HIMALAYA

HIMALAYA, a Sanscrit word, compounded of "hima," cold or snow, and "alaya," place of (Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary), is the name given to the ranges of mountains which bound India on the N., from the bend of the Indus on the W. to that of the Brahmaputra on the E. On the S. they are bounded by the plains of India, and on the N. by the Tibetan courses of the above-named rivers. A transverse section of the Himalaya nowhere presents the appearance of a simple range, but of several more or less parallel chains, separated by valleys of very great depth and steepness; this is because the secondary ranges that ramify N. and S. from it are of great length, breadth, and complexity, and from bending to the E. or to the W., often run for many miles parallel to one another and to the main range, besides rising into eminences loftier than any on the latter, for which they are sometimes mistaken. The axis of the Himalaya is, moreover, not marked out by any continuous ridge or succession of peaks, but is often broad, open, and low, compared with the neighbouring isolated eminences. Hence the line of watershed becomes the only geographically determinable axis; and this, as in all mountain chains of any extent, follows an extremely sinuous course. No doubt this line, which throws the waters in two opposite directions throughout the whole extent of the range (1440 miles), is also that of greatest elevation, or that along which the land is uninterrupted the most lofty.

Before, however, the real nature and geographical limits of the Himalaya, as above defined, can be rightly understood, it is necessary to consider this range in its relation to the little known mountain systems of Central Asia, of which it perhaps forms a less important part than is usually supposed. On reference to the map of Asia, the watershed of that continent will be found to follow a tortuous line, running diagonally from the peninsula of Gujerat to Belring's Strait. Across the plains of India this line is for the most part indicated by the Arawali chain, N. of which it crosses the Himalaya obliquely in a N.E. direction to the sources of the Indus and Brahmaputra, whence it trends westerly to the source of the Oxus, and then again north-easterly along the Altai to the S. of Lake Baikal, till it becomes the Ialbonoi Mountains, and finally termi-

nates in the prolongation of that range which traverses Himalaya the country of the Tchukchi. Mountains.

All the great rivers of Asia rise in this watershed; those from its western slope flow N. into the Polar Sea, W. into the Caspian or Aral, and S.W. into the Arabian Sea; those from its eastern slope flow E. and S.E. into the Pacific, and S. into the Indian Ocean. Enormous mountain chains branch off to the E. and W. of this main axis, inclosing the valleys of the rivers; and of these chains the southernmost is the Himalaya.

In their Tibetan courses the Indus and Brahmaputra occupy valleys of great elevation, and the opposite directions taken by them indicates the division of the Himalaya into two portions, the eastern of which stretches from their sources at the Peak of Kailas to the bend of the Brahmaputra, and the western terminates at the bend of the Indus. These limits are more natural than is usually supposed, since the prevalent idea that the Brahmaputra enters Assam through a defile caused by a break in the chain is erroneous; on the contrary, the Himalaya gradually declines in elevation in East Bhotan; and the upper valley of the Dihong (as the Brahmaputra at its bend is called), is, according to the best information hitherto procured, broad, open, and hot—rice being cultivated there on the very confines of Eastern Tibet. So also the Indus at the western extremity of the chain is usually described as flowing through a defile; but though its valley to the W. of Kashmir is contracted and rugged, and overhung by stupendous mountains, it does not in this respect differ materially, if at all, from the remainder of its Tibetan course; nor is the fall of its bed between Iskard and the plains of the Punjab greater in proportion to the length of its course than it is above that town.

The branches or secondary ranges of the Western Himalaya are so long and lofty, that some difference of opinion exists as to which of them should be most appropriately considered as the continuation of the chain between the peak of Kailas and Kashmir; and we have considered the line of watershed between the tributaries of the Indus to the N., and the rivers that flow to the plains of India to the S., to be the axis of the chain, since it both indicates the line of mean greatest elevation, and is the only definable axis in a geographical point of view.

Of the secondary chains we shall speak at length in connection with the rivers they inclose. Their direction is often perpendicular to the main chain, but they are so often oblique, and even parallel to the main chain, especially at their upper parts, that where very lofty and heavily snowed, they are frequently taken by local observers for the axis of the Himalaya itself; an error to which may be traced that misconception regarding the relative amount and duration of the snow on the northern and southern slopes of the Himalaya, which has led to so much fruitless controversy in India and Europe.

The general direction of the Himalaya throughout its length of 1440 miles, is E. and W., but it trends northwards from the centre towards its western extremity, its extremes being respectively in N. Lat. 28., E. Long. 95., and N. Lat. 35., E. Long. 73. Its breadth varies in different parts, but has been accurately ascertained in the western portion only, where it deviates but little from 190 miles.

It has been stated¹ that the mountain ranges of the Himalaya and the Kouenlun² have no special existence as chains apart from the general elevated mass of Tibet, and that that rugged country forms the summit of a great

Himalaya protuberance above the level of the earth's surface, of which the two chains form the N. and S. faces. This view is derived, no doubt, from the appearance of extreme confusion that prevails in this, as in every mountainous country. In the Himalaya, as in Switzerland, the traveller, in crossing ranges and valleys at all angles, perceives no order, and finds it impossible to trace rivers or chains from elevated positions; whilst in following the courses of the valleys, their bounding mountains shut out all beyond; and it is only after a map has been constructed that the relations between the several parts of a mountainous country can be traced with accuracy. The mountain system of Central Asia differs in a physico-geographical point of view from that of Europe only in bulk. The relation of the Kouenlun to the Himalaya is similar to that of the Bernese to the Monte Rosa Alps. These have not, it is true, a separate existence apart from the general mass of the Alps, but that they have a special existence also is proved by the positions of the sources of the rivers that flow to the northward and southward from each. Taking as an example the western half of the Himalaya and the parallel range of the Kouenlun, the facts that the average elevation of the watersheds of both is continuously above 18,000 feet the whole way from the Kailas to the meridian of Kashmir, whilst innumerable peaks on each rise above 20,000 feet, and that the inclosed river-bed of the Indus falls from 15,000 to 7000 feet in the same distance, appear sufficient evidence that the ranges in question have a definable existence in a geographical point of view. The elevation of the Kouenlun and Himalaya above the bed of the Indus is continuously higher in proportion than that of the Bernese and Monte Rosa Alps above the bed of the intervening Rhone.

Before detailing the physical features of the Himalaya, it appears advisable to give some general idea of its scenery and aspect; this is derived from the impressions produced on experienced travellers who have described it. Of these there have lately been many, and although few of them have had that previous familiarity with mountain regions which would enable them to judge of the Himalaya by comparison, the narratives of Moorcroft, Thomson, the Stracheys, Cunninghams, and others, all abound in accurate and often graphic details.

Viewed from a distance, on the plains of India, the Himalaya presents the appearance—common to all mountainous countries—of consecutive parallel ridges, running E. and W.; backed by a beautiful crest of snowy peaks, with occasional breaks in the foremost ranges, through which the rivers debouche. This appearance of parallel ridges is owing to a very simple and often overlooked law of perspective; in consequence of which masses of mountains, of whatever configuration, resolve themselves into ranges perpendicular to the line of sight.¹ Any view of the Himalaya, especially at a sufficient distance for the remote snowy peaks to be seen overtopping the outer ridges, is, throughout a great extent of the range, rare, from the constant deposition of vapours over the forest-clad ranges during the greater part of the year, and the haziness of the dry atmosphere of the plains in the winter months. At the end of the rains, when the S.E. monsoon has ceased to blow with constancy, views are sometimes obtained from a distance of nearly 200 miles. From the plains the highest peaks subtend so small an angle that they appear like white specks very low on the horizon, tipping the black lower and outer wooded ranges, which always rise out of a belt of haze; and from the density, probably, of the lower strata of atmosphere, they are never seen to rest on the visible horizon. The remarkable lowness on the horizon of the whole stupendous mass is always a disappointing feature to the new comer, who expects to see dazzling peaks towering in the air. Approaching nearer,

the snowy mountains sink behind the wooded ones long before the latter have assumed gigantic proportions; and when they do so, they too often appear a sombre, lurid, grey-green mass of vegetation, or rock, with no brightness or variation of colour.

