the Dutch extend their influence over nearly half the island.

In the north-west, Rajah Brooke, a private Englishman, founded his kingdom thirty-five years ago, and reigned at Sarawak, putting down piracy, head-hunting, and raceoppression. On his death his nephew succeeded him. The English Government, though offered this state of Sarawak, declined it, but keeps the island of Labuan off the northwest of Borneo, where is coal and an English bishop.

(6) Java belongs to the Dutch, who administer the whole island, which contains 14,000,000 of souls. The capital is Batavia, population 100,000. The Dutch farm the island as an estate, transmitting the profits to Holland.

(7) Sumatra, larger than Britain; the southern part of this island has long been completely under the power of the Dutch: their chief settlement being Palembang. Since 1875 the Dutch have also conquered the northern part of the island, where the chief state is Acheen.

Sect. XXVII. TRANS-GANGETIC PENINSULA.

467. EXTENT. The Trans-Gangetic Peninsula is as large as Germany, France, and Britain together, and is supposed to contain as large a population as France.

468. BOUNDARIES. On the North-east, China; on the East, the China Sea; on the South, the Gulf of Siam and Straits of Malacca ; on the West, the Bay of Bengal and Chittagong; on the North-west, Assam; on the North, between Assam and China, the country is wholly unknown.

The boundaries to the Trans-Gangetic Peninsula are here fixed so as to include the Chief-Commissionership of Pegu ; to exclude the Lieut.-Governorship of Bengal, and the ChiefCommissionership of Assam.

469. CLIMATE. The southern half of the Trans-Gangetic peninsula has an equatorial insular climate, approaching closely that of the Malay archipelago; that is to say, the whole year is hot and moist without being scorching at any time. In the northern half the climate is more that

belonging to the tropic; that is to say, there is a definite winter or cold season with little rain; a very hot season in April and May, and a rainy season June-September.

470. MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS. The ranges of mountains throughout the vast area of the Trans-Gangetic peninsula have a remarkable tendency to run directly north and south. They are essentially ranges without any considerable plateaus as shoulders, with broad flat valleys between. Three vast rivers run north and south between the ranges, viz. (1), the Maykiang, 1,400 miles long at least ; (2), the Meinam; (3), the Irrawaddy.

One long range of mountains forms the watershed between the China sea coast and the valley of the Maykiang, and this range is taken as the boundary between Anam and Cambodia.

Another long range of mountains forms the watershed separating the valley of the Maykiang from that of the Meinam, ie. it separates Cainbodia from Siam.

A third long range of mountains forms the watershed separating the valley of the Meinam from that of the Irrawaddy, ¿.e. it separates Siam from Burmah. This range is prolonged southwards as the backbone of the remarkable peninsula of Malacca.

Series of ranges running north and south, covered by gigantic jungle, separate Burmah from East Bengal.

471. RACES OF MEN. The rice-feeding valley population (far the largest part) of this region are Mongolians of the Indo-Chinese variety, those of the eastern parts being closely related to the Chinese. The western people in Birma are also commonly considered Mongolian, but this is less certain. These valley peoples are mainly Buddhists but many of the eastern race allied to the Chinese are followers of Confucius.

Besides these valley peoples, there is a race in the higher ground in Laos, in the northern more elevated part of Burma, and in the mountain ranges, called Kookie by Anglo-Indians, who are a people using a monosyllabic language, and who may possibly be Mongolians, but appear

rather to form a separate division of the human race. They have no religion but demon-worship.

472. ANIMALS AND PLANTS. The Trans-Gangetic peninsula, under the combined influence of heat and moisture, exhibits the densest vegetation of any region in the globe (except some portions perhaps of South America). The cleared portions of the valleys are rich rice-fields, easily supporting a large population. The hills are clothed with jungle most difficult to penetrate. Large areas of these jungles are uninhabited, and are the home of numerous animals elephants, rhinoceros, tapirs; tigers, leopards, tiger-cats; monkeys of numerous species; deer, buffalo, and wild oxen.

473. DIVISIONS. (1) Anam comprises the whole eastern coast; the northern part is called Tonquin, the southern Cochin-China. These kingdoms exclude foreigners, so that little is known about them. The people are nearly allied to the Chinese. The largest town, Kachao, in Tonquin, is said to contain 100,000 inhabitants.

