raters raised above the level of the surrounding country
by the gradual accretion of the soft oily mud, which overflows at frequent
intervals whenever a discharge of gas occurs. Spurs of the Chin hills run
down the whole length of the Lower Chindwin district, almost to Sagaing,
and one hill, Powindaung, is particularly noted on account of its
innumerable cave temples, which are said to hold no fewer than 446,444
images of Buddha. Huge caves, of which the most noted are the Farm Caves,
occur in the hills near Moulmein, and they too are full of relics of their
ancient use as temples, though now they are chiefly visited in connexion
with the bats, whose flight viewed from a distance, as they issue from the
caves, resembles a cloud of smoke.

_Rivers._--Of the rivers of Burma the Irrawaddy is the most important. It
rises possibly beyond the confines of Burma in the unexplored regions,
where India, Tibet and China meet, and seems to be formed by the junction
of a number of considerable streams of no great length. Two rivers, the
Mali and the N'mai, meeting about latitude 25 deg. 45' some 150 m. north of
Bhamo, contribute chiefly to its volume, and during the dry weather it is
navigable for steamers up to their confluence. Up to Bhamo, a distance of
900 m. from the sea, it is navigable throughout the year, and its chief
tributary in Burma, the Chindwin, is also navigable for steamers for 300 m.
from its junction with the Irrawaddy at Pakokku. The Chindwin, called in
its upper reaches the Tanai, rises in the hills south-west of Thama, and
flows due north till it enters the south-east corner of the Hukawng valley,
where it turns north-west and continues in that direction cutting the
valley into two almost equal parts until it reaches its north-west range,
when it turns almost due south and takes the name of the Chindwin. It is a
swift clear river, fed in its upper reaches by numerous mountain streams.
The Mogaung river, rising in the watershed which divides the Irrawaddy and
the Chindwin drainages, flows south and south-east for 180 m. before it
joins the Irrawaddy, and is navigable for steamers as far as Kamaing for
about four months in the year. South of Thayetmyo, where arms of the Arakan
Yomas approach the river and almost meet that spur of the Pegu Yomas which
formed till 1886 the [v.04 p.0839] northern boundary of British Burma, the
valley of the Irrawaddy opens out again, and at Yegin Mingyi near Myanaung
the influence of