During our stage I observed large quantities of Bombax, and a tree apparently the Beloe of Assam; the banks were either grassy or wooded, especially on the right bank, which is skirted entirely by hills of the same barren looking description.  The grasses are all small compared with those of Assam.

May 10th.—­Reached Tagoung late in the evening at 7.5:  distance thirty-two miles.  The river continues the same; the hills on the left bank are much broken into ravines:  all continue clothed with the same stunted vegetation.

May 11th.—­Tagoung is a miserable village on the left bank; it occupies a rocky eminence, and contains less than 100 houses.  It is the most inferior village I have yet seen, the streets being dreadfully dirty and the houses very mean.  We visited an old pagoda, about a mile from the town, which is surrounded by an antique wall, much obscured by jungle, and more resembling a bund.  On our route hither we landed at Thigan, a village containing about forty houses, and prettily situated at the foot of a hill of micaceous sandstone, on the right bank.  At this place are the remains of a fort built by the Chinese, of slabs of the rock forming the hill.  Similar remains exist at Myadoung, on the opposite bank, as I learn from Mr. Bayfield.  I gathered a Sida, Capparis, Prionitis, Gnaphalium, and a Xanthoxylia petiolis alatis armata; an Adiantum grows between the slabs composing the wall.  At Tsenkan I observed an Agave, a different Cactus, a fleshy Euphorbia; and an Ananassa is common all about.

About Tagoung the botany is varied, and interesting.  I gathered about fifteen plants that had not occurred before, two Poae, two Andropogons, a Zanthoxylum, and an Olax.  The most interesting is an Apocynea, floribus infundibulifor. lamina reflexa, fauce squamis dentatis 10, serie duplici dispositis, interioribus petalis oppositis et majoribus, antheris, in conum stigma omnino coadunatis.  Cotton cultivated here; plants taller than usual.  The villages around are all forsaken owing to one of them having been attacked by Khukeens, and two men carried off.  Hence the population at Tagoung, although usually scanty, is now much increased from adjoining places.  A small river falls into the Irrawaddi immediately above Tagoung.

May 12th.—­Reached Male about 6 P.M.  Passed en route a few villages, none of any size or importance.  The river varies in width, i.e. the channel, from 400 to 600 yards.  The banks are either alluvial or rocky; and there are hills on the right bank skirting the river; those on the left, are more distant and higher.  Borassus commences to be common; it is a taller, and more slender tree than that of Coromandel, and the trunk is not covered with the persistent bases of the petioles.