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INDIA

formed part of the peninsula. The total length of
Burmese coast-line from North Arakan to South Tenasserim
 is not much less than 550 miles. The total area of
the province is 171,500 square miles, and its population
in 1891) was 7,600,000.
Burma may be divided into four distinct areas or

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F16. §6.—Delta of the Irawa.

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districts, as follows: (1) the western or Arakan division ;
(2) Central Burma, or the basin of the Irawadi; (3) the
Shan states, or the basin of the Salwin ; (4) the Eastern
Coast strip, which includes Martaban and Tenasserim.
The first and last of these natural subdivisions are
comparatively unimportant. Arakan was acquired by the
British, together with Tenasserim, in 1826. The value of
Arakan was chiefly in its rice cultivation, and the products
(tobacco, cotton, red pepper, hemp, and sugar) of the