reckoned the uppermost Mranma town on that bank of the Erawadi; for, although the Ambassador's map places this town on the left, both the slave in the general map, and the native of Taunu, agree to place it on the right. This difference, however, is not an error in either party, as I understood that the town is really on the right; but the customhouse, which is most frequented by travellers passing on the river, stands on the left bank. Indeed even lower down I had occasion to observe, that notwithstanding the great size of the Erawadi, part of one town stood on each side of this noble river. Unfortunately, for reasons formerly mentioned (N° III.), I did not obtain the names of the six towns between Zabbæhnago and Bhanmo in the general map of the slave; but as the same number exactly occurs in the Ambassador's route (N° V.), we may conclude that the same towns are meant, and therefore that the first Shanwa town on this route is Kiangnap, although it is on the west side of this mountainous tract, which the slave states as the boundary between the Mranma and Shan nations; but then he makes the mountains descend to the Erawadi at Zabbahnago. The accompanying map, however, seems here more correct than the general one drawn by the slave, and represents the hills east from Amarapura, not as a narrow ridge, separating the two nations, but as a mountainous region, among which are many valleys occupied by the Mrelap Shan, who at Kiangnap extend to the Erawadi at or near the termination of the hilly region. Between the capital and Kiangnap, in the accompanying map, is laid down a small river, not noticed in either of the two authorities already published. It descends from the mountainous region of the Shanwas, and falls into the Erawadi, passing on the north side of the city called Maddara. East from this town and the present capital, and near the hills, is an artificial pond (kan) of great extent, and called Aunbænlæ, or the pond of Nelumbium, the figures in the map being drawn in imitation of the leaves of this splendid vegetable. At the old city of Ava, or more properly Aenwa, the Erawadi receives another stream called Mringngah, or the Little River, in contradistinction to the Erawadi or Great River. Various canals between the two surround the city, which is most nobly and conveniently situated, at the junction, in a fertile and highly beautiful country, containing immense rivers, extended plains, lofty mountains, projecting rocks, and abundant materials for the most ornamented architecture. The climate, however, of the Mranma territory is not very favourable; the rains being seldom sufficiently abundant; so that without artificial irrigation, all the neighbouring countries are more productive of grain. A though not reckoned so salubrious as Rangoun, Ava is by means unhealthy. The Mringngah, in the accompanying map appears as if it sprung from the face of the hills east from Ava but, in fact, as we learn from the general map of the slave, it passes a great way through the mountainous country of the Shanwas, rising on the frontier of China, and probably passes near Boduæn, from whence running south, through a populous valley, to the parallel of Ava, it there turns west to join the Erawadi; nor, on account of its being called the Little River, are we to conceive, that its size is like the streams of Britain, the largest of which, among the Mranmas, would be only considered as a Khiaun, and would not receive the title of Mrit. Its mouth, which alone I saw, was very wide, although no doubt inferior to the Erawadi, and it is only in comparison with this, that it has obtained the denomination Little. Some way before the Mringngah joins the Erawadi, it receives two branches, one only of which, the Panlaun, is mentioned in the accompanying Map; and as it comes from about the south-west, the paper did not admit of its being laid right down. The compiler, therefore, has been under the necessity of making its course east and west, and therefore of bringing all the neighbouring cities, such as Puefla and Læhghia, much too near Sibho. Neither of the branches of the Mringngæh admit of navigation; but canals dug from them irrigate a large extent of country, at present, I believe, the most productive territory of the empire. Owing to the Panlaun having been too much bent to the north, and the Banmo too much to the south, the whole of the Mrelap Shan country to the east of the Erawadi is in this Map much distorted; but the distances will serve to give the real situations. It must be observed, that to the east of the seven cities held by Shanwa chiefs on the Erawadi, there is a large space occupied by woods and mountains, in which no cities are laid down on any authority which I possess; and the first towns to which we come in this direction are Boduan, Seinni, Taunbain, Sibho, and Sounzho, all towns, I think, in the valley of the Mringngah. This mountainous space, I