ELEPHANT

l3FL;IHO AND TiTE OLD TRADE ROIJTE 73
gorp, fertile lands, and by picturesque villages, pagodm,
and temples. Not far below Bhamo there is an
especially striking and beautiful gorge or deHe about
fifteen miles in leqh.
The river is there quite narrow,
while the banks on either ide rise to a height of five
or six hundred feet., and arc covered with grand old
forests, which cast their dark shadows upon t.he smooth
water. A huge rock~lled 'Monkey Cwt-1%' hm
t-he number of monkeys that ha% abut i+rising
perpendicularly eight hundred feet above the surface
of the river, is a not.iceable feature of this wonderfuI
defile.
As the steamer slowly tugs dong there is
constant cha-nge in thc view.
Sometimes the river
takea a minding mum betwccn the high and precipitous
banks, with thcir dense green forests. At other places
one comes upon a- long vista of w d and stream.
Derc and there is a pagda, or a village, or a fcw
fishermen in a boat. The scene is not so much calcu-
lated to please and astonish the eye by wild sublimity,
by rude precipices, as by graceful hills,gZass-like water,
and soft shadows.
This part of Burma is much t.he richat in its natural
productions ; the hills contain iron, coal, t.h, copper,
lead, gold, and dver-more
than a million and a half
dollars' worth of tha two latter metah has been dug