BURMA, ITS TEOPLE AND PPiODUCTIONS. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



THE chapters devoted in previous editions of tliis worlv to Geology and 

 Mineralogy it has been deemed advisable completely to recast, as much of 

 the information has been altogether superseded by later investigations.' In the 

 earlier editions Dr. Mason thus quaintly prefaces the subject : " Burma is a gigan- 

 tic geological museum full of magnificent specimens. All the principal formations 

 in books, and gathered and labelled in glass cases, are spread over the land in 

 immense masses, waiting for students to knock off specimens for themselves, 

 and labelled by God himself in characters known and read of all men that 

 interest themselves therewith. There are plutonic rocks and volcanic rocks, 

 and fossiliferous rocks ; Primitive, Transition, Secondary, Tertiary and Diluvial, 

 Eocene, Miocene, and perhajis Pliocene. All that is wanting is a Curator to point 

 out the places in the Museum where they are laid away. And here wo are." 



Burma is traversed in a general north and south direction by three main 

 ranges of hills. Of these the most westerly is the Arukan range, which may be 

 held to originate in the somewhat complicated ranges east of Chittagong. and to 

 stretch thence south, with a general paiallelism with the coast, to Cape Negrais, 

 where it terminates. The next range to the eastward is the Pegu range, 

 commencing above the frontier, and running south as far as Eangoon, which 

 may be regarded as its farthest point in that direction. This range, which is 

 not more than half the height of the hill-ranges to the east, rarely rising abovo 

 2000 feet, forms the water-parting between the Irrawaddy and the Tsittoung rivers. 

 The hills east of the Tsittoung may all be classed with the system of ranges 

 which runs throtigh the Tenasserim provinces and then narrowing, is continued 

 south and forms the backbone of the Malayan Peninsula. These ranges are in 

 places far loftier than those to the westward, attaining to 7000 feet and upwards. 



METAMOEPHIC EOCKS. 



These rocks consist in Burma of granitoid gneiss, hornblendic gneiss, crys- 

 talline limestone, quartzito, and schists of various kinds. They mainly occupy 



' For a fuller account of the GeoloE;y of Burma reference may lie made to chapter xxix. of the 

 " Geology of India " by Jlcssrs. Jlcdlicott and ISlanford, and to the intirestinp: sketch of the physical 

 featui-es of the Islands in the Uay of Bengal in " Stray Feathers," vol. ii. p. 29. 