The mountains once entered, the appearance of parallel ridges is found to be deceptive, and due to the inosculating spurs of long tortuous secondary ranges that run N. and S. from the axis, dividing deep wooded valleys, which flank the beds of large rivers. The snowy peaks now look like a long E. and W. range of mountains, at an average distance of 30 or 40 miles. Advancing farther into the country, this appearance proves equally deceptive, and from the same cause. The snowy range is finally resolved into isolated peaks, or masses, situated on the secondary ridges; and the source of the deception is found to be that these snow-clad spurs, projecting E. and W., cross one another, and, being uniformly white, appear to connect the peaks into one grand unbroken range. The rivers, instead of having their origin in the snowy mountains, rise far beyond them: many of their sources are upwards of 100 miles in a straight line from the base of the mountains, in a very curious country, loftier by far in mean elevation than the secondary ridges which run S. from it, yet comparatively bare of snow. This rearward part of the mountain region lies in Tibet, and it is here that most of the rivers rise as small streams, which increase rapidly in size as they receive the drainage from the snowed part of the secondary ridges that bound them in their courses.

A belt of tropical forest, 10 to 20 miles in breadth, skirts the southern foot of the Himalaya throughout the greater part of its length. Its presence is due to the humidity of the climate, and to copious springs, which often give rise to marshes which cover the ground at the base of the mountains. This tract is called the Terai, and is notorious for its malarious atmosphere, which renders it almost certain death to spend any time in it during the spring and autumn (before and after the rains). The Terai belt is broadest, most luxuriant and humid in the Assam valley at the eastern extremity of the chain, narrowing with the diminished humidity and colder winters of the western part. It decreases in breadth, and partially loses its tropical character towards the central districts; whilst to the westward of the Sutlej it disappears, or is represented by a low jungle of bushes, containing but few tropical plants.

Beyond the Terai the mountains rise more or less suddenly, though seldom in precipices. Throughout the eastern parts of the chain they are luxuriantly wooded, while to the westward they are covered with a looser, drier forest, or with brushwood. The mountain region may be entered by following the course of one of the main rivers, or by ascending the outlying spurs which bound them, and which run more or less parallel to the general direction of the chain. The roads almost invariably ascend these spurs, because the malarious region extends far up the valleys, and the banks of the rivers are usually impracticable for paths. The Himalaya once entered, the traveller's route is thenceforth an uninterrupted series of ascents and descents. There are no level tracts, plains, nor flats by the streams, of any breadth or continuity; an endless succession of ridges, several thousand feet high, and as many streams, are crossed on almost every day's march towards the axis of the chain; and during the warmer part of the year the amount of forest, fog, and cloud is so great, that until the alpine regions are reached, the traveller seldom enjoys any of those magnificent panoramic views for which the Cordillera and the European Alps are so celebrated.

Throughout the temperate and wooded regions it is scarcely possible for the traveller, let his powers of obser-

vation be ever so good, to understand the relations of the innumerable rivers and ridges he traverses. The country resembles a troubled ocean; and there being no apparent order, it is only by taking the main river that flows from the watershed as the starting-point, and laying down its course on paper with some accuracy, that a correct idea can be obtained of the structure of the valley which the traveller is ascending, and its relation to the secondary Himalayan chains that bound it.

The roads from India to Tibet are always carried along the flanks of these broad valleys, for the ridges of the secondary chains are too lofty, rugged, and tortuous to admit of roads being constructed along their crests, while the river banks are hot, and excessively tortuous and rocky. It is the necessity for crossing the spurs from these secondary chains, with their innumerable subdivisions and contained streams, which doubles the length of the route from the plains of India to the axis of the chain; the average distance, which is only about 100 miles, usually occupying from twelve days to a fortnight to traverse; and the total ascent, which is on the average 16,000 to 18,000 feet, being performed many times over, besides involving descents which are so steep as to be hardly less fatiguing than the ascents.

Immediately within the mountains the outermost lateral valleys (containing the feeders to the main rivers) are often broad, and bounded (especially those in the western parts of the chain) on one or both flanks by low sandstone hills. The breadth and extent of these, together with the peculiarity of the rock, has given them an undue importance in some respects. Such broad open valleys are called dhuns, and the sandstone hills (sometimes called the Sewaliks) have been supposed to constitute a system distinct from the Himalaya, but skirting its base. This theory has, however, been rejected by Dr Thomson,¹ who shows that the dhuns are valleys of precisely the same nature as the other lateral valleys; and that the sandstone ranges, however different in a geological point of view, are, in a geographical one, the terminal spurs of the ranges bounding the river valleys. Where the dhuns are very open, flat-floored, and with gradually sloping beds, their true relation to the surrounding mountain-chains is not at once apparent. Sometimes they appear to be indefinitely extended E. and W., in a direction parallel to the Himalayan chain; and, running from one great river to another, they appear to belong to a different order of valleys from those which occur further within the mountains. This arises in some cases from the slope of their beds being so extremely gradual that the watershed between the valley that ascends from the one river, and the corresponding valley that descends to the other river, can only be detected by observation of the drainage; whence the two valleys appear to form one. Such is the case with the celebrated Dehra Dhun in Kumaon, which appears to form one continuous transverse valley between the Jumna and the Ganges, but which really consists of two valleys; one descending from the village of Dehra (which occupies the col) westerly to the Jumna, and the other descending from the same spot easterly to the Ganges. Other dhuns, again, are simply very broad, open valleys, differing in no physical features from those that occur in other parts of the mountains. In the Punjab-Himalaya, where the tertiary sandstones acquire a great development, two or three such valleys occur in succession before the higher mountains begin. These dhuns are not, as is very generally supposed, continuous along the whole extent of the Himalaya, and interposed between the tertiary and secondary mountains. They are merely the outer series of lateral valleys, and are always of limited extent.

