A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



CHAPTER I 



A HIMALAYAN VALLEY 



Definition of Himalaya — Appearance of the range — District of Hazara — 

 General features of Hazara — Its valleys, hills and forests. 



It would be no easy problem to define the Himalaya, 

 the Abode of Snow. It is a mountain system composed 

 of many ranges whose terminations are unknown. 

 The southern and northern limits of the system are 

 apparent at a glance. To the south it rises direct 

 from the plains of India ; to the north it blends with 

 the lofty plateaux of Thibet and the Pamir. But 

 where would the geographer place its eastern and 

 western ends ? Thirty years ago he would have 

 marked the line of the Indus river as its furthest limit 

 to the west and that of the Brahmaputra as its 

 termination in the east, but such boundaries would 

 scarcely hold to-day. For these are mere arbitrary 

 limits that bear no true relation to the origin or 

 structure of the whole. These rivers have cut deep 

 clefts across the successive ranges ; they in no sense 

 define or limit them. The precise limits of the 

 Himalaya are unknown ; the complex system merges 

 to the west in the mountainous country north of 

 Afghanistan ; on the east it is lost in the unexplored 



