at come
down from hills, clad with park-like trees and scrub--the very place for
deer! There are no inhabitants on the river side, though we pass every
mile or two a ruined pagoda spire.

Passing Pagan we see the tops of some of its nine hundred and
ninety-nine pagodas. Many of them are different in shape from the
bell-shaped type we have seen so far. At breakfast we watch them as we
pass. The Flotilla Company does not give an opportunity of landing to
see these "Fanes of Pagan," which is very disappointing. So this ancient
city, one of the world's, wonders, is seldom seen by Europeans. There
are nine miles of the ruined city; "as numerous as the Pagodas of Pagan"
is, in Burmah, a term for a number that cannot be counted. Mrs Ernest
Hart, in "Picturesque Burmah," describes them in a most interesting
chapter. The authorities on Indian architecture, Fergusson, Colonel
Yule, and Marco Polo, all agree that they are of the wonders of the
world. Mrs Hart compares them in their historical interest to the
Pyramids, and in their architecture to the cathedrals of the Middle
Ages. She says of Gaudapalin Temple, which is the first temple seen on
approaching Pagan, that the central spire, which is 180 feet, recalls
Milan Cathedral. It was built about the year 1160 A.D. Colonel Yule says
that in these temples "there is an actual sublimity of architectural
effect which excites wonder, almost awe, and takes hold of the
imagination." Mr Fergusson is inclined to think this form of fane was
derived from Babylonia, and probably reached Burmah, via Thibet, by some
route now unknown. They have pointed arches to roof passages and halls,
and to span doorways and porticoes; and as no Buddhist arch is known in
India, except in the reign of Akbar, and hardly an arch in any Hindoo
temple, this disposes of the idea that the Burmese of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries derived their architecture from India. There are
besides temples and fanes, many solid bell-shaped pagodas of the Shwey
Dagon type. The Ananda Temple is the oldest. It is built in the form of
a Greek cross, the outer corridors are a hundred feet. The interior,
from descriptions I've read, must be splendidly effective and
impressive.

We stop at oil works, Yenangyat. The people come on and off in boat
loads of bright colours, and women come and sit on the sand beside the
ship. Each woman has an assortment of lacquered ware, orange and red,
delicately patterned cylindrical boxes, wit