ASSAM, BURMA, AND CEYLON 189

The Kunlon ferry, to which the railway is already projected,
 is at the foot of that «great descent” of which
Marco Polo speaks as so easy : “If therefore the Chinese
choose to connect, the proverbially wealthy province of
Ssuch’'uen might be reached from Rangoon well within
the week by a goods train.” The caravans from China
i assemble at Keing Tung. A committee is appointed, and
on a fixed day determines by what routes and at what
intervals the various caravans are to make their way west
to Mandalay or south-west to Maulmain. In this way the
iron pots and pans, the grass woven and felt hats, the
shoes, silk, gold leaf, orpiment, walnuts, and what not,
brought by the traders are judiciously distributed, so that
in no place there may be a glut and the merchants everywhere
 may make an equal profit.” Manchester, Birmingham,
 and Sheffield goods are what the return caravans
carry back with them to the Shan states. Mr. Scott
foresees the day when the “miserable wattled bamboo
clachan” (Kunlon) “will assume the proportions of a town;
Manchester looms will grow busy and the hardware town
will forget what it is to have a strike.” “With the railway
to stimulate the natural resources of the hill states, the
wealth of our tributary Shan princes would soon outrival
that of the most potent of the Indian Maharajas.”

Murray's excellent guide-book introduces Ceylon to
the reader with certain advicé about the climate: “March
and April are the hottest months in the year; June and
August the wettest (on the west coast), and December and
January the most disagreeable (on that coast) on account
of the long shore wind.” It is certain, however, that
during the months of October and November also, there
is present in the atmosphere an amount of moisture which
is unequalled by anything of the sort known in India, and
possibly only surpassed by that which is experienced
during June and August. But the conformation of hill
and plain in Ceylon divides that island into climatic
spheres which are best recognised by a consideration of
the action of the south-west and north-east monsoons