374 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



whose name is so thoroughly Finnic, as to be still com- 

 mon in Scandinavia. But modern research, without 

 rejecting these facts, has shown, that they lead always 

 to regions still further east, Hindu-Koosh, Cabul, 

 and the Suleimanic range, high lands, probably de- 

 signated in a general form by the Sanscrit name of 

 Ariavartha ; the high, the holy land of the Hindoos, 

 whence all the conquering races of the type first 

 brought their heroes, demigods, and legislators ; the 

 whole, both of the south and the east, ultimately point- 

 ing to Thibet as the cradle of the Caucasian Man. 



At the western extremity of the Himalaya chain, 

 beneath the plateau of Thibet, is situated the basin of 

 Cashmere, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, 

 and peaks covered with lasting snow. From this 

 region flow four or five considerable afiiuents, which 

 give its principal importance to the Indus. Where 

 this great stream, by the natives called the Sind and 

 Neelab, breaks from the north through the mountain 

 gorge, commences Hindu-Koh, the real Caucasus and 

 Imaus of the ancients ; Kaf or Kauf of Arabian 

 writers ; a region so elevated, that the greater portion 

 is covered with permanent snow. The central moun- 

 tain system is overlooked by the peak of Hindu-Koh, 

 the culminating point, though others, like Kooner, to 

 the east, and Kohi-Baba, at the western extremity, 

 rise, one more than 15,000, and the other to 18,000 

 feet above the sea. From the vicinity of the last, the 

 region is bounded on the north by the first feeders of 

 the Oxus, forming another Punjaub, and on the south 



