whatever has been attempted, 
and which consequently retain their virgin freshness, and whose slopes are still refreshed with 
those perennial rills which disappear before the system of hill cultivation as surely as the 
clouds of morning before the rising sun. Where water is deficient, the character o( the 
vegetation will he largely modified by peculiarities of the soil, especially its hygrometric ones, 
hut under more favorable cliuiatal or atmospheric conditions the influence of the sod is, 
with perhaps certain exceptions, less perceptible. An instance in point seems to he this very 
range east of Pathi which is well clad in forest, hut consists of harsh grits which primd 
facte would not seem so favorable to vegetation as the beds of the newer group to the east¬ 
ward where, for the reason above given, the forests are sparse and arid. 
