Page:Notes of a journey across the Isthmus of Krà.pdf/25

 which there are a goodly number. The mouth is all mangrove, cultivation begins about half-way up. On the left bank, up a small branch of the river, a short distance from Paknam, there is a small town (Chinese) called Taa Yang, where fish, vegetables, and a few odds and ends can be purchased. The course of this river from Chumpon wends to the northward amongst the high land in that direction.

between Chumpon and Langsuen leads mostly through small jungle with villages and cultivated parts between hills scattered in every direction. Several small streams run to the sea across the track. The largest of these are the Tongkaa, Sawe, and Taako rivers, over which elephants can barely pass without taking off their howdahs in the dry season. The track, except where paddy fields are, is serpentine and undulating, and follows the coast line a few miles off. A branch track also extends from Ban Naa Po to Langsuen. On the whole it may be considered a good track.

has already been partly described; I will only add that its bed rises with remarkable regularity along its entire course, from the sea to Ban Song, and that large volumes of water are discharged from it at the close of the rainy season. On one occasion during my survey of the coast, I filled all the tanks on board the gunboat Warlike with fresh water from the sea alongside, nearly two miles off the mouth of the river. Landslips are frequent as they are in all the rivers of this country.

are difficult. The actual mouth of the river is between Victoria Point and the main land opposite, where it is two miles wide. The natural passage to its mouth has, undoubtedly, been in former times between Saddle and Delisle Islands and the coast opposite. This part is now almost choked up, and only fit for the use of trading boats. The deepest water is close to the islands. One mile south of Victoria Point, a chain of islands, rocks, and islets extends in a direct line S.S.W., and exactly parallel with the coast. The chain is eighteen miles in length, beginning and ending at Victoria and Delisle Islands respectively. The