The next morning, after leaving the village fields, and crossing the Meh Chan for the last time, we passed between a newly raised footpath and a ditch for about half a mile. The footpath had been raised, because, when the Meh Kong is in high flood, the ground about here and between this and Kiang Hsen is occasionally inundated by the Meh Khum. At 389 miles we skirted a hillock, called Loi Ngome, on our right, and soon afterwards came to the village and fields of Hsan Hsoom Hpee. Many low hillocks were now seen at distances varying from 800 feet to four miles to our right. A short distance from Kiang Hsen I halted near an irrigation-canal, 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep, to visit the Koo Tow, a celebrated leaning pagoda, which, unlike any other pagoda that I have seen in Indo-China, has been built in the Chinese style. The figures of the Tay-wa-boot or male angels, which are executed in bas-relief in excellent plaster, are Burmese in design. The pagoda is circular, and about 75 feet high; the upper 60 feet rising in three storeys, like a drawn-out telescope. Each storey is divided into two by an ornamental band, above which are Tay-wa-boot with hands upraised and palms pressed together in adoration, and below which are similar Tay-wa-boot with hands pressed together in front of their chest. Before the pagoda a Burmese image of Gaudama has been erected, which was still in good condition with the exception of the loss of a hand and an arm. On remounting the elephant, a deer sprang up from the long grass close by and crossed the track. Six minutes later I crossed the Meh Khum, or golden river, 80 feet broad and 9 feet deep, with 3½ feet of water; and three-quarters of a mile from the pagoda, entered the fortifications which enclose the west central gate of Kiang Hsen. The gate opens on to one of the main streets of the city, along which we passed amidst numerous ruins of religious buildings, and a few clusters of recently built houses, to the _sala_ or rest-house, which we occupied during our stay. The _sala_ is situated 1274 feet to the west of the Meh Kong, or Cambodia river, 393 miles from Hlineboay, 1097 feet above the sea, and only 89 feet higher than Zimmé. CHAPTER XVIII.