winds. Seen against the pale sky of the morning,
their outlines make startling patterns, as of some
mystic procession trailing away to a mute and shadowy
world. In such company one comes in mid-September
to Minbu. CH A P T E R XVII
M U D V O L C A N O E S
MINBU is notable for its mud volcanoes. They
own a small territory between the Sabwet-
chaung and the metalled road behind Minbu, and for
the most part they adhere to these limits. But they
have been known after heavy rain, which excites them,
to flow in a great sluggish deluge over the road, and
a portion of their overflow streams into the Sabwet-
chaung. They consist of one lofty central cone, rugged
and broken in outline ; several, either closed or on the
point of becoming so ; and two open baths of liquid
mud. A light is said to ignite the gases that escape
and the oil that may be skimmed from their pools.
There are in addition many miniatures of these three
types.
The volcano begins as a little bubble of liquid mud,
and gradually builds for itself a cone, on the completion
of which its existence appears to terminate. In the
case of the large central member of the group, however,
the uprising fluid has burst its way through the walls
of the crater, reproducing as nearly as possible the
features of a true volcano. There is about them all
a mean and clammy character, which ^ makes the re