It is in the alpine and upper temperate regions of the Himalaya that the most interesting phenomena of the range

are concentrated, where the climate resembles that of Great Britain and the alpine districts of Europe; and the scenery, if not so picturesque, exceeds in grandeur that of Switzerland and the Tyrol. Throughout the Indian watershed of the chain, the main features, between 8000 and 14,000 feet, are more or less conspicuously European; whether or not they equal those of the Alps may be doubted. In absolute height and mass the Alps of course cannot be compared with the Himalaya; and such a view as the following extract describes (whose main features are characteristic of all parts of the range) is doubtless unrivalled on the globe. The author was at the time in Sikkim, not far from the centre of the chain, and his description embraces the snowed mountains, including the loftiest in the world, as seen from the N. flanks of the outer ranges. "The actual extent of the snowy range seen from Darjiling is comprised within an arc of 80° (from north 30° W. to north 50° E.), or nearly a quarter of the horizon, along which the perpetual snow forms an unbroken girdle or crest of frosted silver; and in winter, when the mountains are snowed down to 8000 feet, this white ridge stretches uninterrupted for more than 160°. No known view is to be compared with this in extent, when the proximity and height of the mountains are considered; for within the 80° above-mentioned more than twelve peaks rise above 20,000 feet, and there are none below 15,000 feet, while Kinchin is 28,178, and seven others above 22,000. Kinchin-junga (45 miles distant) is the prominent object, rising 21,000 feet above the level of the observer (28,178 above the sea) out of a wilderness of intervening wooded ranges; whilst, on a line with its snows, the eye descends below the horizon to a narrow gulf 7000 feet deep in the mountains, where the great Rungeet, white with foam, threads a tropical forest with a silver line." From another point of view in the same country, and also at 7000 feet elevation, the eye surveys at one glance the vegetation of the tropics and the poles. "Deep in the valleys the river beds are but 3000 feet above the sea, and are choked with fig-trees, plantains, and palms; to these succeed laurels and magnolias; and higher up still, oaks, chestnuts, birches, &c. Pine forests succeed for 2000 feet higher, when they give place to a skirting of rhododendron and berberry. Among these appear black naked rocks, rising up in cliffs, between which are gulleys, down which the snow in January descends to 12,000 feet, ascending in one unbroken sweep to peaks of 18,000 to 25,000 feet. (Himalayan Journals, vol. I., p. 123 and 327).

The Alps nowhere present panoramas so remarkable as these; but when once amongst the snowy mountains, the traveller's position, in respect of proximity to the snowy masses, as well as in elevation, is analogous in both ranges; the absolute heights of the principal objects being nearly the same, and strictly comparable. The apparent elevation of a mountain range is merely relative; and throughout the enormous arc of horizon embraced in a Himalayan view, its apparent vertical height is much diminished by the great distance of the nearest objects. To view Kinchin-junga as Mont Blanc is viewed from Chamonix, the traveller must ascend to 12,000 feet, for it is at that elevation that the vegetation and physical features of the valleys, caused by the moraines, &c., are analogous to those of 3000 feet in the Alps; and from such positions Kinchin-junga being but 3000 or 4000 feet higher above the observer than Mont Blanc (a difference not appreciable by the eye amid such scenes), and being further from the spectator, is not a more strikingly grand mountain than Mont Blanc. In the long extent of the Himalaya there are alpine scenes of unrivalled grandeur; but owing to the rarefaction of the atmosphere, and other causes, these regions will always remain inaccessible to any but the most hardy seekers of the

Himalaya picturesque, for they can only be viewed under circumstances of extreme physical discomfort. In certain respects, again, the Himalayan valleys are greatly inferior to the Alpine, for they want both lakes and cascades; and though Himalayan travellers may find scenes more awful, and solitudes immeasurably more impressive than any the Alps present, there are none known which, in grandeur, beauty, and picturesque combined, are to be compared with Lauterbrunnen or the valley of Chamonix. Nowhere in the Himalaya do blue glaciers, descending from mountains towering 10,000 feet above, pour their icy streams on to the flat floors of green valleys covered with corn, flocks, and villages; whilst lakes reflecting both the forest-clad base and snow-clad summits of one and the same mountain are, we believe, wholly unknown in Northern India.

Immediately beyond the most heavily snowed ranges of the chain the still ascending traveller enters on the loftiest, coldest, and windiest desert to be found in the temperate zone of either hemisphere, a country contrasting quite as much with the alpine country he has just left, as with the tropical regions at the base of the mountains. This is the axis of the Himalaya, where all its rivers have their rise, and which owes its freedom from snow in part to its distance from the sources of humidity and the mass of intervening ranges, but in part also to its great elevation; for it is in the lower part of the atmospheric column that most vapour is suspended; and as the humid wind only blows from the S., the bulk of its moisture is deposited in the form of rain on the southernmost parts of the mountain range, and of snow on the secondary ranges, 15,000 to 20,000 feet high, which extend many miles S. from the axis. Hence the clouds get absolutely dispersed before they can reach the latter point, and the traveller who has crossed that part of the range where enormous snow-beds and glaciers descend to 15,000 or 16,000 feet, and thence ascends to 18,000 or 19,000, finds no snow at that level; whilst the surrounding mountains also are so bare of snow that it is difficult to conceive that he has not descended an opposite slope.

The features of the main axis of the Himalaya differ greatly at different points of the chain; it is usually broad, and is always characterized by extreme vicissitudes of temperature. As with the Cordillera, the Norwegian Alps, and many other mountain ranges, the line of the watershed is not marked by any continuous ridge or succession of ridges; loftier eminences oftener rise in its proximity, from the spurs that branch off from it than from itself; and as the southernmost of these are (as has been already shown) always very heavily snowed, it has been usual to consider the belt of the most snowed peaks (which, as seen from the southward, shuts out the view of the loftier rearward axis), as the crest of the Himalaya. Dr Thomson has, however, pointed out that the deceptive effects of false perspective, the rarity of snow, the absence of a defined ridge on the axis, and the occasionally greater elevation of isolated peaks on the subsidiary ranges, have led to the transference of the true axis from the watershed to an imaginary line cutting across the valleys of all the rivers. As even the most recent maps of India represent the Himalayan rivers as cutting through the axis of the chain, it is necessary to bear in mind upon what slender authority this is done, and that throughout two-thirds of the extent of the Himalaya, there is no foundation whatever for the position either of the rivers or of the axis, as laid down on our maps. From Kumaon the whole way to the eastern termination of the chain, with the exception of the small province of Sikkim, nothing whatever is even approximately known of the relation of the rivers to the snowy mountains, or of these to the axis. Many lofty peaks are seen from the plains of India, and the positions of a few of these have been determined by triangulation; and in the earlier maps these were fictitiously represented as forming eminences on a continuously snowy ridge. The

information was afterwards supplied by the natives that the Himalaya sources of the rivers were far beyond these snows; and to reconcile these phenomena the streams were invariably made to intersect the ridge.

The fact, that in that portion of the Western Himalaya which lies between Nepal and the Sutlej, the loftiest eminences are situated on the subsidiary ranges, was first stated by Col. Herbert; but his observation, that the line of the great peaks intersects the river basins, and therefore is not the true axis of the Himalaya, has never yet been fully appreciated. More recent geographers have, however, so multiplied the number of these peaks in that portion of the Himalaya to which Col. Herbert's observation extended, that no single line of great peaks can now be traced in reality; and with regard to the explored portions of the Himalaya W. of it, and to the Sikkim portion E. of it, it is certain that the great peaks do not follow any definite line; added to which, the number of peaks on the axis itself, attaining elevations of 20,000 to 25,000 feet, is very great.

Reverting to the physical features of the loftiest regions, the suddenness with which the dry Tibetan climate and its concomitant features are often encountered, by crossing a lofty pass over a lateral heavily-snowed spur of a secondary range, is very remarkable, and contrasts with the slowness of the same change when a river is followed to its source; and as the short cuts over these spurs are generally preferred to the winding courses of the rivers, a false impression has been conveyed of the definition of the boundary between the dry and humid regions. This erroneous impression is strengthened by another fact, that the political boundary between the Tibetan and Indian states is often determined by the position of the greatest quantity of snow—a physical obstacle to intercourse of far more importance than the greater elevation of the comparatively snowless watershed N. of it. Recent discoveries have, however, shown that this boundary is neither so straight nor so natural as has been supposed, or as is represented in maps. In the small state of Sikkim, for instance, it zigzags so much that it is 50 miles further S. in one meridian than in another. Again, in the western part of Nepal, it is said to follow the true axis, or watershed; whilst in the more snowy eastern half of the same kingdom, it is traced along the most snowed regions; and it has in many places been repeatedly altered in the course of the last century by the Tibetans and Chinese.

