Jan. 26, 1857.] YULE ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF BURMA. 273 



The President called attention to the geological portion of the work, as 

 communicated by Mr. Oldham, the superintendent of the Geological Survey of 

 our dominions in India. He was associated with Captain Yaile in surveying 

 the country, and the concluding part of the volume contained a great deal of 

 important information with respect to the structure of the country, the rocks, 

 and all their relations. The work was rendered additionally valuable from its 

 observations on the statistics of the productions of the country, includino- the 

 mineral productions with the observations of Mr. Oldham. 



Mr. Crawfurd. — He ought, in justice to the nobleman who obtained this 

 annexation of Aracan and Pegu, to mention an important fact respecting them. 

 It was well known that Bengal — rice-producing Bengal — was a densely peopled 

 country. The consequence was that the price of rice had been constantly 

 rising. Aracan and Pegu were countries of a totally different description. 

 They were un^ieopled. Captain Yule did not estimate the population at above 

 25 inhabitants to the mile, whereas there were some portions of Bengal which 

 contained 600 to the square mile. There was a great abundance of fertile land 

 in the valley of Aracan. The price of corn and rice was regulated by the 

 quantity of land of the first quality, capable of producing it. All the land at 

 ]H'esent in use in Aracan for the production of rice, was of the first quality. 

 The result was that the export of rice from Aracan alone, though a country of 

 but 10,000 miles in extent, was greater than the exports from all Bengal toge- 

 ther. In former times the settlements to the eastward — Penang, Singapore, 

 and all the countries in that direction — used to be supplied by Java. The 

 policy of the Dutch, by displacing rice and encouraging other productions less 

 profitable to, the people, had been such as to enhance tlie price of rice to such 

 an extent that these districts were now supplied from Aracan. A very large 

 amount of the rice of Aracan was also exported to Europe, to the value of one 

 million sterling annually, as he had been informed by a merchant connected 

 with the trade. These facts showed that our Burmese possessions were likely 

 to become important countries. 



3. Journey across the Kuen-luen from Laddk to Khotan. By the 

 Brothers Sghlagintweit. 



Communicated by Col. W. H. Sykes, v.p.r.g.s., etc. 



PiiocEEDiNG from Ladak, throngh Nnbra, to the Pass of Karakoriim, 

 we were able to pass the frontier of Ladak, and to extend our 

 observations over very nearly the whole breadth of the Kuen-luen 

 Mountains. We estimate (not yet having reduced our astronomical 

 observations of latitudes and longitudes) the distance we travelled 

 in Turkistan, before returning again into Ladak, to be very nearly 

 300 English miles. 



We left Ladak July 24th, 1856, went by Laoche Pass (17,600 

 feet *) to the valley of the Shayuk and Nubra ; from Kubra we 

 crossed the Sassar Pass, about 17,500 feet. W^e stayed two days on 

 the Pass itself to make magnetic observations and to enable us to 



* All the heights in this Report are only approximately correct. Very good 

 corresponding observations were taken at I^adak, but we have not yet found time 

 to make the necessary calculations. 



