440
14
[The Chinese firm pay one in ten-at least, so they told me-but I expect that they and the Lisu often evade payment.-G. L.]
"Beyond collecting toll and tribute Teng Keng never exercises any authority on the N'Maikha side of the watershed beyond the Salween divide.
The Upper Ngaw Chang Valley consists of steep grassy slopes, with pines and chestnuts, and very little cultivation. Mules from Ming Kwang are sometimes sent here to graze, and I met a few Szechuanese peddlers with their trade loads, Below Kang Fang there are some narrow strips of paddy-land on both sides of the
river."
VI. The Lisu Country on the Upper Salween.
I was accompanied from Pien Ma to the Salween by Surveyor Lachman Jadu; my object was to collect such further information about the main Salween-Irrawaddy divide as would enable His Majesty's Government to press for the definition of the frontier north of the point (about latitude 25° 50′) where this main divide is joined by the minor divide between the Ming Kwang and Ngaw Chang Rivers, or, what is the same, the divide between the Shweli and the N'Maikha.
From Pien Ma the track ascended steeply in an easterly direction across open grassy hills. At 8,500 feet a magnificent view was unfolded. East of us the lofty snow-clad range between the Salween and the N'Maikha stretched away towards the north; to the south of us the crest of the divide between the Ngaw Chang and the Ming Kwang Rivers stood clearly out against the sky for many miles. Nothing could have shown more clearly than this view the fitness and convenience of the frontier which we claim.
Below us lay the scattered village of Pien Ma with its narrow valley of paddy-fields stretching down to the dark gorge in which flows the Ngaw Chang. Beyond, and hanging over the right bank of the Ngaw Chang, was another majestic range of snow- clad peaks forming a barrier between the Lashi (Chinese, Cha Shau) country, which we had been exploring, and Lang-su, as it is known to the Chinese.
Lang-su is a general term indicating all the wild Maru country beyond the Ngaw Chang and west of the great Salween divide. It appears to be generally recognized by the Chinese as not being under their control, and no claims were put forward in respect of it. The NMaikha above the junction of the Ngaw Chang is known to the very few Chinese who have been there as the Laug-su River.
We crossed into the Salween basin by the Pien Ma Pass at 10,500 feet. This pass is usually practicable for mules, but we found the narrow path along the hill-side leading down from the summit deep in loose wet snow, across which it was impossible for animals to proceed. We were accordingly compelled to send the mules round by the Ma Mien Pass, a détour of twelve days, and do as best we could with coolie porters. The descent on the Salween side was very steep along the gorge of the Ku Tan Stream, which joins the Salween just north of the village of Teng Keng, after a rapid course of 12 miles. After camping in the jungle some 4 miles above the scattered village of Ku T'an, we climbed up a very steep spur on the left of the stream till we reached 6,500 feet, or 3,500 feet above the Salween, whence a long half-day's march of 8 miles northwards along steep bare hill-sides with several steep ascents and descents brought us to the Lisu village of La Chang (thirty houses), situated at 6,000 feet on a wooded terrace high above the Salween.
Here we reached the fatherland of the Lisu tribe, for the Lisu villages scattered about the hills further south are all emigrations from the Upper Salween. Very few of the inhabitants of La Chang can speak more than a few sentences of Chinese. At Mao Chao, the next village to the north, only the attendants of the semi-Chinese Headman can speak the language of Han. Beyond Mao Chao there are no Chinese at all except two families resident at Cheng Ka, by the banks of Salween, latitude 26o, a small village with some paddy-fields, where there is a rope sling-bridge and a ferry-raft for crossing the river in low water.
We advanced three marches north of Lu Chang, camping at the villages of Mao Chao, Shih Pai Lai Ti, and Pai Pa; fortunately, lucid moments between the perpetual thunderstorms which swept down the valley in quick succession enabled the surveyor, by advancing above and beyond Pai Pa, to map the river and the high snow-clad divide between it and the Irrawaddy as far as latitude 26° 30′.
I may therefore here put together in brief the information which I have collected. on this and other journeys concerning the Upper Salween-i.e., above the iron suspen- sion bridge on the main Burmah-Ta Li road.
