ASSAM, BURMA, AND CEYLON 173

of Arakan from the interior of Burma. The extreme north
of Arakan is lost in the southern abutments of the long
parallel mountain ridges of Lushai, which run from north
to south and end on the sea-coast. South of this, about
the debouchment of the Arakan River, which joins the sea
near the trading port of Akyab, there is a stretch of coast
lowland some 40 miles or so in width. Then this
southern arm of the mountains becomes definitely detached
 as a single range, and strikes southwards, approaching
 nearer and nearer to the coast, narrowing the width
of the Arakan lowlands until it ends as a barren red
rocky ridge at Cape Negrais. This is usually known as
the Arakan range. The chief pass across it is the Aeng,
of which the summit is about 5000 feet above sea. The
western spurs of the mountains are covered with forests
of fine timber, but on the east, where the range breaks
down to the level of the Irawadi Valley in a succession
of minor parallel ridges, bamboo is the principal growth.
East of the Arakan range are the great central plains
of lower Burma, watered by the Irawadi and the Sittang.
East of this again, extending through Burma from north
to south, we find broken highlands and plateau, traversed
by no definite mountain ranges, but forming one continnous
 chain of rugged tableland, stretching from the
Kachin Hills on the north, through the northern and
southern Shan states to the Karenni country on the
south, This tableland is intersected by the trough of the
Salwin River. Beyond the Shan states is China in the
north and Siam in the south. But the province of
Burma does not end with the Shan states. There is a
long strip of coast land, averaging perhaps 20 miles in
width, but occasionally narrowing to ro, which extends
down the western edge of the Malay peninsula, and
includes the districts of Martaban and Tenasserim. This
is also part of the province under the administration of
the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma. It includes the
Mergui archipelago, and is chiefly remarkable for the
long broken coast-line, extending through 16 degrees of
atitude, flanked by hundreds of islands which once