We left Muang Hpan in the afternoon, and made a short journey of 4½ miles to the Huay Kok Moo (the stream of the hog pens), where we halted for the night—having crossed several small streams and canals all flowing eastward into the Meh Hang, or into the fisheries through which that stream passes on its way to the Meh Poong. Huay Kok Moo itself, however, flows into a large lake-like marsh which serves as a fishery, and forms one of the principal sources of the Meh Ing. A cutting from the latter fishery into the Meh Poong, which enters the Meh Ing, would shorten the course of the Meh Ing by 30 miles, and save the Penyow plain from inundation, thus enabling a vast tract of country to be cultivated. The population being sparse in the State, and not even a tenth of the available land having been taken up for agriculture, the people have thrown dams across some of the streams to turn them and the low-lying country into fisheries, into which shoals of _plasoi_, or young fish, ascend from the Meh Kong. This river commences to rise in April with the melting of the snow, and is in high flood in July or August. When at its highest, it inundates large tracts of country which serve as breeding-grounds for the fish. As the waters subside, the young fish enter the streams, and appear in dense lines fringing the banks on their way up-stream. The dams are partially removed at the close of the fishing season, to allow fresh fish to enter when they come up-stream to breed. Incalculable harm is being done to the drainage of the country by the fisheries, as the upper courses of the dammed streams will in time silt up, when great expense will be required to relieve the water-logged country. Streams should not be bunded until the end of the rains, and all dams should be removed before they commence. The haze of the atmosphere, aided by the fires occurring amongst the long grass of the plains, had obscured our view since leaving Kiang Hai; and the plain, except where broken by occasional hillocks, seemed interminable on all sides. The soil was rich, and it was evident that only more inhabitants were required to turn the plain into a vast rice-field. Leaving camp soon after dawn, we continued for three miles through the grassy plain, crossing the beds of several dry streams and canals, and then entered the extensive rice-fields of Ban Meh Chai, the northern border village of Penyow, which contains 100 houses and a well-kept temple and monastery. According to the head-man of the village, owing to the land having been under cultivation for years, paddy only yields eighty-fold the amount sown in his fields, or less than one-third its yield in the newly taken-up land in the Kiang Hsen plain. Eighty-fold, however, is fully double the average yield in Burmah.