MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO is called by the people Myut Myo. The innumerable islands fronting the coast of the Malay Peninsula extend to the distance of 70 miles from it, and form the Mergui Archipelago. They exhibit a great variety of picturesque and wild scenery, the larger islands rising in successive ranges of hills thickly wooded at their tops with trees of a rich and varied foliage. The small rocky islands with their rugged sides rise in contrast. There are few settled inhabitants on the archipelago, but roving seafaring tribes pass from island to island, living partly in their boats and partly in temporary huts, collecting shell-fish, turtle, trepang, beche de-mer, and edible birds' nests, which they barter for rice' and cloth. Seyer Islands and King Island are the principal islands. Maingy (Maingay) Island, in lat. 32' N., and long. 98° 7' E., can be seen for 11 miles, and the S. peak of St. Matthew's, in lat. 52' N., and long. 98° E., for 13 miles.
An almost uninterrupted belt of islands extends along all the western side of the isthmus, and is continued as far as Penang, although an interval between it and the Lankawi group contains only a few. The rest of the western coast, and the
greater part of the eastern, are more thinly sprinkled with islands. But there are several extensive groups of islands, some of them remark ably bold and imposing, along the latter coasts, such as the Eastern Johore Archipelago and the Redang Islands. The concave • southern coast half embraces the island of Singapore, and an archipelago of several hundreds of islets stretching to the S.E. by S. from the termination of the continent to Banca and Billiton, marks that the peninsular zone has not yet wholly sunk beneath the sea, and, expanding as it does to the west, and blocking the extremity of the straits, attests how nearly a junction with Sumatra has been accom plished. The chain of high islands .fronting the coast of Tenasserim extend from Tavoy Island, in lat. 13° 13' N., to the Scyer Islands, in lat. 8° 30' N. • The number of the Selong or wander ing fishermen of the Malay ArChipelago amounts to about 1000 souls.—Journ. Ind. Arch.