have no doubt, is the Pahimapan of the Modern Universal History (vol. vii. p. 153.) The only place in this extensive space laid down in the accompanying Map, is Momeit, perhaps twenty British miles road distance from Kiangnap, and twelve from Tagaun; and near this are the principal Ruby Mines in the empire, or I believe in the world; but to this I shall have another occasion to return. Beyond these eastern towns of the Mrelap Shan, mentioned in the last paragraph, this Map does not extend, although the territory dependent on them reaches to the river Saluæn, and, according to the divisions of the empire which existed in 1795, extended in some parts beyond that river. It is in the space between Sibho, Taunbain, Seinni, and the Saluæn, that there is an extensive region containing forests or thickets of the tea-tree, which the Mranmas call Lapæk, and the Portuguese of India name Champok (See Modern Universal History, vol. vii. p. 129.) These woods are inhabited by a tribe of Shan called Palaun, by whom the tea-leaves, in place of being dried for infusion, as is done by the Chinese and Japanese, are pickled for being chewed, and the quantity of this pickle consumed all over the empire is very great. It is not to be conceived, that the greater part of the mountainous and woody regions in the Eastern Peninsula of India are wastes; on the contrary, in general they abound in inhabitants, the rude aborigines of the country, and are often more productive than the cleared plains, as the people are more addicted to agriculture than the more civilised races, who chiefly occupy towns, and live mostly by manufactures, fishing, and commerce, exchanging their commodities with the rude tribes for grain. The rude tribes, on the contrary, are diligent cultiva tors, clearing the forests in succession after long fallows, and thus procuring very plentiful crops from the lands enriched by rotten foliage and rest. These people have no towns, but live under their own native chiefs, protected in a considerable degree by their woods and mountains from the oppression of the mush room despots, under whom the more civilised races usually groan. ART. X.-Continental Observations on the Solar Eclipse of the 7th September 1820, with the Times of Conjunction, calculated from BURCKHARDT's Elements. By M. CHARLES RUMKER, Director of the Nautical Academy at Hamburgh. In a Letter to Dr BREWSTER. DEAR SIR, HAVING collected a great number of observations of the solar eclipse of the 7th September, I have calculated from them the true time of conjunction of the Sun and Moon, and have taken the liberty of sending you them for insertion in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. None of the observations made in England have yet reached me. The calculations are founded on the Elements of Burkhardt, which the collection of a greater number of observations will enable me to correct. I am, Sir, yours, &c, HAMBURGH, 7th Nov. 1820. C. RUMKER. 1. BOLOGNA. LAT. 44° 30' 12"; E. LONG. 45' 26" in time. Observed beginning of the Eclipse, 1h 35' 31".32 Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 35 30 51 End of the Ring, 3 05 00 32 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 35 20 42 2. GENOA. LAT. 44° 24' 34"; E. LONG. 35′ 42′′.5 in time. Observed end of the Eclipse, 4 11' 59'' Mean Time, Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 25 84.77 3. BREMEN. LAT. 53° 04' 38"; E. LONG. 35' 13" in time. Beginning of the Ring, 2 29′ 24' Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 25 21.1 2 34 41 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 24 55.5 4. GOTTINGEN. LAT. 51° 31' 56"; E. LONG. 39′ 47′′ in time. Beginning of the Ring, 2h 38′ 11′′.1 Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 29 53.3 2 43 16.25 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 29 20.1 End of the Eclipse, 4 00 44 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 29 37.4 5. NIEUSTEDTen. LAT. 53° 33' 10"; E. LONG. 39′ 25′′ in time. Beginning of the Eclipse, 1 10′ 38′′.5 Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 29 30.5 6. COPENHAGEN. LAT. 55° 40′ 55′′; E. LONG. 50′ 20′′ in time. Beginning of the Eclipse, End of the Eclipse, Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 40 32.2 4 03 22.1 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 40 11.5 7. BOGENHAUSEN. LAT. 48° 8' 49"; E. LONG. 46′ 26′′ in time. Beginning of the Ring, 2h 53′ 23′′ Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 36 27 8. MANHEIM. LAT. 49° 29 18"; E. LONG. 35′ 53′′ in time. Beginning of the Ring, 2h 35' 25',5 Mean Time. Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 23 49 2 40 21.6 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 23 44.4 Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 23 41.4 End of the Eclipse, 9. HAMBURGH. LAT. 53° 33′ 08′′; E. LONG. 39′ 57′′ in time. 3 56′ 27′′.9 Mean Time, Time of conjunction calculated from it, 2 29 47.5 |