128 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
Bounpartes AND Paysican CHARACTERISTICS OF TIBET. 
Tibet is a somewhat vague geographical term for a large area 
in Central Asia, and, under the circumstances, we consider that 
we cannot do better than follow Maximowiez, except that we 
take the Himalaya Mountains as the southern boundary. It is 
remarkable as being on the whole, for its area, the highest 
country in the world. It is equally remarkable for its extreme 
dryness, especially in the western, northern, and central parts, 
and likewise for its high snow-limit, as compared with the 
southern slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. It forms an un- 
equal-sided quadrangle between 30° and 36° N. latitude in the 
west, and 28° and 39° in the centre and east, including Tsaidam, 
and 80° and 102° E. longitude *; but Maximowicz did not 
include the country south of the thirty-first parallel, where there 
is a settled population. It is bounded on the east by China 
Proper; on the south by the Himalaya Mountains ; on the west 
by the Himalaya and Karakorum Mountains; and on the north 
by the Keria, Toguz Daban or Kuen Luen, Altyn Tag, and Nan 
Shan Mountains. Chinese or Eastern Turkestan, in the western 
part, and Mongolia, in the eastern part, are the countries 
immediately to the north. None of these boundaries is strictly 
defined. For example, the eastern boundary varies in different 
latitudes between 99° in the Batang region in the south, and 
102° in the Kuku Nor region in the north. 
We have already explained some of the discrepancies con- 
cerning the western boundary, and the eastern is equally 
uncertain. For instance, in what we may term the south-eastern 
corner of Tibet and the adjoining part of China Proper the 
boundaries vary in different maps; Batang and Litang being 
sometimes included in Szechuen and sometimes in ‘ Chinese 
Tibet.” And even the more eastern district of Moupine, or 
Mupin (about 102° 30’ and 30° 30’), where the Abbé David 
laboured, is termed Chinese Tibet. But here, as well as at 
Tachienlu, where Mr. A. E. Pratt made a large collection of plants, 
partly worked out by us, the vegetation is luxuriant and varied, 
and belongs to the Himalayan or Indo-Chinese Flora. 
Maximowiecz describes (from the data supplied by the various 
* From this point throughout this paper it has been considered sufficient to 
give the degrees of longitude and latitude in figures, without any further 
indication, and always, where the two are combined, placing longitude first. 
One has only to remember that the extremes are: longitude 80°-102°, and 
latitude 28°-39°, 
