(8,260 feet), which is close to the sanitarium of Nuwara Eliya (6,200 feet), a fairly level plain of some miles in circuit, enjoying a cool but moist climate. Another hill, famous for its Buddhist temple and the imprint of Buddha's foot, is Adam's Peak (7,420 feet). The difficult ascent is annually made by large numbers of Buddhist pilgrims.

§ 13. British Burma.--This outlying province of the Indian Empire occupies the fine maritime districts of the peninsula of Further India.' It is about 1,000 miles in length from north to south, but, being in parts very narrow, its area is not much more than 88,000 square miles. Its leading physical features are comparatively simple. From beyond the upper end of the Assam valley, a series of subparallel or slightly diverging ranges of mountains run out to the southward. Of these, the westernmost range is called the Patkoi, and separates Assam from Independent Burma. Further south, one of the continuations of the Patkoi range is called the Arakán Yoma; this range forms the boundary of Arakán, the northern province of British Burma, and separates the basin of the Iráwadi from those of the many small streams that water the narrow Arakán territory.

The delta of the Iráwadi forms, with its fertile lower basin, the rich province of Pegu, the central district of British Burma, famous for rice and teak-timber. The valley of the Iráwadi consists of plains intersected by low isolated hill-ranges, generally running north and south.

The Arakán Yoma or coast range dips into the sea at Cape Negrais, but is continued in the Great and Little Coco Islands, the Andamans, and Nikobars.

The Iráwadi basin is bounded on the east by the Pegu Yoma, which is a lower range than the Arakán Yoma, never exceeding 2,000 feet in height within the limits of British Burma. East of this range is the narrow valley of the Salwen, and the province of Tenasserim, the third and most southerly division of British Burma, consists of the

delta of this river, with a long narrow strip of maritime territory running out southward, and bounded by the mountains of Siam on the east.

§ 14. Coast-line and Harbours.-The coast-line of India is on the whole unbroken, affording few good harbours. Calcutta is one of the most dangerous ports in the world, being 80 miles up a winding river, with barely 20 feet of water at low tide at many points, and the channel narrow and intricate. Madras is only an open roadstead, with a beach famous for its lines of surf, and all the ports on the Coromandel Coast, from the Hooghly to Cape Comorin, are of a similar character. In Ceylon there is the first-class harbour of Trincomalee, which is the dockyard of the Royal Navy in the East, but it is situated in an inaccessible and unhealthy part of the island. Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon, has a good though somewhat dangerous harbour; it is the coaling station and port of call for all the great ocean steamers on the 'overland' lines to Madras and Calcutta, as well as to Singapore and the Indian Archipelago, China, Japan, and Australasia. Colombo, on the western coast of Ceylon, is healthily situated, and is the natural outlet of the important export trade of Ceylon. At present it is only an open roadstead, but a breakwater is nearly completed which will largely increase its value as a harbour. On the Malabar coast are several valuable harbours-Cochin, Calicut, Mangalore; but they do not command the commerce of any extensive tract inland. Bombay is a very fine harbour; the Portuguese are said on this account to have altered its native name (Mombai or Mámbe) into Buon-bahia, 'good harbour'; and being connected by rail with all parts of India, its commercial importance is very great indeed. Surat, the natural port of the Tapti, and Baroch, that of the Narbadá, cannot shelter large vessels during the summer monsoon. Next to Calcutta and Bombay, the chief commercial port of India is now Karáchi. It is situated at the north-west corner of the delta of the Indus, and being the nearest port to Europe,

and being now connected by rail with the Punjab and Upper India, it is fast rising in importance.

Eastward of Calcutta is the port of Chittagong in East Bengal; it is only available for small vessels and only valuable as an outlet for the rice of that region. The ports of British Burma are Akyab, Rangoon at the mouth of an arm of the Iráwadi, and Moulmein at the mouth of the Salwen, The coast of Malabar and Travancore is fringed with sand-spits, inclosing 'backwaters,' which are so connected as to afford a very complete system of inland navigation.

PART II.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF INTEREST.

