677 



ASIA. 



ASIA. 



679 



the moisture of Hindustan, retain it in enow and ice, and that these 

 far from being the real axis are very distant from it." These diiferent 

 hints are important accessions towards a more perfect knowledge of 

 the system. The following observations of the brothers Strachey on 

 the British Himalayan provinces of Kumaon and Gurwal are partly 

 applicable to the structure and character of the other parts of the 

 mountains. Along the whole of the southern face of the Himalaya, 

 from the debouch* of the Indus to that of the Brahmaputra, extends 

 a vast unbroken plain, which is prolonged southward to the Bay of 

 Bengal near Calcutta on the one hand, while on the other it follows 

 the Indus through the Panjab and Scinde to the Arabian Sea, covering 

 in all an area of nearly 500,000 square miles. The highest portion of 

 this plainjs that between the rivers Sutlej and Jumna, and its elevation 

 along theVoot of the mountains is there probably about 1200 feet 

 above the sea. The transition from the plains to the mountains is 

 sudden and well-defined. A line of hills that has been called the 

 Siwalik, or Sub-Himalayan range, rises abruptly and without any inter- 

 mediate undulating ground from the apparently perfectly level surface 

 of thfc flat country. Their elevation varies from a few hundred to 

 3000 or 4000 feet. These hills seem to have, with hardly any excep- 

 tion, a. well-defined existence along the whole of the southern edge of 

 the Himalaya, presenting much the same general features along the 

 entire line of mountains. Between this range of hills and the general 

 mass of mountains are found a number of ' duns,' or flat valleys, the 

 floors of which generally appear to be covered with a deposit of boulders 

 and gravel, and reach an elevation of about 2500 feet above the sea. 

 The great mountain region parallel to the outer hills, but from five to 

 ten miles farther in, rises somewhat suddenly to an average elevation 

 of perhaps 7000 feet, and extends to the north over a breadth of 

 upwards of 500 miles. At a distance of 60 or 70 miles from the outer 

 range the mountains again rise rather abruptly, and form that won- 

 derful range of snowy mountains which surpasses in its elevation all 

 other parts of the earth's surface now known to us. The loftiest peaks 

 are generally met with 80 or 90 miles from the southern edge of the 

 chain, and their height mostly exceeds 20,000 feet, and reaches in the 

 eastern Himalaya 28,000 feet and upwards. The great peaks are not 

 found on a continuous ridge, but are grouped together in masses that 

 are separated one from the other by deep depressions, through which 

 flow the streams that drain those parts of the mountains which are 

 immediately contiguous. To the north the valleys that traverse the 

 mountains between the snowy ranges and the plains are for the most 

 part little more than gigantic ravines, at the bottom of which flows 

 the river each contains in a very contracted channel, which at intervals 

 only opens out into an alluvial flat capable of cultivation. The level 

 of the bottom of these valleys is of course very various, but in tracing 

 up the courses of the larger streams we usually arrive within 10 miles 

 in a direct line from the snowy peak*, without having risen to more 

 than 4000 or 5000 feet. In proceeding, however, we find that where 

 we cross the line on which the great peaks are situated the ascent 

 very rapidly increases, and a very few miles carries the river-bed up 

 to an altitude of 9000 or 10,000 feet : thus showing that the sudden 

 increase of height of the mountains along this line is not confined to 

 the peaks alone, but is a general elevation of the whole surface. As 

 we pass to the north from the line of greatest elevation the dimi- 

 nution of the altitude of the ridge is not much, while the level of the 

 bottom of the valleys is constantly increasing in height ; it is therefore 

 not improbable that the mean height of the whole may actually increase 

 as we recede from the great peaks until we reach the watershed of the 

 rtreams that flow to the south, which is found at about 25 miles to 

 the north of those peaks. In passing through the most elevated 

 portions of the mountains the traveller, who naturally expects to see 

 scenes of surprising magnificence amid these gigantic snow-clad pin- 

 nacles, is too often doomed to be disappointed ; for in his painful 

 progress along the narrow gorges that traverse these regions he can 

 but seldom see anything beyond the rocks that frown immediately 

 over his head. Exceptions however there are though few to this 

 rule, and we are sometimes able to snatch from the summits of the 

 higher passes, in the rare intervals during which they are not shrouded 

 in mist, views of stupendous and chaotic masses of mountains that fill 

 the mind with astonishment and awe. Nor is the scene that presents 

 itself when we at length reach the watershed less remarkable. After 

 weeks have been spent in traversing mountain after mountain of the 

 seeming interminable succession of which the eye begins to tire, while 

 the incessant roar of the torrents that rush by begins to weary the 

 ear, we are here suddenly arrested by seeing spread out before us a 

 plain that without sign of water, of vegetation, or of animal life 

 stretches away as far as the eye can reach in a north-westerly direc- 

 tion ; behind which rise mountains that gradually fade away in the 

 distance, with here and there only a peak lightly tipped with snow. 

 This in fact is the very plain which was seen by some of the earliest 

 missionary travellers in Tibet, and the account of whose existence 

 gave rise to the idea that the whole country was a vast plain of 

 immense altitude. When it became apparent, as it ultimately did 

 from the accounts of subsequent travellers, that a great part of Tibet 

 was a confused mass of mountain, doubts were thrown on the exist- 

 ence of any plain at all, and it has become necessary, so to speak, to 

 re-discover this very remarkable feature of these mountains. The plain 

 immediately to the north of the British Himalayan provinces is about 

 oioo. Div. vol.. i. 