(2) Cambodia, the lower valley of the Meinam, occupied now by the French, who came here in 1858. Their capital, Saigon, near the mouth of the Meinam, contains 150,000 inhabitants.

(3) Siam, the valley of the Meinam, with the eastern half of the Malacca peninsula. The capital, Bangkok, near the mouth of the Meinam, is estimated to contain upwards of 300,000 inhabitants.

(4) Laos, the name given to the Kookie tribes who occupy the higher ground across the upper valleys of the Meinam and Maykiang. Of these tribes many are tributary to China, Burma, Siam, and Anam; but there appear to be large tribes of Kookies in this region quite independent.

(5) Burma, the valley of the Irrawaddy, except the lower part. The present capital is Mandalay, on the Irrawaddy (near Ava the former capital), population 150,000. This country produces gold, silver, iron, lead, rubies, sapphires, and abundance of mineral oil.

(6) The Chief-Commissionership of Pegu, a political

division of India, and under the Viceroy, comprising the provinces Pegu, Arracan, Tenasserim and the Straits' Settlements. Of these, Arracan and Tenasserim are narrow strips between the sea-shore and the range of mountains parallel thereto a short way inland. Pegu, the lower basin of the Irrawaddy, contains large rice swamps and nearly 2,000,000 inhabitants.

The Straits Settlements have only lately been placed under the government of India: they are—

(a) Singapore, population 80,000, a town on the island of that name, on the high road of ships to China; a port of great trade.

(b) Malacca, a town on the Malacca peninsula, with a small district round it.

(c) Prince of Wales Island (Pulo-Pinang is its native name), with a small district on the coast opposite it. From this island come the powerful rattan-canes sold in England under the name of "Pinang Lawyers."

Sect. XXVIII. INDIA.

474. EXTENT. India exceeds all Europe excluding Russia both in area and population.

In the present chapter we include Ceylon, which is a colony under the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and not under the Viceroy of India; and we exclude the Chief Commissionership of Pegu, which is politically under the Viceroy of India.

475. BOUNDARIES. India is bounded on the South from the mouth of the Indus to Chittagong, by the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean; on the East by the ranges of densely-jungly mountain ridges that run north and south on the eastern frontier of Bengal; on the North by the Himalaya; on the West by the Suleiman mountains.

The Himalayas are so uniformly lofty (there is no Pass lower than 16,000 feet in their whole length), and also so broad at a great height, that no considerable body of men

can possibly cross them. The routes by land into India for an army are-

(1) From Cabul by the Khyber Pass to Peshawur. This has been the route by which all the great invasions of India have been made from Alexander's to the present time.

(2) From Quetta in Affghanistan by the Bolan Pass into Scinde.

(3) From Upper Burma into the extreme east of Assam. (4) From Burma across Arracan into Chittagong.

476. CLIMATE. From the sea-level to 1,000 feet altitude the seasons throughout India are on the whole similar. November to March is winter; there is little rain; the wind is from the north without storms. In mid-winter at Calcutta a fire is agreeable, and near Calcutta, at 1,000 feet altitude, frosts occur. April to mid-June is the hot weather; the wind is from the south. Violent storms occur frequently in some of the eastern provinces; hot winds are experienced in the north-west. From mid-June to October are the rains, with the wind from the south. About twice as much rain falls in this period as in the whole year in England. The heat from April to October is greater than the hottest weather experienced in England; and even in December the sun is as strong as a hot summer sun in England.

As India is about 2,000 miles long, it must be understood that there is a great difference between the climate of Ceylon and Lahore; the heat is on the annual average less as we proceed from south to north, but the hot-weather heat is much the same throughout India up to 1,000 feet altitude. So also by ascending the mountains we may obtain any mean annual temperature we desire down to freezing at the snow line. The great India hill stations have a mean annual temperature not very different from that of England; but they are all subject to a rainy season with a south wind from mid-June to October. India is in the region of the monsoons, and it is not till we get north of the outer Himalaya that we can escape the periodical rains and obtain a tolerably fine summer, as in Kashmir.