In the shops adjoining the market, some of which are kept by Chinamen and Burmese, the occupiers are general dealers. In them are kept for sale umbrellas and fans, lacquered brass, and crockery-ware, native embroideries, English cotton piece-goods, broadcloths, velvets, velveteens, satins, silks, muslins, Chinese silks and crapes, silk jackets and trousers, silk jackets lined with fur, German aniline dyes and needles, Swedish and English matches, tinned salmon, sardines, milk, butter, jam, swords, knives, nails, gongs, hoes, large shallow iron pans, iron tripods for setting over the fire, brimstone, bluestone, arsenic, native and patent medicines, pestles and mortars for elderly toothless people to crush their betel-nut in, vegetable-wax tapers for burning in the temples, Chinese perfumery, and pictorial paper scrolls; kerosene oil and lamps, glass basins, decanters and mantelpiece vases, and a selection of earthenware jars, pots and pans; in fact, all that a native purchaser has learned to desire. Passing from the outer into the inner town, we continued along the main road until we came to the enclosure wall of the palace grounds. The gate of the palace lies 1140 yards from the entrance of the inner town, and leads into an extensive court containing several buildings. The palace faces the gate, and is a substantial one-storeyed building, slightly Chinese in aspect, with brick walls, plastered over with an excellent cement, and a tiled roof. Ascending a flight of steps, paved with black tiles, we entered the audience-hall, which occupied the whole front of the building. The floor of the hall is inlaid with various woods, several chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and the walls were papered like an English drawing-room, and adorned with long, narrow, gilt-framed mirrors. The remainder of the furniture consisted of a lounge, an easy-chair, a dozen drawing-room chairs, upholstered in green rep, and a small tea-table. Through the doors leading into the private apartments some elegantly designed carved lattice-work partitions were seen, which served as screens to the interior of the palace. A few minutes after we were seated, the king, dressed in a green silk _loongyee_ or skirt, and a white cotton jacket with gold buttons, entered the hall, and after shaking hands, welcomed us in a quiet and dignified manner. Tea was then brought in, and we seated ourselves round the table. After a few preliminary remarks, Dr M‘Gilvary told him the object of my visit, and the great boon to his country that the construction of a railway to connect it with Burmah and China would be. He was rather thick-skulled, and had never been remarkable for intelligence. He could not understand how trains could move faster than ponies, or how they could move at all without being drawn by some animal. Anyhow, they could not ascend the hills, for they would slide down unless they were pulled up.