in agitation. The river, though broad and majestic
to the eye, is comparatively shallow in its northern
reaches, and the navigable channel is narrow. This
is made obvious when a bank of yellow pebbles tilts
its back half-way across the stream, or a reef of grey
rocks stretches in sawlike outline across the ship’s
SM A L L CR A F T
course, narrowing the channel to a stream of deep water
under the shelter of the opposite bank. Behind
Myitkina, now fading into the blue distance, there
tower up like “ Breasts of Sheba ” the twin peaks of
Loi Lem and Loi Law, and -behind these, again, there
fade away into the empyrean the unexplored mountains
of the north, upon which there is a gleam of snow.
158
It is one of the most beautiful and most satisfying
voyages in the world, this swift descent down the
upper waters of the Irrawaddy. The keen ozone of
a perfect air, the broad winter sunlight flooding a
landscape of romantic beauty, the sense of encompassing
infinity, fill the blood with a supreme vitality, and lift
the soul into regions of exquisite peace. The great
river, free for the present to go where it lists, flows
on in serene untroubled beauty, the central chord in
a grand harmony of nature.- Overhead there ;is a
flawless sky, and on every hand the mountains stretch
away to the uttermost horizon in shades of colour;
from tints so faint that they are scarcely to be known
fronv the ether beyond, to the rich purples of near
peaks, and the deep blue greens of heavily wooded
spurs which reach down to the water’s edge, laving
their uncovered foundations in the stream. At points
like these in its course, where the dense shadows fall
on the seemingly motionless waters, the river presents
its most characteristic and beautiful aspects, resembling
some still mountain lake, and recalling memories of
far-off Como and Lucerne.
Sixty-five miles below Myitkina, the Mogaung,
emerging from between low flat banks, clothed in giant
grass, pours its tributary waters into the Irrawaddy.; It
flows through a district fruitful in serpentine'and amber
and indiarubber, inhabited by a medley of hill tribes"
of kindred origin, whose truculence and savagery long
prevented its being opened up. The town of Mogaung
has earned an unenviable notoriety as a penal settle