Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/328

254 cities could be reached by ascending the valleys, instead of crossing all the mountain-ranges as must be done if the T'eng Yüeh route is selected." Similar views were expressed by Sir George Scott, speaking at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in 1905. "The whole question of a railway from Burma has been prejudiced by Colborne Baber, who said that a railway there would have to be a series of bridges and tunnels. Well, if you start from Bhamo, ... you would have to build these bridges and tunnels. But ... there is a way round. Nature has provided us with a geological fault;... in one place, directly in a line with Mandalay, there is a curious fault—the line of rocks run due east and west, and up this from Mandalay a railway has been built.... The railway, so far, stops at Lashio, and if it goes no farther it will never pay; but if we carry it along this geological fault to China or into China, it will be a success. The fault leads us not only to the Salwin river, but it gives us a route up the