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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 17, p. 126.

126 MAZVDAl fl l' nl.STRICT forms part of the eastern and practically the whole of the southern boundary of the District, sweeping round in a narrow canon from south to north-west, and emerging from the hills at the foot of a striking bluff, about 2,000 feet high, locally known as Kywetnapa, or `rat's snout.' It is navigable only to the foot of the hills, its course above being full of rapids and falls. The Madaya river, known by the Shans as the Nam Pi, and locally as the Chaungmagyi, rises in the Shan States and flows at first southwards, forming part of the eastern boundary of the District, after which it turns westwards, and joins the Irrawaddy about 25 miles above Mandalay. Close to its debouchure from the hills are the head-works of the new MANDALAY CANAL, which distributes its waters over the eastern part of the plain almost to the Myitnge river. Of lakes proper there is none, though several large areas are inun- dated to a considerable depth in the rains, the chief being the Aungbinle lake east of Mandalay, the Nanda lake 21 miles north- north-east of the city, the Shwepyi in the north of the District, and the Taungthaman close to Amarapura. The Mandalay Canal is, however, fast converting the first two into paddy-fields. The last two are lagoons fed from the Irrawaddy, which are dammed for fishing and cultivation when the river falls. The plain is to a great extent covered with alluvial deposit from the Irrawaddy. The isolated hills are of crystalline limestone, belong- ing to the period of Mogok gneiss. In the Sagyin Hills rubies are found in the débris resulting from the denudation of the limestone. The hilly tracé, the edge of the Shan plateau, is composed of palaeozoic rocks, probably faulted down against the crystalline limestone. A fringe of Devonian limestone extends along the outer edge of the plateau, followed by a zone of Silurian sandstone, shales, and lime stones, which occupy most of the broken country below its crest. The Silurians rest unconformably upon a series of quartzites and slaty shales which are probably of Cambrian age. Near Zibingyi (on the Lashio railway), a narrow band of black shaly limestone is found at the base of the Devonian limestone, containing graptolites and fossils of Upper Silurian age. The surface of the plateau extending from Zibingyi to beyond Maymyo is covered with Devonian limestones, the denudation of which has exposed the Silurian rocks beneath in the hilly country north of Maymyo. The shales of the Lower Silurian formation are highly fossiliferous, containing large numbers of detached plates of cystideans and fragments of crinoid stems. The forest produce is described below. The Maymyo plateau is extraordinarily productive of flora both indigenous and foreign. Many kinds of orchids and lilies grow wild; English blooms of every description flourish; and the padauk (Plerocarpus indicus), the ingyin