The Irrawaddi River

THIS is a valuable Monograph on the Irrawaddi River by the Executive Engineer of the great Embankment Works of the Irrawaddi Delta, the well-known experimenter and writer on river hydraulics. The mode of publication does not do justice to the great labour and research shown in so large a work (573 pp. folio). It is apparently a Government Report, written in the period 1877–80, and printed at the Government Secretariat Press, Rangoon, in 1879–80. Great allowances must always be made for the difficulties in proper correction of the proofs of a work published at a small native press at a great distance from the author. Still the misprints in this work are quite unusually numerous, sometimes three in a single line of French or German, sometimes four in a single page of ordinary matter; this throws some doubt on the accuracy of the printed Tables (which cover about 130 pp. folio). The complete Report must have included about 29 plates (constant reference being made to them), but only three are published; the absence of these plates makes it often difficult, sometimes impossible to follow the author's argument. Again, the want of uniform transliteration of proper names causes difficulty in identifying unfamiliar places, the same place being often spelt in two or more ways (e.g. Shoaygheen, Shwaygheen, Shwégyeen, &c.). There is a too frequent use of local words (e.g. choung = river, eng = lake, &c.), and also of odd un-English words (e.g. divagation, prescinding, &c.). These are, however, trifling drawbacks compared with the fact that the work is one of great value, combining the results of unusual knowledge of the literature about the Irrawaddi with probably unique practical knowledge of the Irrawaddi Delta.

Report on the Irrawaddi River.

Part I. Hydrography of the Irrawaddi River. Part II. Hydrology of the Irrawaddi River. Part III. Hydraulics of the Irrawaddi. Part IV. Hydraulic Works connected with the Nawoon River. Parts I. and II. (in one vol.), 195 pp.; Part III., 227 pp.; Part IV., 151 pp. fol. By R. Gordon, Esq., M.I.C.E., &c. (Rangoon, 1879–80.)