120 miles in length and 50 to 60 miles in extreme breadth. The 

 mountains that bound it to the north, as already noticed, hardly 

 appear to be what we should call snowy, and they are by no means 

 so high as the ranges of the Himalaya on its southern edge. The 

 height of the celebrated peak Kailtis has been determined by purely 

 trigonometrical operations to be not quite 22,000 feet, while another 

 peak more to the west, one of the few that just entered the region of 

 perpetual snow, was similarly found to be little above 20,500 feet. 



The surface of the plain itself varies in elevation from above 16,000 

 feet along its southern edge to about 15,000 feet in its more central 

 parts, where it is cut through by the river Sutlej, which flows at the 

 bottom of a stupendous ravine hollowed out of the alluvial matter of 

 which the plain is composed to a depth not much less than 3000 

 feet. 



Siwalik i 

 ston 



hills and the line of greatest elevation is made up of every variety of 

 metamorphic rock, amongst which several lines of eruptive action are 

 met with, all following more or less the general line of the strike. 

 Two lines of granite are thus found to traverse this portion of the 

 mountains, the more northern of which is coincident with the line of 

 the greatest elevation, but the actual quantity of granite is on the 

 whole small. Immediately following the crystalline schists that 

 accompany the northern line of granite, we find a considerable 

 thickness of slaty beds, both argillaceous and calcareous, on which 

 rest strata that are certainly of Silurian age, to judge from the fossils 

 that were obtained by Captain R. Strachey from those beds of 19,000 

 and 20,000 feet in height. Surrounding the palaeozoic strata, beds of 

 MuichtUcalk and oolite are met with, the latter following on the whole 

 the waterparting of the streams that rise to the north of the great 

 snowy peaks, attaining an elevation which exceeds 19,000 feet above 

 the sea. But probably the most remarkable feature of the geological 

 structure of these mountains is found when reaching the table-laud of 

 Tibet. In this district they consist of a tertiary deposit of boulders and 

 gravel, which has attained its present wonderful elevation, above 15,000 

 feet, without any sensible disturbance of the horizontality of the beds in 

 which it was originally laid out. Bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, 

 and other ruminants are found imbedded in these strata. From a 

 consideration of various facts it appears probable that this plain has 

 been raised from the level of the sea to its present great elevation 

 since the tertiary epoch, and almost as a necessary consequence it will 

 follow that the present development of the Himalaya and of the 

 elevated regions of Tibet dates no farther back than that period. 



Of all the phenomena presented to the observer of nature in these 

 magnificent mountains, none can compare in grandeur with that 

 constantly before his eyes in the peaks covered with perpetual snow. 

 On the southern face of the mountains in Kumaon and Gurwal 

 Captains Strachey consider the elevation of the snow-line to be about 

 15,500 feet. When however we pass to the north of the great peaks 

 and stand on the plain beyond them, it is not without surprise that we 

 observe that in spite of our having advanced far to the north, the 

 snow-line has receded very considerably, so as to reach 19.000 feet, or 

 even 20,000 feet of elevation : this fact is explained by the small quantity 

 of snow that falls to the north of the great Himalayan peaks as 

 compared with that which falls to the south. The fact that glaciers 

 abound in all parts of the mountains covered by perpetual snow has 

 only recently been discovered by the brothers Strachey. The lowest 

 level to which any glacier has been observed to descend is about 

 1 1,500 feet, and from that height to 1 2,000 feet is the ordinary elevation 

 of their extremities. To the north of the great peaks however, where 

 the snow-line is considerably higher, the lower extremities of the 

 glaciers recede in a somewhat corresponding degree, the altitude at 

 which they terminate being usually increased to about 16,000 feet. 



The vegetation of the Himalaya is corresponding to its different 

 elevation. In approaching it from the plains of northern India a 

 change in the physical condition of the country is forced upon our 

 attention long before we reach the first ranges of hills. A belt of 

 forest skirting the foot of the mountains for a breadth of 10 or 15 

 miles succeeds to the perfectly open and highly cultivated districts to 

 the south. This forest is of strictly tropical character, and the 

 tropical character prevails as we ascend the exterior face of the 

 mountains to a height of 4000 feet. Far different is it when we 

 follow the same zone of elevation into the interior of the mountains 

 along the courses "of the larger rivers, which, owing to the great depth 

 of the valleys in which they flow, carry a tropical flora into the heart 

 of the mountains. Above 4 000 feet oaks and rhododendrons gradually 

 increase in number, and these trees, with andromeda, form the great 

 mass of the forest from 6000 to 8000 feet. Deciduous trees of the 

 temperate zone, with the addition of other pines, prevail in the upper 

 regions of forest, that is from 8000 to 11,500 feet. This is succeeded 

 by a more open tract, where the trees are replaced by shrubs. At an 

 elevation of between 17,000 and 18,000 feet vegetable life finally 

 ceases on the mountains to the north of the great snowy peaks, though 

 farther to the north, according to Captain Henry Strachey, it appears 

 to reach to 19,000 feet. The cultivation of wheat and barley is 

 extended with success to a hsight of 11,500 feet in the valleys that lie 

 between the great snowy peaks and the waterparting behind them. 



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