h the many
hundreds of miles of its windings, the mountain eventually returns its
gathered waters to the sea, from whence they came.

How interesting to follow the course of such a river, and try to
picture to oneself all it may have to show! What kind of mountain is
it from among whose rugged snow peaks first sprang those plunging
cascades, which, leaping and tossing over their rocky beds, join each
other at its base to form the river itself? Through what wild forests,
filled with curious vegetation, may it not flow, and how strange,
perhaps, are the people who, together with wild beasts and unknown
birds, inhabit its reedy margins!

As the river grows in size, the grass huts and dug-out canoes of its
upper waters give place to towns which bear names, while large and
strangely-shaped boats carry the produce of the country to some great
seaport at its mouth, where ships of all nations are waiting to
transport it over thousands of miles of ocean to supply us with those
many commodities which we have come to regard as daily necessities! If
boys and girls would think of such things geography, I am sure, would
never be a _dull_ study.

Now, to turn from an imaginary case to a real one, I want to tell you
something about Burma, a country which, though one of the most
interesting and beautiful in the world, is comparatively little known
to the majority of people.

This may seem surprising when it is remembered that Burma now forms
part of our Indian Empire, and has for many years carried on a large
trade with England. We may perhaps better understand this if we turn
to our atlas and see how the country is situated. As you will see,
Burma lies on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, just north of the
Malay Peninsula, joining Siam and China on the one side and the Indian
provinces of Assam and Manipur on the other, while from an unknown
source in the heart of Thibet its great river, the Irrawaddy, flows
throughout the entire length of the country, and through Rangoon, the
seaport at its mouth, forming the great highway for commerce and
communication between the world at large and its little-known
interior.

Looking at the map again, you will see that on each side of the
Irrawaddy, running north and south, are mountain ranges called
"yomas" (or back-bones, as the word means), which divide the country,
while other large rivers, such as the Sittang and Salween, flowing in
deep, precipitous valleys, render any communicatio