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 While the expedition was still at Bassak, Alexis, the native interpreter, returned, having failed to get through to Pnom Penh, and after much discussion it was deter- mined to send him overland to the capital of Kambodia, via Angkor, while the explorers pushed on to Ubon, on the banks of the Se-Mun, a right-bank tributary of the Mekong. Accordingly, on December 25th, the camp at Bassak was broken up, the explorers taking leave of the King and the natives, who had shown them much cour- tesy and kindness, and proceeding on their journey up- stream. The expedition passed through the defile by means of which the Mekong flows round the foot of Phu Molong on December 26th, skirted the big isolated mountain of Phu Fadang, where the stream, imprisoned between smooth, rocky walls, measures barely 200 yards across, and entered the Se-Mun on January 3rd. On the same day the village of Pi-Mun, was reached, and here the gear of the expedition had to be transshipped into boats sent for the purpose from Ubon. Above this point the Se-Mun runs down a succession of long, straight reaches which have the air of having been hewn out by the labour of man, and on each side a great grassy plain spreads away to the horizon.

Ubon was reached on January 7th, "l'agglomération la plus vivante que nous eussions encore rencontrée," Garnier described it, a very large village on the left bank of the Se-Mun, the centre of the trade of this part of the Mekong valley. From this point all commerce is con- ducted, not by river with Kambodia and Saigon, but overland with Korat and Bangkok. For all practical