Karnafuli, a river of Chittagong, which dis ernbogues into the Bay of Bengal.
Irawadi.—The sources of this great river are between lat. 27° and 28° N., a.nd long. 97° 30' E. The transverse range, which separates the upper part of the western branch of the Irawadi from the valley of Assam, is of moderate elevation, varying probably between 5000 and 6000 feet. The slope of its valley is greater than that of the Indus or Ganges. The valley of Hukum is said to be 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The central branch of the Irawadi at Manchi, in lat. 27° 20' N., is 1800 feet ; Bhamo, in lat. 24°, about 500 feet. Along its bank, hills frequently approach, and some of them close to tho river are 3000 or 4000 feet high. Amongst the high mountains at its source the rainfall is considerable ; at its centre, the fall of rain is comparatively small, but much rain falls at its delta. The valley of Manipur is drained by the westerly tributary of the Irawadi. The valley of the Irawadi it,s lower end unites with that of the Sitang to form au extensive plain stretching from Cape Negrais on the west to Martaba,n on the east. The water-parting between these two streams is the Pegu Yoma range, which, running north and south, terminates in low hills at Rangoon. The valley is about 80 miles broad at the frontier line, counting from chain to chain. It flows for 660 miles before reaching the British possessions, and thence its waters roll on for 240 miles to the sea in a S.S.W. direction. As it nears the coast it divides, converting the lower portion of the valley into a network of tidal creeks. A little above Henzadah, about 90 miles inland, it sends off its first branch to the westwar,d, which, flowing past Bassein, receives the waters of the Pammawadi and of the Penglaygalay, and, bifur cating, enters the Bay of Bengal by two main mouths, the Bassein and the Thekkay - thoung rivers. The waters of the Imwadi commence to rise in March, and continue to rise till September, when, or in October, they commence to fall again, having risen 37 or 40 feet. Just below Rangoon it is joined by the Pegu and Puzun doung rivers, flowing from the east and north-east. The Pegu and the Puzuudoung rivers rise close together in the Yotna range, about 58 miles above the town of Pegu, the capital of the ancient Talaing kingdom conquered by the Burmese under Alom pra, and which gives its name to all this portion of the country.
The Sitang river rises far north of British ter ritory, which it enters just above Tounghoo. Here it is narrow, and navigable with difficulty for large boats during the dry season.
The Menem river emptie,s itself into the bottom of the Gulf of Siam. It washes Bankok, the capital of Sian).
Mei-kong, or Cambodia river, empties itself in the China Sea, at the entrance of the Gulf of Siam.
The Hoang-ho of China rises in the Konen Lun range, from spring,s which the Chinese figure to themselves as the starry sea. After bursting.
through several water-partings, making wonderful bends near the base of the Mid Asia plateau, it traverses Northern China, and confers agricultural prosperity on 120 millions of souls. Its course within the plateau is about 400 miles, and its water-supply is there perpetually snow fed.
The Yang-tse of China has its source in the Konen Luta. It is undoubtedly one of the finest rivers in the world ; it takes its rise on the north - eastern edge of the plateau of Tibet, and, after traversing the Koko - Nor, enters China at the province of Kau-su ; it then leaves it again to water the sandy plains at the foot of the Alechan mountains, surrounds the country of Ortous, and, after having watered China from south to north, and then from west to east, goes on to throw itself into the Yellow Sea. The waters are pure and beautiful at their source, and only assume their yellow tint after passing the Alechan and the Ortous. The river rises almost always to the level of the country through which it flows ; and to this is to be attributed the disastrous inundations which it occasions. These floods, so very fatal to China, are of little conse quence to the nomadic Tartars, who have only to strike their tents and move off elsewhere.
After quitting the plateau of Mid Asia, it passes through provinces of China so thickly peopled that they have been estimated to hold 120 millions of people, supplying the means of irrigation and water traffic ; and, after a course of, 700 miles, enters China proper. Its water-supply is immense and unfailing, obtained largely from the snow-clad and ice-bound regions at its source. It forms, with the Hoang-ho, a twin basin to which the most advanced and powerful eastern civilisation owes its development.
Ho T'u Loh-Shu of the Chinese means the plan (or diagram) of the Yellow River, and the writing (or book) of the river Loh. By this phrase aro designated the systems of diagrams and arrangement of the ordinal numbers. These, according to ancient tradition, were revealed to the sages Fuh-hi and Yu in a supenaatural manner. Kung Ngan-Kwui gave form to the legends, which relate that a dragon-horse with symbols on its back, and a tortoise with a scroll of writing on its back, came out of the river, which Yu interpreted and made the basis of his ninefold division of philosophy.—Schlagentweit, General Hypsometry of India, p. 98; Rennell's Memoir, pp. 337, 361; Fraser's Himalaya Moun tains, p. 468; Herbert ; Hodgson; Tod's Rajasthan, p. 16 ; Rep. Royal a0131. ; Ward's Hindoos, p. 275 ; Pliny, lib. vi. c. 9, in Malcolm's Persia, ii. p. 212 ; Journal Royal Geo. Soc. vi. part ii. p. 200 ; Kinneir's Geographical Memoir, p. 9 ; Porter's 7'ravels, p. 258 ; Maury's Physical Geography, p. 308 ; Imp. Gaz. ; Trelawney Saunders' Moun tains and River-basins.