HIMEJ1 



3996 



HINCHINGBROOKE 



these passes, so that the goods ex- 

 changed between India and Tibet 

 are necessarily light. 



There are few lakes of any im- 

 portance throughout the system, 

 the chief being the Palti or Yam- 

 rok with a circuit of 46 m., which 

 lies N. of Sikkim. The snow -line on 

 the southern face is found at 

 16,300 ft., while on the northern 

 or Tibetan side it is 17,400 ft. 

 Some of the extensive glaciers, 

 however, descend to as low a level 

 as 11,000 ft. The principal rivers 

 taking their rise from the melting 

 snows of this gigantic rampart are 

 the Ganges, Indus, Jumna, Sutlej, 

 and Brahmaputra, besides hun- 

 dreds of minor streams. Nearly all 

 these streams carry down tremen- 

 dous loads of alluvium which have 

 served gradually to build up the 

 stoneless Indo-Gangetic plain, and 

 which now add greatly to the pro- 

 ductivity of the areas irrigated 

 from the numerous canals of the 

 Punjab and the United Provinces. 



Tropical vegetation may be 

 found up to an elevation of 3,000 

 ft., including giant rhododendrons, 

 acacias, orchids, palms, and ferns, 

 while tea and cinchona are culti- 

 vated. Oaks and chestnuts flourish 

 for another 4,000 ft., after which 

 pine, poplar, spruce, fir, birch, and 

 willow follow to the limit of the 

 tree-line, which on the Tibetan 

 slopes is about 14,000 ft., while on 

 the Indian side it is a little higher. 



Animal life is varied and abun- 

 dant. The tiger, leopard, monkey, 

 many kinds of deer, goat, bear, 

 wolf, rhinoceros, horned sheep, 

 boar, ounce, marmot, flying squir- 

 rels, wild cats, and yak are all 

 found. The birds, which include 

 many varieties of pheasants, are 

 numerous, with many of gorgeous 

 plumage. Insects are numerous 

 and troublesome. 



A healthy climate prevails in the 

 outer Himalayas, and sanatoria and 

 hill stations have been established 

 at various places. At Darjeeling, 

 at an alt. of 8,000 ft., is the Eden 

 Sanatorium for wounded soldiers. 

 At Simla, at an alt. of 7,000 ft., is 

 the summer residence of the viceroy 

 and an immense sanatorium for 

 Europeans, to which they repair 

 in the hot season. There is a mili- 

 tary cantonment at Dalhousie 

 (alt. 7,680 ft.), and a sanatorium 

 at Nairn Tal (alt. 6,500 ft.). 



The prevailing rocks are granite, 

 crystalline gneiss with mica schist, 

 with intrusions of trap. Sedimentary 

 deposits and fossil marine remains 

 have been found at an alt. of over 

 20,000 ft. The Siwalik Hills may 

 be a later uplift, while parts of the 

 system W. of Ass*am are deemed 

 to have been repeatedly sub- 

 merged and thrown up again. 



The Himalayas are the eastern 

 end of a great series of folded 

 mountains, uplifted in Tertiary 

 times, which terminates in Spain on 

 the W., and forms the backbone of 

 Eurasia. When the ancient con- 

 tinent of Gondwanaland broke up 

 towards the end of the Cretaceous 

 period, great volcanic activity oc- 

 curred in the Deccan, the sole 

 Asiatic relic of Gondwanaland, and 

 a great crumpling of the earth's 

 crust slowly produced the Hima- 

 layas, and upraised the great 

 plateau of Central Asia. 



Among recent explorers who 

 have essayed the task of scaling 

 these peaks may be mentioned the 

 brothers Schlagintweit, Godwin - 

 Austen, Graham, Waugh, Sir Wil- 

 liam Conway, Douglas Freshfield, 

 and Mr. and Mrs. Bullock Work- 

 man. Graham, in 1883, reached an 

 alt. of 23,700 ft. on Mt, Kabru, 

 while Mr. and Mrs. Workman at- 

 tained 23,394 ft. on one of the 

 Karakorams in 1903. See Dar- 

 jeeling ; Everest. 



Bibliography. Climbing and Ex- 

 ploration in the Karakoram, Sir 

 William Conway, 1894; In the Ice- 

 World of Himalaya, F. B. Work- 

 man, 1900; Round Kangchenjunga, 

 D. Freshfield, 1903; Twenty Years 

 in the Himalaya, C. G. Bruce, 1910. 