A few other points in the physical geography of the axis of the Himalaya and of its loftier valleys are worthy of note. Such are the prevalence of lakes, never of any great depth, and of tertiary deposits, often extending for many miles, and forming undulating expanses, through which the rivers cut deep gorges, and which also form flats and terraces along the banks of the streams. These have given rise to the supposition that Tibet is a vast plain or plateau—an error which the fact that the roads in that usually difficult country make long detours to take advantage of these flats, has tended to confirm. That Tibet is however the most rugged and mountainous country in the world, the united testimony of all travellers assures us; and that no such level expanses, or lakes (with the solitary exception of Kashmir), or flat-bottomed valleys, occur in the equally mountainous, though perhaps less rugged and precipitous temperate and tropical valleys of the Indian watershed, is a very remarkable fact.

In classifying the geographical features of the Himalaya, as they occur, in belts parallel to the axis, we recognize four distinct latitudinal zones. 1. That which extends from the plains of India to those parts of the chain where the elevation is sufficient for snow to lie upon the ground during the winter months; within this the bases of the hills and all the valleys are tropical, and the upper portions tem-

Himalaya Mountains. The surface, though steep, and cut up into innumerable ravines, is seldom absolutely precipitous, or continuously rugged. This belt is from 40 to 60 miles broad, and presents eminences of all heights below 13,000 to 14,000 feet—the mean being perhaps from 5000 to 8000 feet. 2. In the snowy belt, which is from 30 to 40 miles broad, the climate is temperate in the valleys, and tropical where these are very deep and damp; alpine on the heights. The mean elevation is probably under 13,000 feet, though innumerable peaks rise to 20,000, a few to 25,000, and some to 28,000 feet; while the river beds are often only 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The surface of this belt is very rugged and often precipitous. 3. The axis of the chain is from 10 to 20 miles broad, probably 15,000 feet in mean elevation; and the line of watershed itself seldom sinks below 17,000 feet, except at the two extremities of the chain. The surface is very rocky and often precipitous, but varied with occasional undulating expanses; the climate is alpine throughout. 4. The northern slope consists of rugged rocky valleys, with occasionally flat floors: a temperate climate, but one of excessive vicissitudes, prevails below 13,000 feet elevation; and great drought and a total absence of forest vegetation distinguish it from the analogous elevations of the southern side.

These general remarks indicate three principal series of divisions of the Himalaya, viz., according to length, breadth, and height; these are:—

Rivers. The secondary ranges, which originate in the axis, and descend on the S. slope to the plains of India, and on the N. to the Tibetan Indus and Brahmaputra, separate great rivers, and may consequently be conveniently used to divide the whole chain into a succession of river basins.¹

The great rivers flowing to the S. are thirteen in number; advancing from W. to E., they are,—the Jelum, Chenab, Ravee, Byas, Sutlej, Jumna, Ganges, Gogra, Gandak, Kosi, Tista, Monas, and Subansiri.² The directions of these rivers vary a good deal, being often extremely oblique, especially in the upper part of their courses, to the axis of the chain. As a general rule, those that rise nearest to the centre of the chain (as, for instance, the Tista) have the straightest courses; those that are situated to the eastward flow first S.E., and then turning S., follow a western course, to the Assam Brahmaputra; those in the W. of the chain, flow first S.W., and then turning S., flow easterly. Of these rivers, the two eastern, the Monas and Subansiri, flow through Bhotan; the Tista drains Sikkim; and the three next, the Kosi, Gandak and Gogra, which are Nepalese, all flow into the Ganges; the two following, the Jumna and Ganges, water the British hill states of Kumaon, Garhwal, and Sirmore, W. of Nepal; the remaining five water the Punjab, and flow into the Indus, draining amongst others the hill states of Mandi, Chamba, Jammu, and Kashmir, respectively.

The fall of the rivers varies with the length of their course; that of the Tista is perhaps the most rapid, the river descending from 17,000 feet to 300 (at its exit on the plains), with a fall of 85 feet per mile; this, however, varies in different parts of its course; thus, between 17,000 and 15,000 feet, it is 60 feet per mile; between 15,000 and 12,000 feet, 140 feet per mile; between 12,000 and 5000 feet, 160 feet per mile; and between 5000 and 300 feet, 50 feet per mile. Analogous differences have been observed in

other Himalayan rivers, as in the Tambur, a tributary of the Himalaya Nepalese Kosi, and in some of the western rivers; as the Sutlej, which, for the first 60 miles of its course, falls 35 feet per mile; in the following 50 miles, 82 feet per mile; and in the succeeding 68 miles, 25 feet per mile. The Indus again, for the first 90 miles, falls about 3 feet per mile; in the next 115 miles, 28 feet per mile, and in the remaining 345 miles, falls 18 feet per mile. The prevalence of this gradual fall at the upper part of the rivers has been attributed mainly to the fact, that in the dry climate of the axis, the floors of the valleys are raised and levelled by glacial and other accumulations, which have been removed by denudation from the lower parts of the same valleys.

All the Himalayan rivers increase enormously in volume during the summer months; in the eastern portions, where the rains are very heavy, the increase is more due to this cause than to the melting of the snow. The individual feeders of the main streams also differ much; those that rise from glaciers being in summer opaline and full, in winter clear and less in volume. Again, the main body of the streams is in summer swollen and muddy, owing to the excessive rains, but in winter clear and diminished to a fraction of its summer volume. In summer the glacier-fed feeders are always much the coldest; in winter all approximate more in temperature. In summer the volume of all the snow-fed feeders of the rivers is much diminished at night, owing to the less rapid melting of the snow, and the frequent freezing of their head waters; but this is scarcely appreciable in the central and eastern parts of the chain, where most rain falls at night, and where the effect of the sun's rays in melting the snow is less than that of the rain and corroding fog.

The rivers flowing northward from the axis have much shorter courses; and, owing to the dryness of the climate, they carry comparatively little water. The principal of those that flow into the Indus are the rivers of Dras and Zanskar; of those that flow into the Tibetan Brahmaputra none are known to geographers except the Painom, which flows from the N. of the province of Bhotan, and falls into the Brahmaputra near the holy city of Teshoo Lombo.

The rarity of cascades, on a scale at all commensurate with the grandeur of the mountains and the volume of the rivers, is a peculiarity worthy of observation. Tibet, where absolute precipices are more numerous, is better adapted for waterfalls, but the dryness of its climate sufficiently accounts for their paucity.

