ment. Banishment to Mogaung was almost the greatest
misfortune that could overtake a Burman official in
•disgrace under the old régime. Near it is the Indaugyi
Lake, from which the Mogaung derives a portion of
its waters, and a legend of the country tells the old
tale of an ancient city at its bottom, suddenly engulfed.
Soon after the union of the Mogaung and the Irrawaddy
a newT range comes prominently into view, broadening
out into a beautiful amphitheatre of blue hills, at the
feet of which the united stream must seemingly come
to eternal pause. But the river makes a grand southwesterly
sweep, and there presently becomes visible,
in the vicinity of the Shan-Talok village of Senbo,
the great gorge through which i t , must pass, known
in the nomenclature of the river as
THE FIRST DEFILE
Here, in the shadow of the hills, spreads a vast
receiving-basin, in which its waters must perforce stay
their course, since
the narrow and circuitous
defile is- all
too small for the
broad stream demanding
imperious
admission. At this,
the winter season,
the river threads its
way far down amid
w i n t e r c a l m i n t h e f i r s t d e f i l e the sands which in
160
IN THE FIRST D E F IL E