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BIRMAH. 209
situation the city is built. The number and variety
of the boats moving on the waters of the lake, the
great expanse of water, and the lofty surrounding
hills, present a most striking scene. The palace,
viewed in this direction, appears a confused assem-
blage of buildings, glittering with a blaze of gilding.
One part of it consists of a square building finished
with battlements, and a flat roof, with Tuscan pilas-
ters at the angles. It is painted white, with gilded
mouldings, but is so surrounded with trees and the
mean abodes of the natives, that it is very imperfectly
seen from the river. The city extends for four miles
along the south-eastern bank, and is filled with reli-
gious buildings of various classes. The palace is about
three-fourths of a mile N.E. by N. from the extremity
of the western suburbs, and the fort about one
mile further. To the eastward and northward is a
high range of rugged, barren mountains, distant from
four to five miles. The main breadth of the river,
opposite Amarapura, is about two miles. In the dry
season, its bed is mostly filled with high sandy islands,
then under cultivation; but they are entirely covered
by the inundation, and are annually changing their
form and position.
The fort of Amarapura is an exact square. There
are four principal gates, one in each face, and a smaller
gate on each side of the great gate, equidistant between
it and the angle of the fort; twelve gates in all. At
each angle of the fort there is a large quadrangular
bastion, which projects considerably; there are also
eleven smaller bastions on each side, including those
over the gateway. A curtain extending two hundred
yards connects each bastion. Each side of the fort
occupies 2,400 feet. The rampart, faced with a wall
of brick, is about twenty feet high, exclusive of the