[82

INDIA

it is along the Sitang Valley that the Pegu-Mandalay line
is laid. But the river itself is of little importance. It is
blocked by sandbanks at its mouth, and is hardly navigable,
 The same may be said of the Salwin, which has

i

00 Mile.
— ra

F1G. 59.— Between Burma and China.

no delta, and is only navigable in the near neighbourhood
of its mouth, where the island of Bhilu divides it into two
branches, on the eastern of which is Maulmain. The
Salwin rises, as already explained, far to the north of the
sources of the Irawadi, and passes through the western
districts of the Chinese province of Yunnan. South of
Yunnan it waters the Shan states, which extend on both