Hixneji. Harbour of Honshu, 

 Japan, capital of the prov. of 

 Harima. It stands at the junction 

 of three important highways, 34 

 m. by rly. N.W. of Kobe. The 14th 

 century " Heron Castle," still in a 

 good state of preservation, is used 

 by the garrison troops. The town 

 contains the headquarters of a line 

 of steamers engaged in the coasting 

 and Inland Sea trade. Himeji is 

 noted for its stamped leather work 

 and manufactures cotton goods. 

 Pop. 38,800. 



Himera. Greek city of ancient 

 Sicily. It is situated on the N. 

 coast at the mouth of the river of 

 the same name. Here a great 

 Carthaginian army was completely 

 defeated by the Sicilian Greeks 

 under Gelon and Theron in 480 

 B.C. on the day of the great Greek 

 naval victory over the Persians at 

 Salamis. In 409 the city was 

 destroyed by the Carthaginian 

 general, Hannibal, son of Gisgo. 



Himyar (Semitic, red people). 

 Ancient people in S.W. Arabia. 

 Wresting the S. Arabian hegemony 

 from the Sabaeans about 100 B.C., 

 they established a dynasty under 

 which they influenced for several 

 centuries the Abyssinian kingdom 

 of Aksum, until the Mahomedan 

 conquest. The culture and speech 

 of the sedentary Semites of Yemen, 

 formerly called" Himyaritic, is now 

 called generically S. Arabian, and 

 specifically Himyarite, Minaean, 

 and Sabaean. 



Hinayana (Skt., little vehicle). 

 Term employed by some modern 

 Oriental scholars to denote primi- 

 tive Buddhism. It serves to dis- 

 tinguish the early doctrinal system, 

 with its arid ethics, agnosticism, 

 and hard asceticism, from the more 

 tolerant Mahay ana (great vehicle) 

 of later Indian Buddhism, with its 

 humaner elements, speculative 

 theism, and ritual attractions. 

 Used by some early Sanskrit writers 

 as a term of abuse, it is rarely 

 found in modern India. Its equiva- 

 lent is sometimes applied, in 

 China and Japan, to elements de- 

 rived from the earliest missionary 

 teaching, which was based upon 

 the Pali rather than on the San- 

 skrit texts. 



The word is traced back to the 

 Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien, who 

 travelled in the Buddha cradleland 

 early in the 5th century. In that 

 age a Hinayanist was regarded as a 

 member of one of the primitive 

 schools of Buddhist thought. Of 

 these there were commonly said to 

 be 18, but there were actually more, 

 although three or four only were at 

 any time of wide influence. These 

 schools were not sects but modes of 

 thought, comparable with the 

 broad and high forms of modern 

 Anglicanism. "They arose between 

 the councils of Vaisali and Patali- 

 putra, 400-250 B.C., and as late as 

 the 7th century A.D. the Chinese 

 pilgrim Yuan Chwang estimated 

 that, of the 200,000 monks then in 

 India, at least two-thirds adhered 

 to the primitive schools. It is on 

 their foundation that the Bud- 

 dhism of Ceylon, Burma, and Si am 

 arose, although these areas did not 

 remain untouched by Mahayana 

 influences. These, with their wor- 

 ship of Bodhisattvas, or potential 

 Buddhas, and their incorporation 

 of local animistic beliefs, found a 

 sympathetic home in China, Tibet, 

 and Japan. See Buddhism. 



Hinchinbrook. Island off the 

 coast of N.E. Queensland, Aus- 

 tralia. S. of Rockingham Bay, it 

 is separated from the shore of 

 Cardwell co. by a narrow channel, 

 and its S. point faces the headland 

 of Dungeness. The island contains 

 Mt. Hinchinbrook. 



Hinching'brooke. Village of 

 Huntingdonshire, just outside the 

 town of Huntingdon. It is famous 

 because here is Hinchingbrooke 

 House, once the residence of the 

 Cromwell family. It was given to 

 them after the dissolution of the 

 monasteries, and here one of them 

 built a fine mansion in which Eliza- 

 beth and later James I were enter- 

 tained. The Cromwells kept the 

 estate until 1627, and the house is 

 now the property of the earl of 

 Sandwich. 



