ASSAM, BURMA, AND CEYLON 175

volcanic island of Ramri, where Port Kyankpyu is one of
the two notable towns of its coast, Akyab being the other.
The hot, moist, malarious climate of northern Arakan
renders it unsuitable for European existence; but it is
the happy home of the Mug, an offshoot of the Indo-Chinese
 race, who has specially developed a natural
instinct for cooking. No large establishment in Calcutta
is quite complete without a Mug cook.
Tenasserim is a long strip of country which, together
with Arakan and Pegu, has been united with the
Burman province since 1862. A continuous range of
mountains, varying from 3000 to 6ooo feet in altitude,
separates Tenasserim (with which we include Martaban)
from Siam. Its exports are inconsiderable, rice and teak
forming the chief trade. There is, however, much
mineral wealth in the country, which may be capable
of further development. Gold, tin, iron ore, antimony,
and coal are found in Tenasserim, the coal measures
being worked on the banks of the Tenasserim River, and
the coal itself being of excellent quality. The only towns
of any importance are Mulmain, at the mouth of the
Salwin (which river has no delta); Amherst, about 15
miles south of Mulmain; and the port of Mergui near
the mouth of the Tenasserim River. The climate of
Tenasserim is singularly equable. The thermometer
never rises above go° F., and in June (during the rainy
season) it varies between 72° and 76°. October is the
hottest month of the year.
Central Burma, the land of rivers and rubies, has
only fallen to British sovereignty since 1885, when
Mandalay was taken, and the emperor Thibau deposed.
The province of Pegu in the south has been British since
1852, and, with Arakan and Tenasserim, formed the
Burma that we knew and ruled before the days of
Mandalay occupation. The annexation of the northern
districts (or Upper Burma) has opened up a new and
most important area for commercial enterprise, and has
added a tract of country which differs in some most
assential climatic conditions from the south, and is