x INTRODUCTION, 
as Hurriana is celebrated for its pasturage grasses, and for the herds of cattle which it 
supports. The Seik country also is very fertile. 
The elevated land of Central India having on the N: W. the desert, is separated on the 
N.E. from the Himalayas by the alluvial plains of the great Gangetic valley. The 
valley of the Indus, stretching from the ocean to the foot of the Himalaya, must evidently, 
from .the slow winding course: of the river, be a very gradual slope. Its’ eastern apex 
approaches the western bank of the Jumna,as the streams.on that side, even in the 
vicinity of that river, flow towards the Indus, instead of into the Gangetic valley. Though 
the points where the Sutlej and Jumna rivers emerge from the hills are separated about 
eighty miles, the separating line of the two vallies is within, twenty miles of the latter, 
or just beyond the sources of the Sombe, which is known to flow across the direction of 
the Delhicanal. | | ‘atimel? 
The great Gangetic valley! stretches aling: the foot of the Snalees for shout, twelve 
hundred miles, parallel to the mountain range, from this point to the ocean, in the 
Bay of Bengal, varying in. breadth from eighty to two hundred miles, being at least 
the ‘latter at Agra, and not more than the former at Monghir, while near Delhi it is 
about one hundred miles; the contraction at both places being evidently caused by the 
projection of ramifications from the great central mountain mass of India. The elevation 
of this great plain or alluvial valley, varies in different parts from the level of the sea to 
at least one thousand feet near Saharunpore, which is within nine miles of the eastern 
bank of the Jumna, but so gradual is the slope, that the Ganges is every where a slow 
and winding river; and if perpendiculars be: raised at the latitudes of Saharunpore, 
Delhi, Benares, and Calcutta, and the ascertained heights one thousand, eight hundred, 
three hundred and twenty-eight, and fifty feet of these places be laid off on them, 
a straight line will nearly pass through all the points. | 
. The four great: systems of mountains, which, according to. Humboldt cover the valen 
of Central Asia, are—lst. The Altai; 2d. The Thian Chan; 3d. The Kuenlun; and 
4th. The Himalayas; which are the most southern and western, forming the north- 
eastern boundary of Hindoosthan, and extending in a N.E. and §.W. direction from 
between Cashmere and Fyzabad, where they join the Kuenlun to Bootan, or from 35° 
to 24° of latitude, and from long. 75° to long. 90° E.; beyond this they extend through 
much unknown country, but may be supposed dividing into two branches, one forming 
the N.E. boundary of Assam, Ava, and terminating in the Malayan Peninsula; the 
other penetrating to the Chinese province of Yunan, opposite to which the island of 
Formosa may be considered the termination of the chain. The first portion is that only 
of which any part of the Natural History will be illustrated in the present work. 
Beyond Cashmere, and to the westward of the Belor range, the united chains of the 
Himalaya and Kuenlun form the range of the Hindoo-kho, which Humboldt regards as 
a continuation of the Kuenlun, though it is generally considered a prolongation of the 
Himalaya. In this case the latter would form a range extending nearly from the Line 
to 
