EASTEllN OEOORAPHV. 



* Tiits petroleum ™ one of too royal monopolies, and large 

 ■pjantitics used to be shipped to Ranguri to ba manufactured into 

 pigoda candles \ but the American roek'oil and the development 

 ot the Baku wells (in Caucasia) interfered greatly with the aide." — 

 (i/. <?, jSVqW, p» 59.) Coal, slaty and bituminous, occurs both in 

 Tenftsserim, where tt ban never been worked, Hud oil the Irawaddy, 

 where it has been long 1 worked by the Burmese, especially at Think- 

 ndaw, some 30 miles above Myingyan, «t Shfn-paguh, midway 

 between Mandnlay and Bhnmu, and in the Shan hills east of Maud a- 

 lay. From Payou-liing, 150 miles north of Bhamd, come largo 

 quantities of ambur, which E* much used for car-plugs, necklaces, 

 Buddhist rosaries., and simitar objects by tbo natives. Platinum also 

 is, Raid to occur near Kaiini on the Chiudwm river, and iron and 

 silver mines were once largely worked, but are now abandoned, 



III Siani occur rich dii pewits of copper, tin, autimony, a!id mngnptii; 

 iron, mid in thr mountain range between the Mckhong ami Red Rivur iron, 

 tin, crtp|wr, hsIvl*, mid g&ld, Xear the delta of the laitor river the 

 French engineer, Kb Tticks, discovered in 1881 an extensive cAalfUdd over 

 AO square miles in extent. It also seems probable that the valleys of both 

 head stroma of the Song-koi (Red and Black Rivers) abound in nil m miner 

 of mineral ores, which, however, cannot ot present be utilised, owing to 

 the unsettled and inaccessible character of the country, 



River Syntonic— The disposition of the river systems is 

 marked by even greater uniformity than that of the mountain 

 ranges. Excluding the smaller stream* flowing independently to 

 the coast in Arakan, Tcnnsseriru, and Armani, i hi- wlioli- uf this 

 peninsula drains to tbo surrounding waters through five grout fluvial 

 basins, all pursuing it mom or lesa parallel southern or south' 

 eastern seaward course. Thus going eastward, the Zb&WADBY and 

 SittAXo collect in a common delta nearly all the waters of Upper 

 and Lower Bunnell ; the Salwin takes up nil the drainage of north- 

 east Burmah and the borderlands between Lower Bunuah and west 

 Kiiitik ; through I lie Mknam all the streams of Central Siam lind their 

 way to tbo Gulf of Siam ; tlio whole of the Lao country (North and 

 £]ast Siaut), Oambojn, and Lower Cochin China are comprised in (he 

 basin of the Mjexhokg (Gauiioj a) river; lastly, the So,vg-koi (BlB 

 River), with its many-branching delta, carries to the Chins Sea all 

 the surface waters of Tonkin. 



Two only of these basins, the Irawaddy-Sitt;tng and the Menam, 

 belong entirely to the peninsula. Of the others the Salwin and 

 Mekhong have their source on the Tibetan plenteau far away to the 

 north-west, while the Song-koi takes its rise on the rugged Yunnan, 

 tableland in south-west China. 



