View from near Ban Hsope Kyem
Loi Pah Khow, the great dome-shaped hill which we had seen a little to the east of north soon after leaving Bau Hluang, now lay west-north-west 15 miles distant; and the intervening country to the south-west, to within five miles from the river, had the character of a plateau riven by great chasms or defiles through which the drainage passes. To the north-west the country was more broken up, some of the hills presenting evidence of past subsidence in the precipices which were visible on their slopes and faces. Loi Pah Khow dominates the Zimmé range of hills, and appears to rise to 8000 or perhaps 10,000 feet above sea-level.
The next morning we left at seven. The stream has worn its way not only through the old lake-bottom, but into the sandstone and laterite sub-surface, as these rocks are frequently exposed in the banks. After passing two small villages and through a reach bordered by Loi Kai Khee-a on the west and a sandstone cliff 50 feet high on the east, we halted for breakfast at the village of Ban Peh, where many men were fishing with nets in the river. Our boys purchased an excellent fish, 10 lb. in weight, and several smaller ones, for tenpence, which were a pleasant addition to our meal.
Our boatmen, in deference to us, wore white cotton jackets with short sleeves, and a handkerchief tied round their loins extending only half-way to their knees. Many of the men in boats on the river had not even this pretence at decency, but were as naked as Adam before the Fall. The river being shallow in places, the men were in and out of the water frequently to lug the boats over the shoals; and I presume this partly accounted for their primitive habits.
After breakfast we started again, and passing the Ta Pa, or “rock-ferry,” named from the conglomerate and sandstone formation that outcrop in the banks, we reached Ban Meh Soi, in which was situated the first monastery we had seen since leaving Muang Haut. Over the water was a neat thatched-roofed building 12 feet long and 9 feet broad, with wooden posts, the sides planked for 3 feet in height, and a bamboo floor raised 3 or 4 feet above the top of the bank, with which it was connected by a foot-bridge. This little summer-house had been built for the use of the Phra, or abbot, when repeating at the time of full and new moon the ritual appointed for cleansing himself from his sins.
From the village we saw the high plateau or great table-topped hill from which Loi Hsope Kang springs; the crest, which extended for some miles, was peakless and as flat as a board. Two miles farther we passed two islands situated in a deep reach of the river called Wung Hoo-a Kwai, “the pool of the buffalo’s head.” Thence for five miles to the place where we halted for the night there was not a vestige of a habitation or a garden seen from the river. If there were any in the vicinity, they were effectually screened by the fringes of bamboos which lined the banks.
Leaving early the next morning, we noticed a low range of hills four miles to the south-east, and soon afterwards passed the end of a low, straight, and level spur from this range looking like a great embankment, and known as Loi Ta Khan Lai, “the hill of the passage of the hundred steps.” Two miles farther, we reached Ban Nong Long, “the village of the lake of monk’s coffin.” This village formed the refuge of Phya Cha Ban, the chief of Zimmé, when he fled from the Burmese in 1777.
From Ban Nong Long northwards the country becomes more populous. After passing the mouth of the Meh Kang, where a large caravan of laden Shans was crossing the river, we halted at a suburb of Wung Pan for breakfast. Here we noticed a simple press for extracting sugar from the sugar-cane. It was driven by a buffalo yoked to a long bamboo lever, which worked a central wooden shaft, which had part of its length cogged, and its lower portion smooth but notched with grooves. The cogs worked into two similar cogged shafts. The three shafts fitted into an upright frame, thus completing the press. The syrup is boiled in pans 2 feet 9 inches broad and 6 inches deep, set in holes on inclined ground, fuel being fed under them through short tunnels, and the flues consist of shorter ones with their exit up-hill. The buffalo being scared by the sight of two invaders of his country, had to be replaced by two men, a woman, and a boy whilst I sketched the machine.
Leaving Wung Pan, we proceeded through several straggling villages and reached the southern mouth of the Meh Li, which enters from the east.
The Meh Li flows from the south through a very picturesque and well-wooded country. Near its source, not far from the silver-mines, is a gorge or gap in the hills leading into the valley of the Meh Phit. Through this gorge a branch railway might be constructed to connect Raheng with Lapoon and Zimmé. The branch might be continued from Zimmé past Muang Ken and Kiang Dow viâ the Meh Pam into the valley of the Meh Fang, whence it could be carried across the Meh Khoke through Muang Ngam into the Meh Chun valley, where it would again join the main line in the plain of Kiang Hsen. The best caravan-route between Raheng and Zimmé passes through the gap.