BURLINGTON, a city of the United States, the capital of the county of Des Moines in Iowa, on the right bank of the Mississippi, 207 miles by rail from Chicago. It occupies a natural amphitheatre formed by the limestone bluffs which slope backward from the river. Among the educational institutions the chief place is held by the Business College, founded in 1865, and the Baptist University, which dates from 1854. There are about eight public schools, fifteen churches, and a public library. The commercial activity of the city is very great, and is gradually increasing. Its industrial establishments comprise flour-mills, pork-packing warehouses, foundries, breweries, and soapworks; and the neighbourhood furnishes an abundant supply of coal, building stone, and lime. The city is also the centre of a considerable railway system. Laid out in 1834, it ranked for several years (1837–40) as the capital of Iowa. Population in 1860, 6706; in 1870, 14,933.
BURMAH. The Burman empire, or Independent Burmah, is situated in the S.E. of Asia, in the region beyond the mountains which form the eastern frontier of Bengal. It was formerly of very considerable extent, but its limits have been greatly contracted by British conquest. On the W. where it is conterminous with the British territories in India, the Burman empire is bounded by the province of Arakan, surrendered to the British in 1826, the petty states of Tipperah and Munnepore, and the province of Assam, from which it is separated by lofty ridges of mountains; on the S. by the British province of Pegu, acquired in 1853; on the N. by Assam and Tibet; and on the E. by China and the Shan states. Its limits extend from 19° 30′ to 28° 15′ N. lat., and from 93° 2′ to 100° 40′ E. long., comprising a territory measuring 540 miles in length from north to south, and 420 in breadth, with an area of 190,520 English square miles.
That portion of Asia in which the Burman empire is situated slopes from the central mountains towards the south; and the Burmese territory is watered by four great streams, namely, the Irawadi and the Kyen-dwen, which unite their courses at 21° 50′ N. lat., the Sittang or Pounloung, and the Salwin. The first two rivers have their sources somewhere in the northern chain of mountains in the interior, one head stream of the Irawadi probably coming from Tibet; the Salwin further to the east in Tibet; and the Sittang, which is the smallest of the four, in the hills to the S.E. of Mandalay; they all run in a southerly course to the Indian Ocean. The Irawadi and the Salwin are large rivers, which in the lower part of their course overflow the flat country on their banks during the season of the rains, and in the upper force their way through magnificent defiles. The former is navigable a considerable distance above Bhamo; but the latter is practically useless as a means of communication, owing to the frequent obstacles in its channel. The Burmese empire with its present limits contains no maritime districts, and only isolated tracts of alluvial plain; it is in the main an upland territory, bounded at its southern extremity by a frontier line at the distance of about 200 miles from the mouths of the Irawadi, in 19° 30′ N. lat. From this point the country begins to rise, and thence for about 300 miles farther it contains much rolling country intersected by occasional hill ranges; beyond this it is wild and mountainous.
Sketch-Map of Burmah.
Productions.
