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(rice, wheat, &c.), raw cotton, seeds (flax, linseed, and rape), jute, tea, hides and skins, indigo, coffee, and raw silk. Of the articles sent to Great Britain, cotton, jute, rice, seeds, tea, indigo, hides, and coffee, constitute threefourths of the total value.

5. Of the articles imported into India from Great Britain, cotton materials and yarn, metals (wrought and unwrought), and machinery, are the principal; but coals, hardware and cutlery, beer and ale, articles of clothing, salt, paper of all sorts, and umbrellas and parasols, are also imported in quantity.

6. The inland trade of India is very large, and of late years has been very much increased by the construction of several great railways. In 1880 nearly 9,000 miles of railway were open for traffic. The home trade of India is estimated at about £25,000,000 per annum, and 15,000 vessels are employed in the coast trade.

The

7. The sum of money to be raised every year for the expenses of the government of the country, and to pay the interest on a large national debt, amounts to about £65,000,000. The three main sources of income are— the land tax, the sale of opium, and the tax on salt; but the excise, customs, and stamps, yield a large sum. cultivation of the opium poppy is not allowed except for the purpose of selling the juice to the Government at a fixed price. The juice is prepared in Government factories, and sent to Calcutta and Bombay for export. Calicoes. So called from Kalicut, the place of manufacturc.

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1. Ceylon is a pear-shaped island about five-sixths the size of Ireland. It lies to the south-east of the apex of the Indian promontory, and is separated from the mainland by Palk Strait and the Gulf of Manaar. A curious natural barrier, a chain of sandbanks, called

Adam's Bridge, almost unites the island with India, and only allows the passage of ships by two narrow channels. The Hindoo poets call the island "the pendent jewel of India; the more prosaic Dutch compared it to a ham.

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2. The interior of the island is a table-land, broken by mountains and valleys. Along some parts of the east coast the shores are bold and precipitous; but on the south and west there is a belt of low land, and this widens out on the north into an almost unbroken plain. The most prominent, if not the loftiest of the mountain peaks, is Adam's Peak.*

3. The low maritime belt and the adjacent islets are fringed with cocoa-nut trees, which grow down to the water's edge, and give the appearance of a great belt rising out of the ocean. Cocoa-nut culture is among the natives the great industry. It furnishes all he wants for food, clothing, drink, and timber. Altogether there are not less than 250,000 acres of cocoa-nut trees in Ceylon.

4. The lower ranges of hills present verdant slopes and the higher hills are covered with luxuriant forest trees overhung with creepers. The slopes of many of the hills, however, have been cleared, and turned into finely-cultivated coffee plantations.

5. The climate of Ceylon remains about the same throughout the year. "Both the monsoons bring rain,

which falls on that side of the island which faces the wind for the time, leaving the other, or leeward side, dry. On the one side the rivers are then flooded, on the other dried up."

6. The extensive plains among the mountains are cool and healthy. Here the European, jaded with the heat of the coast and the plains, may regain somewhat of his lost vigour; and, as he sits by a fire and finds blankets necessary at night, begin to get new life into his languid limbs.

7. Besides the cocoa-nut palm and coffee, Ceylon produces cinnamon, the bark of a species of laurel, tobacco, indigo, and cotton, and the timber of some of * Pedro-talla-galla (8,280 ft.) is the highest point.

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the forest trees is of great value. Most of the wild animals common in India are wanting in Ceylon, but elephants are found in plenty. Large quantities of excellent iron ore is found in the western, southern, and central provinces, and tin, copper, and salt, are met with. A noted pearl fishery is carried on in the Gulf of Manaar.

8. Ceylon is a British colony under a Governor, who is independent of the Viceroy of India. The island contains a population of about 2,500,000, of whom less than 5,000 are British. Colombo, is the seat of government, and by far the largest town. Kandy was the old capital. Galle, or Point de Galle, is an important port on the south coast. The trade is chiefly with Great Britain and India. Cocoa-nut oil, coir, coffee, and cinnamon, are the chief exports, and cotton and hardware goods are the chief imports.

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1. Cyprus, an island at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, is the latest acquisition of the British Crown, and is destined to form one of the many fortified posts for the protection of the route to India. It covers an area of about 4,000 square miles, and has a population of 150,000. Its chief productions are cotton, wines, and fruits. Nicosia, the capital, is in the centre of the island.

2. Aden is a strongly-fortified town on the south coast of Arabia, 118 miles from the entrance to the Red Sea. The country round Aden yields absolutely nothing; the soil is naked and barren, even the water for drinking has to be caught and stored in tanks during the occasional rains. In a military point of view the town is second only to Gibraltar or Malta. It is a depôt for coal for the Indian steamers, and for the goods of the surrounding countries, which are brought here to be shipped. The

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population, including the garrison, is about 22,000. Perim is a fortified rock at the entrance to the Red Sea, occupied by a British garrison.

3. The "Straits Settlements" consists of two islands -Singapore, south of the Malay Peninsula and Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, in the Straits of Malacca―and two small provinces-Malacca and Wellesley-on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula.

4. The island of Singapore comprises an area of 224 square miles and a population of nearly 100,000. The town of Singapore is the capital of the colony, and the seat of government for the whole of the four settlements. The population (56,000) include specimens of almost every maritime province of Asia, besides many Europeans. The town is strongly fortified, and is the great depôt for British trade in the South China seas.

5. The island of Penang and the province of Wellesley produce spices, sugar, timber, rice, and tapioca. Malacca, the largest of these settlements, in area about equal to Berkshire, exports large quantities of tapioca, sago, and other tropical products. It has also some rich tin mines.

Hong Kong is an island situated off the mouth of the Canton river. The colony includes the peninsula of Kowloon, on the opposite side of the river. It has an area of 32 miles and a population of 140,000, mostly Chinese. It is important as a naval and military station for the protection of our commerce in the busy Chinese seas. The island itself produces little, but the chief town and port, Victoria, is a great commercial mart for opium, tea, sugar, flour, rice, oil, cotton, amber, ivory, silks, and sandal-wood.

Labuan is a small island lying off the north-west coast of Borneo. It has a fine harbour, and its chief trade is in collecting the products of the neighbouring islands and sending them on to Singapore for the European. and Chinese markets. Its population numbers between four and five thousand.

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