The Himalayan lakes are almost confined to Tibet, where many of the rivers have their apparent sources in lakes fed by innumerable very small glacier streams. Some of these lakes are very extensive, as that of Yeumtso in Eastern Tibet, whose drainage is unknown; the Ramchoo lakes, which are said to give rise to the Painom; and the Mansarowar or Tso Mapham, and Rakas Tal or Tso Langak lakes; which are sheets of water 20 to 30 miles long, and of considerable breadth, elevated 15,200 feet above the sea; they give rise to the Sutlej. In the Western Himalaya the principal lake is the Tso Moriri, also of 15,200 feet elevation, 30 miles long, and placed on the axis of the chain; it has now no exit, but was once of greater dimensions, when its superfluous waters (which, no doubt, were then fresh) formed a tributary of the Sutlej. The waters of the Tso Moriri, and of many other Tibetan lakes, are very salt; a fact attributed to the evaporation and drainage exceeding the influx in the case of those which have outlets, and by the further concentration of the salts in the instances of lakes without drainage, which are hence always the saltiest. The rationale of the formation of the Tibetan lakes

Himalaya has never been investigated; many of the smaller ones are no doubt due to dams thrown across the valleys they occupy by the moraines of glaciers; others may be due to the unequal elevations of the surface; and the majority no doubt owe their existence to the deposits thrown across river beds by lateral feeders of the rivers themselves.

The Himalayan lakes, not situated on or near the axis, are extremely few and unimportant; the Walur Lake in Kashmir (elevation 5000 feet) is the only large one; and the small tarns of Bheem-tal and Nyncé-tal, a few miles long, and 4000 to 6000 feet above the sea, are both in Kumaon. It is a singular fact, that throughout the whole extent of the Himalaya, the Walur Lake (formed by the Jelum) is the only instance of any of the great rivers or their feeders forming any considerable expanse of still water.

Peat bogs, and moors analogous to those of Northern Europe, are wholly unknown in the Himalaya; their absence in the southern valleys is partly owing to the configuration of the latter, and more perhaps to the great rainfall. Of absolute plains there are perhaps none in the Himalaya; the comparatively level upper valley of the Sutlej being the only approach to an exception, and certainly a remarkable feature. Its extreme length is 120 miles, and its breadth varies from 15 to 60; its elevation is from 14,000 to 16,000 feet. It appears to be formed by a tertiary deposit of gravel and boulders; its surface is undulating, and broken by mountains in the eastern part. Such a feature as this, suddenly expanding before the traveller, weary of the endless ascents and descents of the southern slope of the Himalaya, must be very striking; and we accordingly often find it designated as an absolute plain. There is, however, a fall of 1000 feet from its southern edge to its centre; many mountain spurs intrude upon it; the Sutlej cuts a gorge 3000 feet deep through its longer axis; and the lateral ravines of the feeders of that river are so numerous, deep, and steep, that Moorcroft, one of the most accurate of observers, who first traversed it, calls these slopes mountains, and does not allude to the existence of a plain. Like many other mountainous valleys, it appears much flatter than it really is, from being generally viewed from a great elevation.

It is now undisputed that for its length the Himalaya exhibits the loftiest eminences in the world by very far, but it is yet to be determined whether it is the greatest mountain mass. The great range of Kailas or Karakoram (the western branch of the Kouenlun, see p. 439 in note), running parallel to the Western Himalaya, on the N. of the Indus, is undoubtedly more continuously lofty, and presents a greater breadth of elevated country than the Himalaya to the S. of it; and if, as is very probable, the eastern continuation of the Karakoram (to the N. of the Yaru or Tibetan Brahmaputra) is as lofty as the western, this will undoubtedly prove to be by very far a more lofty mountain chain than the Himalaya.

The mean slope of the Himalaya, from the plains of India to the average greatest elevation of the axis, is only 1 foot in 25; that from the loftiest peak (which is not on the axis) to the plains is 1 in 12. The elevation of the southern base of the Himalaya, that is, of the plains of India at the foot of the range, gradually rises from 350 feet in the meridian of Calcutta to 1000 feet in the Punjab; whilst to the eastward, up the Assam valley, the rise is scarcely appreciable. The elevation of the northern base in the western portion, that is, of the bed of the Indus, falls from 16,000 to 17,000 feet at the source of that river, to 11,000 at Ladak, and to 4000 or 5000 at its great bend. The elevation of the northern base of the eastern portion (that is, of the valley of the Tibetan Brahmaputra) is wholly

unknown. At the source of that river it is no doubt from 16,000 to 17,000 feet, and it has been assumed to be 13,000 at Shigatzi;¹ while, according to the accounts of the climate of that part of Tibet where the Brahmaputra turns S., the elevation is probably under 6000 feet.

In estimating the mean elevation of the known parts of the Himalaya, it has been usual to take the elevation of the passes as data; but in so doing a distinction must be made between the passes over the axis and those over its subsidiary ranges. There is every reason to believe that from the W. of the meridian of Kashmir to the Peak of Kailas, no part of the watershed axis is much below 18,000 feet; the four known passes being all above that elevation. Further to the W., and N. of Kashmir, a remarkable depression occurs at Zoji-la Pass, which, being broad and only 11,000 feet elevation, recalls some of the low cols over the main Alps. The elevation of the eastern part of the axis is entirely unknown. It has been but twice crossed; once by Captain Bogle in 1784; in his route to Tibet by Western Bhotan, but who left no record of his journey; and again by Turner in 1789. From the narrative of the latter we gather that the watershed itself is broad, open, and undefined to a common observer, though, from observations since made in the neighbourhood, it must be fully 17,000 feet elevation;² while the elevation of the axis N. of Sikkim may be assumed to be nowhere below 18,000 feet.

The principal peaks of the Himalaya are in many cases concentrated in groups, which have a definite relation to the chief rivers, being placed on the secondary ranges; thus, there are clusters or nauts of snowy mountains between the sources of the Monas and Subansiri, with peaks of from 23,000 to 25,000 feet in height; between the Monas and the Pachu is another probably higher; westward of the Pachu is the enormous ncud, to the N. of Sikkim, with its many spurs, from which rise Chumulari (23,929 feet), Donkiah (23,176 feet), and Kinchin-junga (28,178 feet), with its supporters, Junnool (25,312), Kobra (24,005 feet), Pundim (21,300 feet), and others; which clusters separate the head waters of the Pachu, Machu, Tista, and Arun. Between the Arun and Kosi is another great group, probably not lower than the last; between the Kosi and Gandak is the ncud from which rises Gosain-than (24,740 feet); between the Gandak and Gogra is another, with Dhawalagiri (28,000 feet). Of the peaks on the axis N. of the Sutlej, the Kailas alone has been measured, and exceeds 22,000 feet. On the subsidiary chain S. of that river are very many peaks of above 20,000 feet; of which Nanda Devi (25,700 feet), and Kamet (25,000 feet) are the two loftiest. W. of the Sutlej many peaks on and off the axis rise above 20,000 feet; and the last of the great snowed ones, Dhiarmal (18,000 feet), occurs W. of Kashmir, close to the bend of the Indus, and termination of the chain. These peaks are for the most part situated at some distance from the axis; and their accessibility, conspicuous position, and great quantity of snow, has fixed the attention of surveyors upon them: whether any eminences on the axis attain the elevation of 28,000 feet may be reasonably doubted. Of those to the eastward absolutely nothing is known; but from the views of the axis obtained from the N. of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhotan, it would appear that many there also exceed 20,000 feet.

The mineral character of the great peaks varies extremely; the loftiest known, Kinchin-junga, is apparently a stratified granite, whilst some of the first class are of gneiss, and others of limestone, of mica-schist, and of slate.

