in do-china. 



77 



riverain valleys are found to be highly productive, wherever the land 

 has been cleared of the denec growth of primeval jumble. Hut even 

 since the British occupation in 1625 comparatively little land baa 

 been reclaimed and brought tinder regular cultivation. 



Natural Reapurceev — Indigo, sugar-cane., and cotton are either 

 indigenous or have been thoroughly acclimatised. More ot le^s 

 successful attempts have also been mode to lay out tea plantations 

 on the higher grounds, but tide will always probably form the chief 

 agricultural crop in the well- watered lowlands, Melons, cue umbers, 

 pine-apples, mangoes, and many other fruits thrive well, while, 

 tobacco promises to become n siaple product in the northern districts, 

 where it yields over »O0 lbs. per acre in a soil so rich as lo need no 

 rotation of crops. Next to agricultural produce the chief resource 

 of the country is its teak and other forest growths, which have 

 develojwd & large and increasing timber trade, exported chiefly from 

 Akyab. 



Of mineral wealth there is very little, or very litiln has liitbi rto 

 been discovered. Iron probably exist*, and mention ho* been made of 

 coal. Limestone also abounds, the prevailing geological formations 

 being chalk and tertiary limestone and sandstone. Old plutunic 

 rocks occur, but there is little truce of recent igneoim action beyund 

 the sd ready- mentioned mud volcanoes of the Cheduba and Itaum 

 islande. In this neighbourhood and in tho Akyab district further 

 north petroleum spring bubble up, and it is noteworthy that the 

 petroleum regiiui in the Irawaddy basin lies under the same latitude 

 as Akyab. Here ntso there is distinct evidence of upheaval, and 

 Hound Inland, lyin^ between Chedubn and the mainland, is said to 

 have been raised several yards during an earthquake in the middle 

 of the Inst century* 



Inhabitants. — The great balk of tbr Arakanesc native* belong 

 undoubtedly to the airae stock as their Burmese neighbours. They 

 speak a Burmese dialect of a somewhat archaic type, and some of the 

 tribes bear the common national name of J/ra, that is, " Men? 

 a word that has been identified with the Burmese Mgamma 

 (2fniM/na). In the Buriuciae chronicles the Rttkhmntha t as the 

 primitive inhabitants of the country are collectively called, receive 

 the title of Jl'mmmakrih, " Great Miummns,'' or Elder Burmese, and 

 their traditions point to Rukhaing, that is, Arakan, as the cradle of 

 their race. 



The Rakhaintha are commonly divided into two groups— the 

 Tnngtfatf or *' Highlander*" and the Kfttfiwgtlttt, or "Btver 

 People,'* that ib, Lowlanders, The former, comprising the Afros, 



