Excerpt from Elementary Geography of a Burma, and Ceylon

In the course of long service in India the author has had occasion to visit most parts of the Empire, and much of the general description of the country and its provinces is either based on or controlled by the results of personal observation. But of course the great mass of the informa tion has been taken from other authentic sources, and the author is also indebted to several friends for additional information on certain subjects for which his own means of reference were insufficient.

The statistics of areas, population, etc., are given chiefly for comparison, and in order to inculcate true ideas of proportion, not for the purpose of burdening the pupil's mind with tables of unmeaning figures.

The illustrations are for the most part taken from photo graphs. Many of those of the natives of India have been copied, with the courteous permission of Dr. Rost, the chief librarian of the India Office, from the beautiful series collected by the Government of India. It is due to Messrs. Cooper and Sons, the engravers, to testify to the truthful ness of their reproduction as woodcuts.

In the spelling of Indian names, the authorised lists issued by the Government of India have been followed. The principle on which these lists have been drawn up is that the names of well known places that have acquired a fixed English spelling, such as Calcutta, Delhi, Lucknow, Cawnpore, etc., are written in the usual form. In the case of others, the native spelling is followed more or less closely in so far as the elemental sounds can be represented by English letters. By attention to a few simple rules the proper pronunciation of these names can be easily mastered.

Consonants have the same sound as in English, observing that g is always hard as in gig ch has the same sound as in church; and sh the ordinary English sound as in shall. Except after these two letters h is always an aspirate, and the consonant that it follows is aspirated.

The accent is thrown on the accented syllable d always has the same sound as in father; e that of a in mate or e in the French meme i that of cc in feel; 6 that of o in pole and ii that of u in rule or 00 in pool.

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