y valley
have any connexion with volcanic activity may be doubted. The petroleum of
Burma occurs in the Miocene beds, one of the best-known fields being that
of Yenangyaung. Coal is found in the Tertiary deposits in the valley of the
Irrawaddy and in Tenasserim. Tin is abundant in Tenasserim, and lead and
silver have been worked extensively in the Shan States. The famous ruby
mines of Upper Burma are in metamorphic rock, while the jadeite of the
Bhamo neighbourhood is associated with the Tertiary intrusions of
serpentine-like rock already noticed.[1]

_Population._--The total population of Burma in 1901 was 10,490,624 as
against 7,722,053 in 1891; but a considerable portion of this large
increase was due to the inclusion of the Shan States and the Chin hills in
the census area. Even in Burma proper, however, there was an increase
during the decade of 1,530,822, or 19.8%. The density of population per
square mile is 44 as compared with 167 for the whole of India and 552 for
the Bengal Delta. England and Wales have a population more than twelve
times as dense as that of Burma, so there is still room for expansion. The
chief races of Burma are Burmese (6,508,682), Arakanese (405,143), Karens
(717,859), Shans (787,087), Chins (179,292), Kachins (64,405) and Talaings
(321,898); but these totals do not include the Shan States and Chin hills.
The Burmese in person have the Mongoloid characteristics common to the
Indo-Chinese races, the Tibetans and tribes of the Eastern Himalaya. They
may be generally described as of a stout, active, well-proportioned form;
of a brown but never of an intensely dark complexion, with black, coarse,
lank and abundant hair, and a little more beard than is possessed by the
Siamese. Owing to their gay and lively disposition the Burmese have been
called "the Irish of the East," and like the Irish they are somewhat
inclined to laziness. Since the advent of the British power, the
immigration of Hindus with a lower standard of comfort and of Chinamen with
a keener business instinct has threatened the economic independence of the
Burmese in their own country. As compared with the Hindu, the Burmese wear
silk instead of cotton, and eat rice instead of the cheaper grains; they
are of an altogether freer and less servile, but also of a less practical
character. The Burmese women have a keener business instinct than the men,
and serve in some degree to redress the balance. The Burmese children are
adored by t