§ 15. Modern Political Divisions. § 16. Bengal and Assam. $ 17. The North-West Provinces and Oudh. § 18. The Punjab. § 19. Rájputána. § 20. The Bombay Presidency. § 21. The Central India Agency. § 22. The Central Provinces. § 23. The Barárs. § 24. Haidarabad. § 25. The Madras Presidency. § 26. Mysore and Coorg. § 27. Himalayan Frontier States. § 28. North-West Frontier States. § 29. Foreign European Settlements. § 30. Ceylon. § 31. British Burma. § 32. Ancient or Popular Divisions of India.

§ 15. Modern Political Divisions.-—India at the present day, in regard to its political constitution, may be regarded as a Federation of Governments and States; all in more or less direct subordination to a central Supreme Government embodied in 'the Viceroy and Governor-General in Council,' representing Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, Empress of India.

Some of these Governments are directly administered by British officers, immediately subordinate to the Supreme Government of India. These Governments constitute what is commonly called BRITISH India. They are now nine in number, comprising an area of about nine hundred and forty thousand square miles, and containing a population of about one hundred and ninety millions. In these provinces

the head of the Government is called, in some a Governor, in others a Lieutenant-Governor, in others a Chief Commissioner, and in one exceptional case (Barar) a Resident. The precise meaning of these terms will be explained hereafter (see Introduction, Part vii.); it is here sufficient to note that they in no way indicate the relative size or importance of the provinces, and only refer to the relative amount of independence of the Supreme Government in matters of detail enjoyed by the respective officers. The provinces of British India are: (1) the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal (with which is temporarily reunited the Chief-Commissionership of Assam, only severed from Bengal in 1874); (2) the Lieutenant-Governorship of the NorthWest Provinces, with which is permanently united the Chief-Commissionership of Oudh; (3) the LieutenantGovernorship of the Punjab; (4) the Governorship of Bombay; (5) the Chief-Commissionership of the Central Provinces; (6) Barár; (7) the Governorship of Madras; (8) the Chief-Commissionership of British Burma. To these may at present be added (9) the Chief-Commissionership of Mysore and Coorg ; but the State of Mysore has only been provisionally administered by a British officer, and is about to be placed directly under the rule of the Mahárájá of Mysore.

NOTE.-British India was formerly divided into the three Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. These divisions are now almost entirely obsolete; they only survive in the nominal divisions of the Indian Civil Service and Army.

The other States of the Indian Empire are ruled by native princes, under the protection and general control of the Supreme Government. These States are bound by treaties, in return for this protection, to render certain feudal services to the Paramount Power; as, for instance, in some cases, to furnish a certain number of troops in time of war. The princes are usually autocratic or nearly so within their own limits; but by their engagements to the Paramount Power they are generally bound to good

government, and to submit the conduct of their external relations to the Imperial Government. Including all the petty feudatories, there are no less than 460 such States in various parts of India, comprising an area estimated at 600,000 square miles, and containing a population estimated at 50,000,000. The intimacy of the relations with the Paramonnt Power varies in the different States. In the more important a British officer, called a Resident or a Political Agent, is stationed, whose functions broadly are, to act as the medium of communication between the Prince and the supreme Government, and to advise the Prince in matters of moment.

In this sketch we can only notice a few of the most important of the Native States. Those that are attached to the Governments of Bengal, the North-west Provinces, the Punjab, Bombay, and Madras, will be briefly noticed in the several accounts of those Governments. The others fall into five geographical groups: (1) Rájputána; (2) the Central India Agency; (3) Haidarábád; (4) the Frontier States of the northern mountain-zone (Bhotán, Sikkim, Nepál, Kashmir); (5) the Frontier States of the western mountain-zone (Kábul or Afghanistán, Khelát or Balochistan).

Altogether outside the federation of the Indian Empire are a few petty French and Portuguese settlements, which will be noticed separately.

§ 16. Bengal and Assam.-The Chief- Commissionership of Assam consists of the two north-eastern valleys (those of the Bráhmaputra, and of Cachar and Silhat) described in § 6, with the intervening and adjacent hill tracts. Gauháti on the Brahmaputra is at present the chief town of Assam; but the seat of the Government is at Shillong, the highest peak of the Khási hills (6,450 feet). Cherrapunji, on the southern face of the Khási hills, is famous for the heaviest recorded rainfall in the world (more than 500 inches per annum). It is instructive to note that Shillong, being on the lee side of the same range, has