is a sheer precipice, which often, and
particularly at Moosmai, assumes the form of a vast amphitheatre, over
the brink of which cascades, especially at Moosmai, fall in tolerable
plenty. It is in these places that the immense depth of the sandstone is
best seen; the depth of the valley of Moosmai is, I am told, 1500 feet,
the country above these precipices is generally level, and is in fact
table-land. The most beautiful valley is at Maamloo, a village to the
Westward of Churra, and about five miles distant. The approach to Churra
is pretty enough, and gives the best view of the cantonment. The coal
mines are to the Westward, and close to Churra. These I have not yet
seen; the coal is of the very best description, it does not splinter,
gives remarkably few ashes, affords an admirable fire and the best coke.
Water-courses are plenty about Churra, but the body of water is at this
season small, although it becomes considerable after a few hours rain; it
is then that the great fall at Moosmai becomes really beautiful, the
water shooting over the precipice and falling into a bason about 150 feet
below. By a succession of these falls, although of more limited height,
it at length reaches the bottom of the valley. It is only on the
precipices about the fall that the Chamaerops appears to grow; at the
foot of a precipice a little to the right (going from Churra,) a tree
fern grows, which I have Wallich's authority for stating to be Polypod
giganteum, a fern which occurred at Mahadeb, and which I have seen in
somewhat similar situations at Mergui. All my excursions have been
confined to this valley and to the water-courses immediately around
Churra; once only have I quitted the table-land and proceeded to Maamloo,
and yet in this very limited space the profusion of objects has been such
as to enable me only to embrace a very limited proportion. The above
excursion proved very rich. About half way to Maamloo I discovered a
solitary tree fern (_Alsophila Brunoniana_,) and to the left, and up
the broken sides of the calcareous cliffs that occur here and between
Maamloo and Moosmai, a group of several magnificent specimens, of which
on the succeeding day we brought home three. We saw none above 30 feet,
although the specimen in the British Museum from these hills measures 45.
Their axis is of small diameter, and is nearly cylindrical, the vascular
fascicles being disposed in covered bundles, often assuming the form of a
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