Our camp was situated in a wild spot which appeared to be closed in by hills on all sides. Many of the trees were giants of the forests, with great buttresses springing out from the trunk several feet from the ground; others were being slowly strangled by creepers of large girth, which, twining round their trunks and branches like gigantic snakes, sprang in great festoons and wreaths from tree to tree, making the forest in places appear one vast tangle. The Rangoon creeper crested some of the trees with its pretty flowers; and beautiful flowering shrubs, creepers, and trees were in full blossom. From beneath the branches of a great tree called _mai ngoon_, great semicircular beehives were suspended, and the pegs that had been driven into its trunk to serve as a ladder for the honey and wax collectors, looked like knots on the tree, being overgrown and hidden by the sap. As the moon rose over the hills, and shed its delusive beams amongst the trees and on the water, the beauty of the scene raised one’s poetic fancies, and made one nearly believe it the effect of enchantment. The next morning we continued up the gorge, at times crossing and recrossing the river. On passing the boundary between the provinces of Kiang Dow and Muang Ken, which crossed the path at 32 miles, I noticed a small wooden altar on which had been placed offerings of grass and flowers. The boundary was marked by a rude gateway made of two posts connected at the top by a narrow network of strings, under which the elephants passed. On inquiry I learned that the network was intended to entangle evil spirits proceeding along the path, and thus protect the territory from demons coming to work harm from the neighbouring province. [Illustration: _Loi Chaum Haut from Ban Meh Meh._ ] Just beyond 33 miles the hills retire, and the gorge ends near the village of Ban Meh Kap. A mile farther we crossed an ancient Chinese fortification called Viang Hau, consisting of two ditches one encircling the other—about 40 feet broad, and from 10 to 15 feet deep—and an intermediate rampart. A suburb of Ban Meh Meh is situated within the enclosure. Shortly after passing through the fort we halted at the temple of the main village for breakfast. Here I had a capital view of the hills to the east which divide this portion of the Meh Ping from its eastern branch, the Meh Ngat. [Illustration: _View of Loi Pa-Yat Pa-Yai._ ] To the north of the gap through which the road leads to Viang Pow (Pau) is a great plateau, the crest of which is edged by a narrow range of mural limestone cliffs called Loi Pa-Yat Pa-Yai, through which the Meh Pam passes in a gap after draining the plateau lying between the Meh Fang and the Meh Ping. To the south lies Loi Chaum Haut and its spurs, and to the east of them the beautiful province of Viang Pow, which I passed through on my return journey.