In Burma, parallel with the dividing range, are three other ridges, striking southward side by side. These separate three valleys, through which flow severally the Salween, Sittang, and Irawaddy rivers. The valley of the Salween, as the yellow and brown colours upon the map indicate, is less deeply trenched between its bounding ranges than are the other two valleys. As we should therefore expect, the Salween river has a steeply descending course broken by rapids, and is of small value for navigation. At its mouth is the port of Moulmein. The valley of the Sittang, which is a short river, prolongs the upper valley of the Irawaddy, which latter river makes a great westward bend at Mandalay, and passes by a transverse passage right through one of the parallel mountain ridges. Beyond this passage it bends southward again, accepting the direction of its tributary, the Chindwin river. The great port of Rangoon is placed on a tidal channel at the eastern edge of the Irawaddy delta. The railway from Rangoon to Mandalay runs through the Sittang valley and does not follow the Irawaddy. There is navigation, however, by the Irawaddy past Pagan and Mandalay northward to Bhamo, which is close to the Chinese frontier. The coastal plain of Burma is known as Arakan where it runs northward from the Irawaddy delta, and as Tenasserim where it runs southward from that delta along a coast beset with an archipelago of beautiful islands. The delta itself bears the name of Pegu, or Lower Burma; while the region round Mandalay is Upper Burma. [Sidenote: 7. Plan of Rangoon.] We are in the Rangoon river. A tall, pointed pagoda appears on a hill to the right, and presently, as the channel bends to the west, we approach the busy commercial front of Rangoon city, surmounted by the golden spire of the great Shwe Dagon Pagoda.