15
From the bridge northwards as far as Teng Keng, latitude 26°, the river, though its basin is only some 20 miles across, flows through comparatively open country, the great mountains on both sides breaking down to the banks in open rolling downs with ample room for rice cultivation, but, owing to the extreme unhealthiness of the valley, only a small part of it is cultivated by a mixed population of Shans and Chinese. There are, however, numerous Chinese villages along the upper slopes. The principal ferry in this section is at Meng Ku, latitude 25° 36', near the market of Man Yin, on the right or west bank, which is the last bazaar on the Upper Salween, and is situated in a broad paddy-valley at the foot of the Ma Mien Pass over to the valley of Ta Tang (Upper Shweli).
From Teng Keng, in latitude 26° northwards, to about 27° 40', the river, which maintains an equal breadth of 100 yards for a great distance, is inclosed in a gorge as precipitous as the cañon of the Mekong. From about latitude 26° the range on the west bank forms the main divide between the Salween and the Irrawaddy, and its array
The year. of peaks is covered with snow for at least eight months of the
is also range an important ethnographical boundary, forming a barrier between the Maru country along the east of N'Maikha and the Lisu country along the west bank of the Salween. The Salween Lisu seem to regard this range as the frontier, and speak of their own Liso country.e., the Salween Valley-in, contradistinction to Langsu, the Kachin country on the other side of the range.
The gorge section of the Salween appears to be entirely inhabited by Lásu, a tribe closely allied to the Lolo, and probably of Thibetan origin. They are well aware of the unhealthiness of the river banks, and nearly all their villages are 3,000 feet above the bottom of the gorge, even though the paddy-fields have to be squeezed into the few gaps in the cliffs by the river banks.
The characteristic of this gorge of the Salween is the tremendous series of sharp steep spurs which come straight down from the snows to the river in an endless succession of parallels, It must be remembered that while the river itself here flows at 3,000 feet, and the mountains between it and the Irrawaddy basin on the west, or the basin of the Mekong on the east, rise to heights from 10,000 feet to 13,000 feet, the whole width of the valley from crest to crest of the two ranges is only some 18 miles in an air-line; from uative information it appears that the spurs which descend to the N'Maikha on the west side of the great divide are quite as numerous and difficult as those which we negotiated on our journey northwards from Lu Chang.
From about latitude 27° 40′ northwards to the confines of Thibet the valley of the Salween is again somewhat more open. Wide stretches of country are covered with tall grass, and the bulk of the population in this section consists of Lu Tzu, a tribe in a very backward condition and probably closely allied to the Ching-paw or Kachins.
The French Missions Étrangères" have recently sent a priest to work among these people, and he has established himself at Chongra on the left bank at about latitude 28°. He has seen and even ascended the Salween-Irrawaddy divide, which is here the boundary between the Lu and the Chiu tribes, who inhabit the eastern sources of the Irrawaddy. This same divide was crossed by Prince Henri of Orleans at an altitude of 12,800 feet, in latitude approximately 27° 40'.
It is therefore submitted that it may be regarded as established that a high regular range divides the Salween from the Irrawaddy basin as far as the sources of the latter river, and that north of the point (about latitude 25° 52′) where the Ming Kwang-N'Maikha divide joins it, this main range is not only the most convenient frontier, but also the only frontier which His Majesty's Government can accept, and that the sooner the Government of Peking can be brought to comprehend this the better.
Travelling in the Lisu country is a series of steep climbs up the almost perpen- dicular sides of spurs, followed by break-neck descents on the other side. The scattered villages of rude log or bamboo huts with grass thatching are generally situated near the ridges of the spurs. The streams between the spurs are violent mountain torrents crossed by rickety plank bridges, and the bottom of each little valley is occupied by & hot and steamy jungle, whence the perspiring traveller climbs painfully up to the breezy ridges. The Taotai with much difficulty got a small mountain chair as far as Mao Chao, but there had to call a halt while I and the surveyor proceeded pedibus cum jambis.
Cultivation on the steep hill slopes along the river is extensive but precarious, as the fields are liable to be swept bodily away into the Salween; paddy-fields are few, and are
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