In the Himalaya every variety of temperature may be met with, from a tropical heat to the cold of the poles; and every degree of humidity, from the perpetual mois-

Himalaya Mountains. The nature of the eastern valleys to the utter aridity of Western Himalaya Mountains. Tibet; nevertheless the greater part of the chain is so subject to the influence of the monsoons, which sweep along its flanks from the Brahmaputra to beyond the Sutlej, that the seasons in general correspond with those of the great Gangetic valley; and the two main divisions into hot and cold months, which further correspond with the wet and dry ones, may be traced in all parts of the range except in the driest Tibetan regions. After the commencement of the vernal equinox, brilliant weather prevails more or less in all parts of the chain, except in the eastern, where any continuance of cloudless weather is rare. The rains are ushered in by gales and thunderstorms; and when they have fairly set in, a cloudless week seldom occurs in the westward, and to the eastward is quite unknown.

Rain. In the Eastern Himalaya the rainy season commences in April or May, with the accession of the south-easterly monsoon, laden with humidity from the Bay of Bengal; by the end of May it becomes general in Nepal, and by mid-summer in the extreme W. In the N.W. the rain begins to decrease about September, but in the eastern provinces can hardly be said to be over before October or November. The amount of rain deposited during this period varies extremely, but as a general rule, diminishes from E. to W. Owing to a local cause, Sikkim is the wettest province in the whole range—the Rajmahal Hills (in Bengal) partially dispersing the clouds which would otherwise descend on Nepal to the W. of it, and the Khasia range similarly sheltering Bhotan to the E. The heaviest rains fall on the outer hills, elevated from 6000 to 10,000 feet, especially where these advance in considerable masses towards the plains, whilst isolated peaks and ranges of less elevation, as well as the valleys of the great rivers, are drier. As a consequence of this, all the valleys of the interior which are separated from the plains by continuous chains, attaining an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, are to a great extent sheltered by these from the rains, which fall only as occasional showers; while those still further back, and which are bounded on the south by mountains rising everywhere to the level of perpetual snow, are absolutely without rain during the monsoon. In Sikkim and Bhotan, where the wide valleys are perpendicular to the axis of the chain, and correspond to the direction of the winds, the rains are heavy till we penetrate far into the interior; but great irregularities everywhere occur, and this even in adjacent valleys.

The maximum rain-fall probably occurs on the outer ranges of Sikkim, and exceeds 120 inches in the year at 7000 feet elevation. The amount of rain is, however, little indication of the humidity of the climate; for, though in the interior valleys very little falls at elevations corresponding with those which are deluged on the outer ranges, the fogs and drizzle which prevail, and which are not measured by the rain-guage, sometimes obscure the sun's rays for many days in succession.

Winds. Towards the autumnal equinox, as the decreasing declination of the sun gradually changes the direction of the wind, the atmosphere becomes drier, and the cessation of the rains is marked by violent tempests.

During the winter the weather is unsettled; for whilst the N.E. monsoon is blowing over the lower parts of India, an upper current of south-westerly wind carries its moisture to the higher mountains, where it is condensed in the form of snow; and there is also a short rainy season towards the end of December, in the more humid provinces. In spring, as the sun's declination increases, and the Gangetic plain and Punjab again become heated, low currents of dry south-westerly winds often rush in the afternoons with violence up the Himalayan valleys, and obscure the distant prospect with a strong haze.

The local Himalayan winds are confined to a diurnal current of heated air which rushes up the valleys during the

day, and is always experienced on the axis of the chain as a violent southerly wind; and a return cold current at night, blowing with much less violence and regularity down the valleys. These winds increase in regularity and intensity as the valleys are ascended, and as the difference increases between the temperatures of day and night; the diurnal current being least marked in winter, and the nocturnal one in summer. The other phenomena of cloud, rain, and fog, which prevail in the Himalaya, are common to all mountain countries, and require no detailed account.

The mean temperature of the base of the Himalaya diminishes from 74° in the meridian of Calcutta, to about 70° in the western extremity of the range. At that end it is not so low as the increase of latitude would indicate, owing to the increase of the mass of land in that direction, which becomes excessively heated in summer; hence the isothermals are curved, with their convexity to the N.W. during all seasons of the year, but most so in summer, as the equator of heat trends so far to the northward of the terrestrial equator in summer as to impinge upon the base of the Himalaya in July, when its mean temperature rises almost to 86°. In midwinter again the mean temperature falls to about 60°.

The diminution of temperature in ascending is about 1° for every 350 or 400 feet of elevation in the more humid parts of the chain, and 1° for every 400 feet in the drier parts; the ratio of diminution is most rapid in the loftiest elevations, and more rapid in winter than in summer, owing to the effect of the warm S. wind. In these respects the Himalaya differs from other mountain ranges, as the Alps for instance, as it does also both in the annual and diurnal range of temperature increasing with the elevation, and in the effect of radiation being greatest in winter, all of which are due to the interference of the heavy rains and clouds of summer.

The following is an attempt to approximate (within a few degrees), to the mean temperature, and range of the thermometer, in the province of Sikkim:—

The elevation of the snow-line is about 16,000 feet on the southern or outer snowed ranges throughout the whole length of the chain; the depression at the eastern extremity, which is in a lower latitude, being attributable to the convexity of the isothermals and the greater fall of snow. It rises to 20,000 feet on the loftier eminences towards and behind the axis. In winter the snow descends to 10,000 feet, and lies there for about a month, probably throughout the range; and sporadic falls have been experienced as low as 5000 feet in the central provinces, and 1000 in the western.

The glacial phenomena are everywhere the same as in the Alps of Europe and elsewhere, the descent of the glaciers being modified by the breadth, form, and slope of the valleys they occupy, and the extent, &c., of their feeders: in the Western Himalaya they descend to 11,000 feet, though rarely; while in the eastern and central parts they have not been met with below 14,000.

That the climate of the whole Himalaya has been greatly altered within a comparatively recent period, is proved by the ancient moraines of great size, and other glacial evidences, which are found as low down as 8000 or 9000 feet in the valleys of all the great rivers.

Himalaya Mountains. The barometric tides in the Himalaya are greatly modified by the rains; but the times of maximum pressure (9.50 A.M. and P.M.) and minimum (4 A.M. and P.M.), and the hourly oscillations, are much the same at all elevations. The amplitude of the oscillations decreases from 0.100 inch at the base of the range to 0.074 at 7500 feet, and 0.050 at 14,000 or 15,000 feet. The amplitude is greatest in the spring months, least in June and July, and rises again in autumn. The pressure of dry air shows but one annual maximum (in December) and one minimum (in July), and one diurnal maximum at the coldest hour of the twenty-four, and one diurnal minimum in the afternoon.

Atmospheric pressure. The effects of diminished pressure on the human frame are the same in the Himalaya as in other mountain regions; the uninured traveller first experiences slight giddiness at 13,000 or 14,000 feet, with nausea, headache, and lassitude at 14,000 or 15,000, while the pulse often rises to 120 per minute—symptoms which increase with the elevation, and violently so upon any exertion, but wear off with practice. Upon horseback, if the pace is gentle, 19,000 feet may be attained without inconvenience; and after living for a day or two at 16,000 feet, ascents to 20,000 feet may be made slowly and cautiously on foot, without other inconvenience than lassitude. Some individuals suffer more than others, but even the Tibetan inhabitants of 15,000 feet always have headache in walking over passes of 18,000. Bleeding at the nose and ears has never been experienced by any practised traveller in health, and is unknown amongst the natives.

