comes. The secret of its birth is still
wrapped in the wilderness of mountains
which spreads away beyond the confluence
to the north and west. Yet
it is being slowly wrested from its
keepers. One by one the conjectures
hazarded by investigators since the
dawn of the nineteenth century have
been disposed o f ; one by one the wild
frontier tribes are being reduced to
subjection, as the growing peace o f
Burma frees the Government for exploration
and extension tow'ards the
north. It cannot be
long now before its
mystery is pierced.
KACHiN Thirty miles be-1
low the confluence
the new settlement of Myitkina is laid
out on the high right bank of the river.
No change can be more significant
than the change which the last few
years have wrought in the character of
Myitkina. A dozen years ago it was
the ultima thule of Burma, a military
-outpost in the heart of the enemy’s
country. For six months each year it
was cut off from nearly all communication.
The only approach to it lay
by the river, and the river is no
156
A SHAN PRINCESS.
highway at that season. The outpost of Myitkina
had to look out for itself, feed itself, and fight upon
occasion for its life. One winter it was attacked and
burnt down by the caterans of the hills over the heads
o f its garrison of a thousand men. Myitkina is still
the frontier town, it is still liable to have to .fight .for
its life; but it is no longer cut off from succour. It
is easily reached by railway at all seasons of the year,
and it is becoming
a popular stopping-
place for the tourist
hurrying round the
globe. It has all the
freshness and charm
of a new settlement,
and though on the
borders of savagery,
it is full of life, and
E A R L Y T R IBU T A R IE S
action, and hope.
From Myitkina to near its junction with the
Mosfaungf, the river flows in a broad, clear stream over o o 1
a pebbled bed. Steaming down-stream in the last days
of December, one can see the coarse sand churned
up from amid the pebbles by the eddying current,
and glistening like gold in the sunlit waters. The
simile is not altogether fanciful, for the gold-washers
are at work on the river slopes below Myitkina.
Nearer the shallows which the steamers skirt in their
course, distinct glimpses can be had. into the life of
the river, and great fish may be seen scuttling away