WD540(15)

‘Yé-nan-gyoung, Petrolium or Earth Oil Creek.’

THE town, viewed from the deck of the steamer. Yea-nan-gyoung, or ‘Fetid Water Creek,’ so called from the ‘Petroleum’, or Earth Oil, of which singular production this is the locality, stands on the eastern, or left bank of the Irrawaddy, and was reached on the fourteenth day of the journey.

The town lies in one of the numerous hollows found between the barren sandy hills, of which this bank of the river had, throughout the day, presented so singular and continuous a succession. (‘See Report, page 20’). Every eminence around was crowned by pagodas, or monastic buildings, which increased in number, singularity, beauty and magnitude, as the journey progressed. The most remarkable and imposing of these seen here was the Pagoda occupying the centre of the drawing — It was built on five or six terraces of red brick, which were ascended by a flight of steps, divided mid-way by a kind of portico of two arches. To the right was another pagoda, apparently of more modern erection, of octagonal and very graceful form, and tastefully elaborated architecture ; and to the extreme right two monastic buildings, one of wood and the other of brick, are observed, and are found to crown the high bank of the creek from which the place takes its name. ‘(See Sketch, No. 19).’

The boats seen crowding around the shore, many of which were very large, are used mostly for transport of the petroleum oil, which is frequently stowed ‘in bulk’ like salt or coals.