INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 17 



all our great Indian possessions, it also marks out the line 

 of demarcation between these and the adjacent countries, 

 which, in regard to many important features of their 

 natural history, present a considerable disresemblance. 



Although these regions, or the greater portion of them, 

 are situated beneath a tropical sun, they yet present many 

 modifications of soil, temperature, and climate. Immense 

 plains, either richly wooded and well watered, or exhibilmg 

 a more barren and uncultivated aspect ; a great extent of 

 Beacoast intersected by large and numerous rivers, the 

 mouths of which are enriched by deltas of alluvial land ; 

 sloping hills, and upraised terrace-lands, embowered amid 

 the most gorgeous vegetation, 



•' Shade above shade, a woody theatre, 

 Of stateliest view ;" 



lofty mountains, with their " crags prerup't," separated by 

 dark ravines where the foot of man has never trod ; — and, 

 finally, the snow-covered summits of the loftiest alps, 

 piercing even above the regions of cloud and storm, and 

 contrasting magnificently their stainless and star-like peaks 

 with the deep blue ether of that crystalline sky, 



" Through which the sun walks burning without beams;"— 



these, and other diversified localities, present, as may be 

 supposed, the most apt abodes to a vast variety of species 

 in the brute creation.* 



* The following extract conveys a striking picture of the scenery of 

 the Asiatic alps:— "The dazzling brilliancy of the snow," says Capiam 

 Hodgson, " was rendered more striking by its contrast with the dark- 

 blue colour of the sky, which is caused by the thinness of the air : and 

 at night the stars shone with a lustre which they have not in a detiser 

 atmosphere ; it was curious, too, lo see them, when rising, appear like 

 tine sudden flash, as they emerged from behind the bright snowy sum- 

 mits close to us ; and their disappearance, when setting behind the peaks, 

 was as sudden as we generally observed it to be in their occultation by 

 the moon. . 



" We were surrounded by gigantic peaks, entirely cased m snow, and 

 almost beyond the regions of animal and vegetable life, and an awful 

 silence prevailed, except when broken by the thundering peals of falling 

 avalanches ; nothing met our eyes resembling the scenery in the haunts 

 of men ; by moonlight all appeared cold, wild, stupendous, and a pagan 

 mi<'ht aptly imaeine the place a fit abode for demons. We did not se« 



B 2 



