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INDIA

N’'malika, which join from the north-east and north-west
respectively. Beyond this confluence is the unmapped
Kachin country of mountains and forests, about which
axceedingly little is known.
Some 50 miles south of the confluence, and about
140 north of Bhamo, lies Myitkhyna (Mitchina), the river
terminus of the northern railway extension from Mandalay,
marking not only the terminus of civilisation, but very
nearly the terminus of our geographical knowledge as well.
The immediate banks of the river, for 10 or 12 miles in
breadth on the east, and stretching across to the Mogaung
River on the west, are fertile plains; but beyond the plains
on the east to the Chinese frontier (which here runs north
and south at a distance of 40 or 50 miles from the Irawadi)
are Kachin Hills rising to 6ooo or 7000 feet, amongst
which lie the scenes of much of our hardest frontier
fighting. But whilst Kachins occupy the hills, the plains
are left to Shans and Burmans, who now hold what was
once a prosperous and cultivated country, and what may
soon be prosperous again. “The Kachin has forsaken his
predatory ways, and promises to become a profitable
subject; whilst the Chinese Shan and emigrant colonists
from Yunnan are increasing in numbers, and are, as ever,
the most industrious of people. Rubber, jade, and cotton
caravans now pass through from China in safety, and no
blackmail is levied on the Sadon and Sima routes.”
Bhamo has always been a great trading centre, and is
still largely a Chinese town. It is still of importance
(though left on one side by the line of railway), as it lies
on the main road to Talifu vid Momein,
At the point where the Salwin, the Mekong, and the
Yang-tse-Kiang emerge into the regions of ascertained
geography, two of them, the Salwin and the Mekong, are
‘raversing the western districts of the Chinese province
of Yunnan, the Yang-tse-Kiang having turned off eastwards
 to form the northern boundary of the province, and
thus any route which connects either of the large trading
centres of the Irawadi (Bhamo or Mandalay) with the
Yang-tse-Kiang must cross the Salwin and the Mekong,