EXTENSIVE RUINS.

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however, proved to be valueless, except as a curiosity. Mrs M'Gilvary, who kindly offered to translate it for me, finding it utterly unreliable-indeed, merely an olio of Buddhist legends and improbable events-soon threw the manuscript aside, considering it useless to waste further time upon it.

After breakfast we rambled through the city, about half of which was covered with the remains of fifty-three temples, and of monasteries and pagodas in their grounds. The seeds of the pipal tree, Ficus religiosa, had been dropped

by birds into the interstices of the brick masonry of the pagodas, and grown into large trees. The roots of the trees,

after shattering the masonry, had prevented it from falling, by clasping it in their strangling embrace. Splendid bronze images of Gaudama, generally in a good state of preservation, were scattered about in every direction, and often half buried in the debris of the fallen buildings.

The images varied from 6 inches to 7 feet in height, and one known as Taung-lan-ten is an object of pilgrimage to

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DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY.

hundreds of worshippers from the British and Siamese Shan States. This image, which is about 5 feet in height, has a legend attached to it, which relates that, when the great bronze image, now at Ava, known as the Aracan Buddha, was cast, a fabulous bird, called a galoon, alighted at the site, and fanned the furnace with its wings; and a naga, or dragon, came and blew the fire up with its breath. As their reward for these meritorious acts, Gaudama resolved that in their next birth they should be born men, and the galoon should cast a similar image at Kiang Hsen, and the naga one at Zimmé. A bamboo and thatched shed had recently been erected over the image as a temporary shelter,

in place of the handsome building, with pillars and tiled roof, whose remains lay shattered around it.

What struck me most in the ruins of the temples was the vast number of the images, the excellence of the plaster which still adhered to the remains of the massive brick walls and pillars, and the beauty of the ornamental decorations. The people of the city in olden times must have been numerous, wealthy, and highly skilled in the arts, to account for the number of the monasteries, and the workmanship displayed in the images and buildings.

Kiang Hsen is built in the form of an irregular parallel

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ogram, with its sides facing the cardinal points. The city, which is about 11,057 feet long, and 3900 feet wide, is protected on three sides by double ramparts and a ditch. The eastern side is unprotected; the fortifications, together with about a quarter of a mile in width of the city, having been swept away by the encroachment of the river. The outer rampart, having a base of 70 feet, is 12 feet wide at the top, and 14 feet high; its outer slope is much flatter than the inner one. The inner rampart has a base of 75 feet, and is 18 feet in height. In its centre is a wall 2 feet wide, from which the earthen slopes extend for 30 feet within the city, and for 43 feet outside. The crenelated

Plaster decoration on pillars.

top of the wall having been destroyed, a strong teak palisade 6 feet high has been erected against its inner side as a protection. The ramparts are 97 feet apart from the centre of their crests, and the bottom of the ditch is 30 feet wide, and has silted up to the level of the ground inside and outside the city. The entrances to the city are fortified by double courtyards, defended by brick walls and palisading, and by an outside ditch, as shown on the sketch. There is a large gap in the southern ramparts, which is said to have been made when the Lao Shans attacked the city in 1797.

Kiang Hsen is admirably situated for purposes of trade, at the intersection of routes leading from China, Burmah, Karenni, the Shan States, Siam, Tonquin, and Annam.

It

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PROJECTED RAILWAY.

forms, in fact, a centre of intercourse between all the IndoChinese races, and the point of dispersion for caravans along the diverging trade-routes. When the country is opened up by railways, and peace is assured to the Shan States to the north by our taking them fully under our protection, the great trade that will spring up between Burmah, Siam, the Shan States, and China, will make the city of great importance. Its position as a commercial centre in the midst of the vast plains which extend on both sides of the river; its bountiful climate and productive soil; the wealth in teak and other timber, as well as in minerals of the surrounding regions; and the fact, brought out by Mr Bourne in his report, that Chinese from Ssuchuan (Szechuen), Kweichau, and Yunnan, are settling in the Shan States to the north of it, will soon tempt immigrants to take up the now vacant land, and ensure the city and district a large and prosperous population.

The King of Siam is fully aware of the great value of the region, and has been doing his utmost for several years to increase its population, by resettling the country with the descendants of its inhabitants that were taken captive, or else had fled from the Burmese into the Siamese Shan States. The king is likewise having surveys made by English engineers for the portions of the Burmah-Siam-China Railway lying within his territories, and has likewise instituted surveys for branches to connect Zimmé, Luang Prabang, and Korat with the railway. These surveys, together with estimates for the construction of the lines, are to be completed in three years from March 1888.

During our stay at Kiang Hsen, I spent my time in sketching, taking observations, and in collecting information about the country. I was thus unable to accompany my companions upon some of their rambles. One of their excursions led them to Muang Hit, the site of a city on the east of the river, about three miles to the north of Kiang Hsen. No remains were found, with the exception of the old moat, an inscription on the bronze cap of a pagoda, giving A.D. 1732 as the date of its erection, and a house and clearing that had recently been deserted. Iron-mines exist near the

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ruins, but the neighbouring country was uninhabited except by deer, tigers, leopards, wild cattle, and other wild animals.

Three Burmese Shan villages, containing 130 houses between them, had recently been built a mile or two above Muang Hit. The boundary between the Burmese and

View of western hills.