107
z37 ooo-square miles, of which r6q,ooo are under direct British admin-
istration, while 68,ooo belong to dependent Native States. Due north
the boundary between Burma, Tibet, and China has not been precisely
determined. Assam, Manipur, the Lushai Hills, and the Chittagong
Hill Tracts hem it.in'on the north-west, and its'westérn border is the
Bay of Bengal. , Its north-eastern and eastern frontiers march with the
Chinese Province of Yünnan, the Chinese-Shan and the Lao States,
the Frètich. possessions in Indo-China, and the kingdom of Siam; and
on the south it is bounded by that'portion of Siam which forms part of
the Malay Peninsula. It thus constitutes the easternmost rampart of
the Indian Empire. Its extreme width: is approximately 50o miles and
its extreme length about r,aoo miles:,in other words, its northernmost
and southernmost points, the first near the head-waters 'of the
Irrawaddy im the neighbourhood of Tibet, the second on the'Isthmus of
Kra on: the Siamese Malay border, are about as, far removed from each
other, as is Allàh'abâd from Cape Comorin or' Lahore from Chittagong.
With the exception of the :three southern Districts of Tenasserim-Ame
hersi, Tavoy, and Mergui-=Burma (with the Shan States) forms a' fairly
compact lozenge-shaped quadrilateral area, with its southern and'northern
angles at Cape Negrais and -Hkamti, Long, and its western and eastern
corners. at. Maûngdaw'on the Naaf river., in: Arakaii and in the bend
of the :Mekong :river which takes. in the eastern corner pf the Shan
State of _Kengtung. : The Districts of Amherst, Tavoy, and Mergui
form a straggling' southern adjunct' to-,,the. rest of the ' Province, con-
nesting it :with the Malay Peninsula. In the second edition of the
Imperial Gazetteer the shape of British Burdïa,''as it figured ,. on: the
map. in 1885, was"likened to a ° sea-gull travelling towards the east
with wide,' extended wings,' the northern pinion being Amkan,. the
southern Tenasserim, and the body including .the valley of the Irra=
waddy and_ Sittang. Matters have so' progressed: since then that the'
country would now more. properly be compared by' the imaginative
to a kite, with its head pointed due north and a string or tail; depend•
ing film its south-Eastward end.
The` origin of 'the word ` Burma' is by no means certain. It is
argued, on the one -hand, that the name came from India in the
shape of '.Brahma' ; on the other, that it is a corruption of the Chinese
name' for the Burmese race. The former vas the view held by Sir
Arthur Phayre; and, when it is bowie:: -in mind that in the works of
European writers.. of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the
country is occasionally referred.; to as I Brâmà,' there would certainly.
appear to'be' prima facie grounds for the theory. At no time, however,'
has. Brâhrnanisni' found; a footing in more than an insignificant, portion
of. what is `now' Burma: . and, on the whole, the weight of opinion'
appears to ,lean towards the second hypothesis, which was, originated
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