Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute Volume 17 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ...its mouth. But by far the most important of the valleys is that of the Irawadi This great river--about the sources of winch there has raged a perennial dispute rivalling that about the source of the Nile, but probably soon now to be settled for ever--forms, in the upper part of its course, numerous fertile plains, producing rice, cotton, wheat, and other valuable crops, and, in the lower part, in combination with the shorter river Sittang, a magnificent delta, which could grow rice enough to supply all the demands of the world. It is navigable by steamers drawing five feet of water for nine hundred miles from its mouth. Its principal tributary, the Kyendwin, also flows through rich plains. The mountains whicb bound the valley are clothed with luxuriant forests of teak and other valuable woods, and contain rich mineral deposits. The variety of climatic condition is also great. The provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim, exposed to the full effects of the S/W. monsoon, and with mountains whose tops rise high enough to condense the clouds, have a rainfall of 200 inches. The delta plain, also exposed to the monsoon, but with less condensing power, has a rainfall of 70 to 100 inches, which rarely fails. The Upper Burma valley, with a lofty mountain chain between it and the Bay of Bengal, has a small rainfall, the clouds that cross the barrier often passing over without depositing their moisture till they reach the mountain chain to the east, when they again condense. While, therefore, the mountains everywhere in Burma have heavy rain, the cultivation of the upper plain depends to a great extent on the rises of the river. These are as much as 40, to 50 feet in height, and carry with them, as the Nile does, a fresh supply of fertilising mud. If they fail, ..