NOTES ON THE SIAMESE PROVINCES OF 



KOOWI, BANGTAPHAN, PATEEO 



AND CHAMPOON. 



BY 



ARTHUR K E I T H, M. b., c. M. 



Their Position and Outstanding Features. 



that part of the Malay Peninsula lying between 

 io° 20' and 12 N. Latitude, the backbone range 

 of hills almost skirts the East coast and thus between 

 the hills and the sea lies a narrow strip of country, 

 the northernmost part forming the province of 

 Koowi ; Bangtaphan, Pateeo and Champoon follow- 

 ing in order towards the South. This backbone range, 

 covered evenly over with deep jungle like the plain that lies 

 between it and the sea, averages in height some 1,600 feet 

 above the sea level, but at Khow Pra it reaches some 3,500 

 feet, while it attains 4,326 feet — its highest point — in Khow 

 Luang, standing as the boundary wall between Burma and 

 Siam. It is broken here and there by gaps, honoured by the 

 name of passes, the best known of which perhaps is that of 

 Kra, 250 feet above sea level, lying at the southern extremity 

 of the piece of country of which I write, and frequented by 

 the Siamese living in the Pak-chan valley when visiting their 

 relatives in Champoon ; while better known in former times 

 and lying quite at the other extremity, the pass of Koowi, 

 some 750 feet above sea level, affords the colony of Siamese 

 living in the valley of the smaller Tenasserim River, a rude 

 path to their native provinces on the East Coast. Between 



