Page:Notes of a journey across the Isthmus of Krà.pdf/40

 1.—The steamer Nemesis, with Lieut. Colonel A. Fytche, Commissioner, M. and T. Provinces, on board, anchored about fifteen miles up the River Pakchan in five or six fathoms of water. Banks, steep and densely wooded, with a stream running between them of (here) about a mile in breadth.

2.—Opening into the Mergui Archipelago, opposite the south end of St. Matthew's Island, there are some six fathoms of water, at low water, over the bar at the mouth, though vessels coming from the north, inside the island, have to run some little way southerly to avoid an extensive spit of sand, which runs partly across the entrance to the river.

3.—On the north side, the right or British bank of the stream, are the tin mines of Maleewoon, which are, we believe, workable to any extent, to which money and labour are procurable. On the other side are the tin mines of Rahnong, worked by the Siamese Government.

4.— Collecting, on the evening of the 31st March, all the instruments necessary for a rough survey, a perambulator, compasses, and aneroid, we left the steamer in a native boat with a flood tide, and proceeded up this river which forms the boundary between the British Possessions in these provinces, and the Siamese territories. A fog came on, and we were obliged to anchor for some time. We arrived, however, at Kraw by 4 p.m. of the 1st April.

5.—Kraw is a Shan village of some fifty houses, with a few Chinese inhabitants. The Civil authority was absent attending his superior at Tsoompeon, the chief place of the district, and where a Woontack, a functionary equal in authority to our Deputy Commissioner, resided.

6.—At Kraw we rested the night in a good zayat, which had been prepared for the aforesaid Chief Civil Authority, who visits periodically his district on this (the western) side of His Majesty of Bangkok's southern dominions. We had some difficulty in procuring means of locomotion in consequence of there being no one to give orders upon our wishes, but just as we were starting the next morning (2nd April,) with some four or five coolies we had managed to procure, an elephant made its appearance, and