Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/441

1837.] ble result of some endemic disease which induced the survivors to desert the spot. The finest lemon and citron trees, Captain had ever seen, were found here, and the tea plant was also very plentiful—the leaf is large, and resembles that sold in Ava as pickled tea; the soil in which it grew most luxuriantly is described as of a "reddish-colored clay." Thus far, a considerable portion of the route had passed either directly over the bed of the Mogaung river or along its banks; but at Tsadozout, they crossed it for the last time, and at this spot it is described as a mere hill stream with a "bed composed of rolled pieces of sienite and serpentine, with scales of mica in it." The navigation of the river even for small canoes ceases below this spot, and those which had accompanied the party with supplies were left, from inability, to convey them further.

About four miles north of Tsadozout "the road ascends about 100 feet, and passes over a hilly tract, which seems to run across from the hills on the east to those on the west, and is called by the natives Tsambu-toung (the Mount Samu of the maps). This transverse ridge evidently forms the southern limit of the Hukong valley, and streams flow from it both to the north and south; the former making their way to the Khyendwen, and the latter to the Mogaung river.

"Tsambu-toung," says Captain, "is covered with noble trees, many of which, I think, are sàl, and are of immense height and circumference. The tea-plant is also plentiful, besides a great variety of shrubs which are quite new to me. The rays of the sun seem never to penetrate to the soil of Tsambu-toung; it may therefore be easily imagined how damp and disagreeable it is, more particularly as there is a peculiar and offensive smell from a poisonous plant which grows in great abundance in this jungle, and the natives tell me that cattle die almost immediately after eating it."

On the 30th the party descended from the encampment on the northern face of this ridge, to the Singpho village of Watobhum, and finally encamped on the left bank of the Edikhyoung, about three furlongs distant from Meinkhwon or Mungkhum, the capital of the Hukong valley, "where," says Captain, "our journey must end for the present; as, besides having no provisions, the men composing the force are so completely worn out with fatigue, that I am certain they could not proceed further without a halt of some days." This interval Captain assiduously employed in collecting information regarding the valley, which had from a very early period been an object of great geographical interest, as the site of the Payendwen or amber mines, and at no very remote era probably formed