716 



HIMALAYA 



fevers of a very malignant type. Next above the 

 Tarai lies a belt of forest of about the same 

 width, called the Bhabar. Its soil consists of 

 sand, liberally strewn with shingle beds and 

 boulders. The waters of the minor streams that 

 come down from the higher mountains are gener- 

 ally absorbed by this spongy talus-slope, and, 

 passing through it underneath the surface, accu- 

 mulate again on the upper edge of the lower-lying 

 Tarai. 



Above the Bhabar rise the foot-hills of the 

 Himalayan system, generally designated the Siwa- 

 lik Hills, or sub-Himalayan ranges. They vary 

 in height from a few hundred feet up to 4000, and 

 present steep faces to the plains ; on the northern 

 side the slope is gentler, being mostly met at short 

 distances from the summit by the southern flanks 

 of the inner ranges. Geologically the Siwalik 

 Hills belong to the Tertiary formation, and to the 

 Pliocene rather than to the Miocene period. From 

 the ranges near the Jumna great quantities of 

 fossils, mostly mammals and reptiles, all land and 

 fresh- water animals, have been obtained. It is on 

 the north side of the Siwalik foot-hills that the 

 first mountains appear. They rise up abruptly to 

 elevations ranging for the most part from 7000 to 

 10,000 feet, and cover a surface zone of 50 miles in 

 breadth. This division embraces a large number 

 of irregular ridges, characterised by great com- 

 plexity of geological structure. They yield marine 

 fossils. On these ranges stand the sanatoriums, 

 such as Simla, Darjiling, Alniora, &c., which are 

 so essential to Europeans during the hot months. 

 The space between the outer members of these 

 ranges and the Siwalik foot-hills is occupied by 

 narrow, shallow, longitudinal valleys, called Dun 

 in the west and Mari in Nepal. They are partly 

 covered with loose shingle and boulders, partly 

 worn into terrace-like steps, partly broken by low, 

 obliquely lying, watershed ridges, which throw off 

 numerous small streams. 



In the Himalayas proper two main axes can be 

 determined with tolerable distinctness. One, the 

 southern, contains the line of the great snowy 

 peaks ; the other, the northern, forms the water- 

 shed between the rivers of India and the rivers of 

 Tibet. The mountains in the southern chain are 

 amongst the loftiest in the world ; a very great 

 number of them exceed 20,000 feet (3| miles) in 

 height. One of these, Mount Everest (29,002 feet), 

 is the highest measured mountain in the world. 

 Other lofty peaks in this division of the Himalayan 

 system are Mount Godwin-Austen (28,250), the 

 second highest in the range ; Kinchin jinga (28, 156) ; 

 Dhwalagiri (26,826) ; Nanda-Devi (25,700) ; Trisul 

 (23,400), and several others more than 22,000 feet 

 in altitude. The chain of great snowy peaks is, 

 strictly speaking, a series of mountain-groups, each 

 of which is connected with the watershed chain to 

 the north by a transverse ridge, covered with snow 

 and frequently bearing on its shoulders peaks that 

 tower up to the height of 25,000 feet. Graham, 

 who in 1883 ascended Kabru to a height of 23,700 

 feet, believed that there are other peaks which will 

 be found to exceed Mount Everest in altitude, for 

 the central parts of the system next Tibet have 

 not yet been surveyed or even explored with any- 

 thing approaching to thoroughness, mainly because 

 of the jealousy and exclusiveness of the Tibetan 

 authorities, within whose territory much of the 

 loftiest region of the Himalayas falls. These 

 transverse spurs from the northern chain, termin- 

 ating in stupendous mountain knots, form deep 

 valleys on either side in the space between the two 

 chains. These deep valleys, fringed with over- 

 hanging glaciers, are the cradles of the great rivers 

 of northern India. Here are the sources of the 

 Ganges and the Indus and the Brahmaputra, and 



of hundreds of rivers and streams whose waters 

 eventually reach the ocean through the mouths of 

 these three great channels. The rivers of the 

 Himalayas mostly make their way through the 

 mountains at the bottom of wild and narrow 

 gorges, often several thousands of feet deep, the 

 path through the various chains being mostly at 

 right angles to the strike of the ridge. The in- 

 clination of the rivers is, however, nowhere veiy 

 steep, except along one line : about ten mile* 

 south of the chain of great peaks the rivers descend 

 about 5000 feet in the course of a few miles. 



This indicates that the whole region must at one 

 time have been bodily upheaved, and before the 

 period of upheaval there existed here a natural ridge 

 or fold of the earth. Geologists indeed believe that 

 the entire site of the Himalayan system, taken in 

 its widest extent, in which it embraces the whole 

 of the Tibetan plateau as far as the outer Kuen- 

 Lun Mountains, was in distant geologic ages the 

 bed of a vast sea or ocean. The mountains are 

 believed to be the result of the action of mechanical 

 forces, such as horizontal compression and tension, 

 combined with lateral stress and strain, operating 

 upon the cooling crust of the earth in a region 

 where, owing to the recent evaporation of the 

 ocean, it was softest and most pliable, and there- 

 fore offered least resistance. The rocks of this 

 part of the system are principally crystalline gneiss 

 and mica schist, with veins and zones of granite 

 intruding. The snowy region of the Himalayas is 

 plentifully studded with glaciers, some of them 

 of great extent : one has been surveyed in the 

 western part of the system 36 miles in length. In 

 the same region they descend to 11,000 and 12,000 

 feet, in the eastern part of the system not lower 

 than 13,000 and 14,000 feet ; and on the Tibetan 

 side they are seldom found to come lower than 

 15,000 and 16,000 feet. This difference is partly 

 due to the difference between the angles of de- 

 clivity on the north and on the south sides of the 

 chief ranges, partly also to differences in climatic 

 conditions, the principal being the heavier snowfall 

 and the greater rainfall which take place on the 

 south, and the greater dryness of the atmosphere 

 on the Tibetan plateau. Conformably with these 

 facts, the snow-line ranges higher on the Tibetan 

 side than on the Indian : whereas, on the water- 

 shed chain, it seldom descends lower than 18,000 

 feet, and on the tableland remains at 20,000, on 

 the southern faces of the mountains it runs at 

 15,000 or 16,000 feet. The watershed chain has 

 been little explored ; it lies chiefly within Tibetan 

 territory. The only exception to the former state- 

 ment occurs on the west, where the Mustagh 

 range, which is crossed by the pass of Karakoram 

 (18,350), towers above the mountain valley of 

 Kashmir, forming its northern wall, as the Pir- 

 panjal, a range of the outer Himalaya division 

 rising to 14,000 or 15,000 feet, shuts it in on the 

 south. This watershed chain forms an almost 

 continuous line of peaks, its crest being probably 

 over 18,000 feet in elevation. So far as is known, 

 it is only broken by one pass of less altitude than 

 16,000 feet, namely the Dras pass leading from 

 Kashmir, which is 11,300 feet above sea-level. The 

 Niti Pass (16,676), south-east of Ladak, connects 

 the best roads from India and from East Turkestan. 



The Himalayas possess few lakes. In the east, 

 north of Sikkim, are Yamdok-cho or Palti, 45 

 miles in circumference, with an island, 2000 to 

 3000 feet high, in the centre ; and Chomto-dong, 

 20 miles long by 16 broad, at an altitude of 14,700 

 feet. More to the west lie the holy Tibetan lakes 

 of Manasarowar and Rakas Tal, which give birth 

 to the river Sutlej. Besides these there are Naini- 

 tal in Kumaon and the Lake of Kashmir. In 

 nearly all parts of the Himalayas metallic ores 



