Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/260

 of the Government Departments at Bangkok, had ascended the Menam to Chieng Mai, had thence struck across country to the Mekong, striking it at Chieng Khong, about 130 miles above Luang Prabang, and had rafted down the river from that point. This prolonged the dis- tance which the Frenchmen would have to cover before they could pass into utterly unexplored country, but this fact notwithstanding, the transformation of an English expedition into a single Dutchman raised their spirits and sent them on their way rejoicing.

On April 16th, the boundary of the province of Luang Prabang was crossed, and on the morrow Pak Lai, which had previously been visited by Mouhot who had come thither from Muong Lui, was reached. This was the first point on the Mekong at which Mouhot's route had been cut by that of the expedition, and Garnier found that the former explorer had misplaced it by sixty-four geographical milcs, an error which repeated itself with more or less persistency in all his latitudes. The correc- tion which Garnier was now able to make was one of considerable importance, and necessitated a material rectification of the maps compiled from Mouhot's notes. From Pak Lai there is a cart-track along the right bank of the Mekong, now little used but formerly a highway over which annual Chinese caravans passed from Yun-nan to Ken Tao, a province between Muong Lui and Pak Lai. To-day Chieng Mai and Muong Nan communicate with Yun-nan via Chieng Tong, the route partially explored by McLeod in 1837.

Some distance above Pak Lai the expedition passed