Yes, they might have the bell _if they could get it_. They succeeded in raising it out of the river, and hauled it back in triumph to the position it occupies to-day. [Illustration: GREAT BELL AT THE MENGOHN PAGODA.] When great shrines like this exist in Burma, on such a vast scale and with such splendour, it is not much to wonder at if there should be some specimens of unfinished and abortive undertakings, by which the kings of Burma, in their ambition to obtain great merit and a name, sought to equal or excel the great shrines of antiquity, but which had to be relinquished because the resources, even of despotic kings, are not unlimited. Such a one is the great unfinished Mengohn Pagoda, which is built in a pleasant spot on the right bank of the Irrawaddy, about nine miles above Mandalay. It is supposed that this must be the largest mass of solid brickwork in the world, and it is now nearly a century old. It covers a square of 450 feet, and has therefore an area of 4¾ acres. Its height is 155 feet, which is much less than it would have been had it gone on to completion. An Englishman, Captain Cox, was there, and saw the beginning of this huge structure. He says in his book that there was a great square chamber built in the basement of the pagoda as usual, to receive the offerings of the king and the people, and amongst many peculiarly Burmese and Buddhist articles, such as models of precious relics in gold caskets, and gold and silver miniature pagodas and images, the miscellaneous collection included an article of Western manufacture—a soda-water machine, at that time almost as great a novelty in England as it was in Burma. Close by this large unfinished pagoda is the second largest bell in the world; the largest is at Moscow. An earthquake, which occurred in 1839, cracked this enormous mass of brickwork, and dislodged a portion of it; but so solid is it that it would take many earthquakes utterly to destroy it. Notwithstanding the failure to complete this gigantic enterprise, it did not deter a later king, the father of King Theebaw, from attempting a still larger and more ambitious effort. Four miles to the east of Mandalay there was to have been erected the Yankeen-toung Pagoda, built of stone quarried from the adjoining hill; and it was to have been larger considerably than the unfinished Mengohn. The whole kingdom was laid under contribution to furnish men to labour by turns, a few months at a time, on this pious work. After four years’ labour, so vast was the extent that the basement had only reached a height of four feet. At this stage a French engineer was called in to make an estimate and report upon it. His calculation was that if 5,000 men worked every day on the building, it might at that rate be finished in eighty-four years. It never went beyond the basement.