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BIRMAH. 187
relate, that, a hundred years ago, a large rope floating
down the river, was stopped at this place, and that,
one end adhering to the rock, and the other to the
bank, the rope was changed into stone. The quality
which the waters of the Irrawaddy possess, of changing
wood into stone, of which," continues Colonei
Symes, " we afterwards saw innumerable instances,
renders the transmutation of the cable by no means
an impossible circumstance. They also say, that the
opposite island formerly constituted part of one situated
fifteen miles higher up, but was severed from it by an
earthquake, and carried down to the place where it
now rests. Whether removed by an extraordinary
convulsion of nature, and by a still more extraordinary
transportation, or whether encircled by the river from
its having changed its channel, the island now consti-
tutes a principal object in one of the finest sylvan
scenes I ever beheld. From a temple above Loonghee,
seated on a commanding cliff whose summit
overhangs its base, the eye is gratified with a delightful
combination of natural beauties. A fine sheet of
water, three miles in breadth, broken by an island
more than a mile long and half a mile wide, covered
with trees of luxuriant foliage; eminences on the
opposite shore, that rise from gently swelling grounds
clothed with wood, to brown and rugged mountains,
which, receding in an oblique direction, leave to the
view a long and level plain; these altogether form a
landscape rarely equalled."
The embassy was detained for some days at Loonghee,
in compliance with the wishes of the Maywoon
who accompanied it. His infant son had been unwell
for some time, and the illness had now increased to a
"
dangerous height. A war-boat was despatched
express to the capital, to bring down medicine and a
PART II. M