Geology of the Himalaya. Of the Geology of the Himalaya little can be said; for though some of the provinces have been well studied, of the majority nothing whatever is known. The strike of the rocks throughout appears to be N.W., and the dip N.E.; but this is liable to many local exceptions, the dip especially being extremely variable. At the south base of the range, spurs of sandstones and conglomerates occur, rising immediately out of the gravelly deposits which are intercalated with the alluvium of the plains of India. These sandstones have been represented as occurring along a great portion of the range, though there is no evidence to show that those of the eastern and western parts of the chain are of the same age. Some of those of Kumaon (Sewaliks) are referable to the miocene age, and contain the remains of species of bos, camel, giraffe, hippopotamus, dinotherium, mastodon, sivatherium, many antelopes and other ruminants, various carnivora, anopotherium, several monkeys, seven species of elephants, crocodiles, and the gigantic tortoise, whose shell measures 20 feet across. The sandstones at the foot of the Sikkim hills in the meridian of Calcutta are probably referable to the same age as the coal formations of Belar and Central India, indications of similar fossils having been found in both. The dip of these rocks is almost always to the mountains, as is often that of the succeeding metamorphic rocks, and which, though probably of far older formation, appear to overlie them.

Metamorphic rocks, consisting of beds of mica-schist with garnets, clay-slate, quartz, gneiss, and occasional veins of granite, acquire an enormous development, often rising into the loftiest peaks of the central region, and forming the mass of the mountains in those parts of the range which have been best explored. These are overlaid again by slates, and in Kumaon by Silurian beds succeeded by rocks which are referable to the oolite series, abounding in some places in ammonites and belemnites.

In the larger river valleys towards the axis of the chain, tertiary beds are again met with, overlying the oolitic and metamorphic ones, and containing, to the north of Kumaon, at 15,000 feet elevation, fossils analogous to those of the Sewaliks, at the south base of the mountains. Specimens of these, brought to England by Captain R. Strachey, have been referred to extinct species of horse, rhinoceros, elephant, hippopotamus, &c.

Of eruptive rocks granite is abundant throughout the Himalaya chain, and dykes of greenstone and basalt occur to the westward. In the extreme Western Himalaya of Tibet, fossil shells of the pleistocene or post-pleistocene age, have been found in lacustrine clays by Dr. Thomson, on the flanks of mountains bordering both lakes and rivers, high above the level of the waters; some of these, chiefly species of Lymnaea and Planorbis, are closely allied to existing Himalayan species, if not identical with them, and indicate the retirement of extensive bodies of fresh water from those regions at a comparatively recent period. Glacial deposits are found in all the Himalayan valleys above 8000 or 9000 feet elevation, in the form of transported boulders and enormous moraines, attesting the former extension of glaciers fully 6000 feet below their present limits. These phenomena so entirely resemble those of the Alps, that they require no detailed account.

Attempts have been made to draw conclusions in physical geography and geology from the relations of the river-beds (regarding them as fissures) to the strike of the rocks in the chain, and to the lines of upheaval of the main and subsidiary ranges, but hitherto without success. One fact alone is obvious, that the direction of the strike, which appears to be tolerably uniform throughout about 1000 miles of the chain, cuts both the main range and its secondary ones obliquely at an acute angle, and is not modified by the varying direction of the range; whence it follows that it cuts the river basins obliquely also. Until, however, more is known of the relative ages of the rocks composing the range, and their exact relations to one another, no conclusions can be arrived at. The order of superposition has been traced in Kumaon alone, by Captain R. Strachey; and though the geology of this province will no doubt soon be connected with that of the countries to the westward of it, there is at present no prospect of any addition being made to our knowledge of either the geography or geology of by far the more extensive portion of the Himalaya, which stretches for 1000 miles E. of that province.

In mineral products the Himalaya is remarkably poor, so far as is at present known. There is nothing which can compare in abundance or value with the mines of the Ural, Andes, or European Alps. Red haematite is worked with profit in Kumaon, and copper exists in Nepal and the Sikkim hills. Iron (disseminated) occurs in various places, and graphite is common. Salt, borax, and soda are procured in abundance in the dry climate of Tibet, where they are articles of commerce; there also gold-washing is carried on upon a most limited scale. Gold is known to be extremely abundant in many parts of Eastern Tibet, where, however, the jealousy of the Chinese government prevents its being worked. Slates, lime, gypsum, lead, sulphur, and magnesia, are also Himalayan products.

There is a surprising and almost total absence of gems, or minerals of rarity or beauty in the Himalaya; garnets, actinolites, and tourmalines, are perhaps the only exceptions of frequent occurrence, and these are of the coarsest description.

Hot springs abound, chiefly at elevations of 10,000 to 18,000 feet; they usually emit sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and maintain temperatures of 100° to 130°. There is no active volcano anywhere in the range, nor any traces of extinct ones. Some of the districts, especially towards the N.W., have been visited by violent earthquakes, but these do not appear to be connected with any endemic phenomena; they have generally commenced far S. of the Himalaya, and have been propagated across the range. Remarkable local subsidences and elevations have occurred in the valley of the Jhelam in Kashmir, which have been described by Dr. Thomson (Tibet, p. 291).

Vegetation.—This may be altitudinally divided into tropical, temperate, and alpine; and latitudinally into exterior and interior.

Himalaya or rainy, interior or intermediate, and Tibetan or arid Himalaya Mountains.

The tropical belt extends from the Terai to 6000, and even 7000 feet in the humid central provinces; and to 3000 to 4000 in the extreme western. It consists of a luxuriant forest of Malayan and insular types of trees in the eastern provinces, which to a great extent disappear to the westward, where they are partially replaced by Persian, Egyptian and Afghanistan types—amongst these trees the palms, plantains, tree-ferns, sal (Shorea robusta), sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo), toon (Cedrela Toona), and some oaks, are the most conspicuous, and commercially the most important, especially to the eastward.

The temperate belt extends from 5000 feet to the upper limit of forest, which varies from 12,000 to 13,000 feet, according to the dryness of the climate. It abounds in European, Levantine, and Chinese genera and even species, with but few Malayan mountain ones; of these the European are most abundant in the western provinces, and the Chinese and Japanese in the eastern, where are also a few American genera, and some belonging to the Malayan and insular mountain flora. Amongst the most conspicuous plants of this region are oaks, birch, maple, apple, hornbeam, poplar, ash, cherry, alder, celtis, pine, juniper, yew, willow, and pines (Abies Webbiana and Brunonia), which abound throughout the range; besides which, there are to the westward of Nepal, deodar, Pinus Gerardiana, hawthorn, cypress, horse-chestnut, olive, myrtle, evergreen oak, sloe, black poplar, and many other European genera and even species; whilst to the eastward, laurel, magnolia, rhododendron, larch, Abies Brunonia, and chestnut, more especially prevail.

The alpine belt, which commences above the forest region, ascends in extreme cases to 19,000 feet; it abounds in Siberian, Polar, and European alpine plants throughout the whole extent of the chain, the European species and genera being most prevalent to the W.

Several hundred common English plants are also natives of the Himalaya, and especially of the temperate and alpine zones; and the total number of flowering plants inhabiting the whole range probably amounts to 5000 or 7000 species.

Cultivation in the Himalaya is carried on as high as 14,000, and even 15,000 feet, where summer crops of wheat and barley exist in Tibet, but quite exceptionally; also buck-wheat, turnips, radishes, mustard, potatoes, and various pulses, are grown abundantly between 8000 and 12,000 feet, as summer crops. Rice, maize, millet, and other tropical cereals, are grown below 6000 feet, with buck-wheat, and various species of chenopodium, yams, capsicum, egg-apple, legumes, and sugar-cane.

