utensils and other articles, which they exchange principally for cotton. This caravan-trade has materially increased within the past few years, though I have been informed that years ago the trade was much more extensive than it is now. The gradual recuperation of Yunnan, consequent upon the restoration of order there, probably explains this recent increase of trade. The fact that a party of ten or twelve men with a caravan of sixty or seventy mules make this journey from Tali in Yunnam viâ Cheung Hoong and Cheung Toong, to Cheung Mai, is a sufficient indication of the safety of the route. A caravan of sixty mules will ordinarily carry merchandise to the value of twelve to fifteen thousand dollars, occasionally a larger amount. Most of the Yunnan traders who come to Cheung Mai come from the neighborhood of Tali.
The construction of a railroad from Maulmain, viâ Cheung Mai, to some point in South-western Yunnan would probably not encounter any physical obstacles more serious than is usually met with in railroad building. After entering the plain or plateau of Cheung Mai the engineering difficulties would be of little consequence until the mountains of Cheung Hoong were reached; and even there the elevation is not very great and there are no deep gorges, such as are met with on the Bhamo and Manwyne route. It is probable there are no insurmountable barriers
