OF THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES. 
400 
same deposits forming the banks of the Maulmain river, has 
been in active operation for years past- Within the last ten 
years however, this destruction of highly fertile grain lands 
has been brought to prominent notice by the tact, that in the 
former locality, a tract of about 6000 acres has, during that 
period, been rendered useless for cultivation, by the influx of 
the sea water ; and in the latter locality the same destruction 
of land lias oceured; the same cause being assigned by the 
cultivators, the process in this case being the erosion of the 
rivers bank to a distance that has admitted the salt water in¬ 
to the plains which were previously protected by this belt of 
uncultivated jungle. At the present progressive rate of des¬ 
truction of these lands it may be expected, that in the course 
of a few years more, the encroachment of the sea will have 
inflicted a most serious injury on the best interests of the na¬ 
tive cultivators ; and with the loss of the most tertiie tracts of 
alluvium, a corresponding loss of revenue will accrue to 
government, such a consummation being inevitable in a country 
with a native population of the most apathetic character, 
unused to any extraordinary exertion of either body or mind ; 
and who rather than oppose the most simple work of art to 
the ravages of any natural process of distraction as that des¬ 
cribed, would relinquish the hereditary allotment ot their 
family without a single regretj this however has been provided 
for in the able and judicious measures of administration ot the 
present Commissioner Mr Colvin, who in reducing very 
considerably the former pressing rates of land, and instituting 
terms of tenure of the most liberal character tor unconverted 
paddy lands, viz : freedom from tax from three to six years, 
according to the jungle to be cleared, has thereby secured an 
uninterrupted and increasing return of revenue to Govern¬ 
ment, and conferred upon the native cultivators a boon which 
will manifest itself in the good result of its operation. 
If is to be regretted that in the various missions undertaken 
by G overnment with the object of opening an intercourse 
with the interior, the subject of geology has not been con¬ 
sidered more essentially important as an aid to more cor¬ 
rect geographical description than appears to have obtained. 
It is not hereby implied that the traveller should burden him¬ 
self with bulky specimens of rocks, in countries scarcely ac¬ 
cessible by the commonest means of transport, with bridgeless 
streams and jungle paths; it would be sufficient for the pur¬ 
pose when observing the direction of hill ranges, to select small 
specimens from the most prominent ones, procured if possible 
from some mural section of the main formation, noting at 