The Himalayan fruits cultivated by the natives in the eastern and central provinces are plantains, oranges, pine-apples, walnuts, indifferent peaches and apples; in the western, excellent apples, pears, apricots, peaches, cherries, mulberries, grapes, and walnuts.

The cultivation of tea is now successfully carried on on a large scale in the Western Himalaya, at elevations of 2000 to 5000 feet, and might probably be pursued with more or less success in all parts of the chain.

The timber trees of the Himalaya are extremely numerous, but few of them are of great value, and some of the best inhabit inaccessible regions. The sal (Shorea robusta) is decidedly the most valuable; and, from growing at the foot of the hills, close to water-carriage, is the only one much felled for export. The toon (Cedrela Toona) and sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo) are also exported from the same regions; and the deodar and other conifers from the north-western provinces. The other pines, the walnut, oaks, and the chestnuts, mostly produce indifferent timber; but, though there are exceptions, the use of these is principally confined to the neighbourhood where they grow. Of ornamental woods, few are known, and none are in general use. Bam-

boos prevail everywhere, and rattan-canes to the eastward. Owing, probably, to the humid climate, the woods of European genera are, almost without exception, inferior to those of their western allies. Teak is unknown in the Himalaya; and the other woods of Eastern Bengal and of both the Indian peninsulas are either confined to the malarious forests of Assam, or are altogether absent. The vegetable economic products are also very few and unimportant—such as spices, gums, resins, oils, waxes, fibres, and other textile materials. Of drugs, the baneful aconite and hemp are the best known; inferior rhubarb, and a few bitters of secondary importance in the pharmacopœia, are also collected for export. Attempts have been made to cultivate drugs for the use of the Indian medical establishments, but hitherto with very limited success. Wild madder is extensively collected and exported, as are bamboos, canes, and a few other products; and latterly potatoes in Sikkim. There is no doubt that the vegetable riches of these extensive regions are but very little known, and are capable of immense extension; but hitherto the efforts have been limited. On the northern or Tibetan parts of the range the trees are extremely few and small, and confined to willows, poplars, junipers, elms, and tamarisk; and of bushes, the well-known dama or furze, that supplies fuel, is the most familiar to travellers.

The Zoology of the Himalaya is very extensive, and the laws of distribution are the same as those of the vegetable kingdom; thus Malayan genera of quadrupeds, birds, and insects, inhabit the tropical belt, diminishing in variety and number towards the west. In the temperate zone European types predominate, with a large admixture of Chinese and Japanese forms to the eastward. Siberian forms prevail in the alpine zone, and throughout both eastern and western Tibet. The most remarkable animals are in the tropical zone; the tiger, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, and many species of deer, monkey, wild boar, and bovine animals. In the temperate zone are other species of deer and monkey, bears, wild cats, squirrels, &c. In the alpine zone, and chiefly in the Tibetan climate, the wild ass or kiang, musk-deer, ibex, antelopes, hare, several wild sheep and goats, marmot, lemming, fox, wolf, ounce, lynx, weasel, polecat, and many smaller animals, abound. The domestic animals are the yak and its hybrids with other bovines, ponies, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs of a mastiff breed, goats, and fowls, and occasionally bees; of these the yak is the most remarkable, and is the domestic form of a wild animal of greater dimensions found in various parts of Tibet; it is used as a beast of burden for all purposes, for milk, and for beef.

Shells are rare in the Himalaya, but do exist, and even at 16,000 to 17,000 feet elevation, in fresh water.

Insects are extremely abundant at all elevations, and leeches abound up to 10,000 feet in the eastern provinces.

The rivers are generally too rapid for much fishing; but many species of Cyprinidae especially abound from the level of the plains to 15,000 feet elevation; with a remarkable break, however, between 5000 to 10,000 feet, between which levels fish are said to be rare, or almost unknown, in most of the rivers. Salmonidae are unknown in any Himalayan river; the so-called trouts being all species of carp. The eastern Tibetan lakes swarm with fish at 10,000 to 14,000 feet elevation.

The economic animal products are coarse silk, called tussar, from a native moth bred at the foot of the hills; shawl wool from Tibet, and musk from the alpine regions.

It is impossible to make more than a brief allusion to the numerous Himalayan races, whose very numbers are as yet unknown, and the origin of most of which is involved in obscurity. The majority, however, may be safely referred to the Mongolian race, with, in some cases, more or less of admixture with the Indo-Germanic. Of these the Tibetans are perhaps numerically the greatest; and they occupy the

Himera. largest area—namely, Eastern Tibet, which is exclusively peopled by them, Western Tibet to a great extent, and all the loftier Himalayan valleys above 8000 feet elevation. They are generally an honest, hardy, hospitable, cheerful people, but indolent, unwarlike, and filthy in the extreme, both in their persons and houses. All are Lama Buddhists. The Bhotanese are perhaps more closely allied to these than any other Himalayan race, and are also all Lama Buddhists. They are more industrious than the Tibetans, but are turbulent, treacherous, dishonest, and sullen in disposition. The Nepalese are chiefly Hindus, as are many of the dominant races of the lower outer Western Himalaya, and are divided into many castes or classes, military, agricultural, pastoral, &c. Throughout the Western Himalaya are many Mussulmen. Numberless uncivilized tribes inhabit the eastern and central provinces; but, with the exception of the Abus of Eastern Bhotan, none are in an absolutely savage state. The others are the Lepchas, a timid Mongolian race inhabiting Sikkim, and the Limboos, Murmis, Haioos, Cooches, Bodos, Dhimals, and a host of other tribes, presenting various combinations of the Indo-Chinese, Mongolian, and Tamul, or aboriginal race of India. These chiefly inhabit the eastern provinces, and, with the exception of the Lepchas, none form a distinct nation; the rest are mixed off with the Nepalese, Lepchas, and Bhotanese, and are subject to the sovereigns of these tribes. Some of these are the remnants of the aborigines of the Himalaya, and claim a very early origin. For detailed information on these subjects, and on the zoology in general, we must refer to Mr Hodgson, whose works on these subjects have a European reputation.

British stations. The principal British stations in the Himalaya are situated at elevations of 6000 or 8000 feet above the sea level, where the climate approximates to that of England. These are all healthy, and well adapted to the European constitution; and though neither objects of particular solicitude nor of sufficiently systematic resort by the British residents in India, they are of the highest value, and the conviction of this is gradually forcing itself upon the public mind. Whether as a means of civilizing the neighbouring hill-states, or of extending our commercial relations with Tibet and Central Asia, or as affording healthy sites for schools, hospitals, and depôts for invalid or unseasoned troops, they are worthy of the especial care of the government. It cannot be doubted that the Himalaya will one day become peopled by colonies of the English race, sprung in part from officers of the East India Company's service, and others who, long accustomed to the habits of the East, and with all their friends and associations in India, prefer a retirement in the immediate neighbourhood of the scenes and friends of their later life, to seeking new friends, and remodelling their habits in England. Of these hill Sanataria, the most important, proceeding westerly, are—Darjiling, elev. 7000 to 8000 feet, in Sikkim; Nainital, 6000 to 7000 feet, and Almora, 5000 to 6000 feet, in Kumaon; Masuri, 6000 to 7000 feet, in Garhwal; Simla, 7000 to 8000 feet, in Sirmore; Kangra, 7000 to 8000 feet, in the Byas Valley; and Murree, 7000 to 8000 feet, between the Indus and Jhelum. (J. v. ii.)