60 



INDIA. 



Semitic*. 



Mjor 

 Mei.nclL 



ilarics were constantly fluctuating ; nor were they per- 

 manently fixed, till the capital having been taken in 

 Iti.U. the whole of the province was annexed to the 

 Me > _MI I empire. 



N.itw -ithstmdingthe conquests and settlements of the 

 Portuguese in India, yet as they were almost entirely 

 confined to the sea coast, they did not much increase 

 the geographical knowledge possessed by Europeans 

 BMfMeting this country. Indeed, till the conquests of 

 the English, during the middle and latter end of the 

 IMh century, litlle was accurately known respecting 

 the interior of Hindostan. In 1788, Major Hennell 

 published the first edition of his Mi-moir of a Map of 

 Hindostan ; in this work, with wonderful research and 

 information, though not always with the most perspi- 

 cuous or satisfactory arrangement, he has thrown great 

 light on the geography of this country ; and except 

 with regard to those districts whiph at that time had 

 been little, if at all explored by the English, he left 

 scarcely any point uliinvestigated. In the subsequent 

 editions of his Memoir, as well as in the Oriental Re- 

 pertory of Dalrymple, the Asiatic Researches, the va- 

 luable Travis of Dr Francis Buchanan, and other au- 

 thors, the geography of Hindostan has received such 

 ample and minute investigation, as to leave very few 

 parts of that extensive country unexnmined. 



CHAP. II. 



Face qftfic Country, Mountains, Plains, Deserts, 

 Rivers, Lakes, Canals, Si a Coast. 



Fceofthe THE general description of the face of the country 

 country. m a y be given in a few words. In Hindostan Proper, 

 it is for the most part champagne, with occasional hills 

 of no great elevation. In the Decan and the south of 

 India, it is flat near the sea coast on both sides, and 

 mountainous in the interior. But it may be satisfac- 

 tory to give a more regular and minute description of 

 the face of the country. If we enter Hindostan at the 

 north-west corner into Lahore, the face of the country 

 is hilly, till we reach the southern extremity of this 

 province, where the Punjab commences ; passing thence 

 to Multan, we again meet with hills in its northern ex- 

 tremity. The face of the country in Ajtneer is nearly 

 the same, but when we pass to the south west into Gu- 

 zerat, the surface is very flat ; on the contrary, if we 

 pass into the south or south-east, into Malwah, we en- 

 ter a very elevated region, one of the most elevated, 

 indeed, in Hindostan, as the rivers flow from it in 

 every direction. If from the province of Lahore we 

 change our route, and enter Delhi, we find the face of 

 the country very flat ; indeed, Delhi, Oude, and Ben- 

 gal, are the most flat provinces in Hindostan. The 

 surface of Orissa, also north of the river Chumbul, is 

 flat, but to the south of that river, as well as in the 

 north-west, it is hilly. Proceeding to the south, the 

 first lofty land we meet with in Hindostan Proper, is 

 in the Bundelcund district of the province of Allahabad, 

 in the south-west. The southern part of Bal.ar is also 

 hilly, while the northern division of this province, be- 

 yond the Ganges, partakes of the flat character of Ben- 

 gal and Oude. On the east side of the Decan, before 

 we arrive at the Ghauts, there is a mountainous ridge, 

 extending from the Godavery to the Mahanuddy : pro- 

 ceeding across the country in a direction nearly due 

 west from this ridge, we enter the province of Berar, 

 the surface of which is for the most part elevated and 



hilly ; the same character applies to the province of Statistics. 



Gundwana, Khandeish, Hyderabad, Orissa, and the "^v ' 



Northern Circars. The south of India consists of table 



land, or rather an elevated surface considVrably broken 



in the centre, and remarkable for many precipitous 



rocks, the natural strength of which has been greatly 



augmented by the erection of fortresses on them ; the 



Ghauts on the east and west of this table land, and a 



flat country between both the chains of Ghauts and the 



sea. In the province of Malabar, however, there is a 



chain of low hills, separated from one another, and 



from the Ghauts, by narrow vallies ; in some places 



these hills rise to the sea coast, but in other parts there 



is between them and the sea a flat tract, seldom above 



three miles wide, and in general not so milch ; near 



the low hills these plains are the most level. 



On the north, Hindostan, in the largest acceptation Mountains. 

 of the word, is bounded by the Himalaya mountains. 

 These are now known to be superior in elevation to 

 the mountains in South America ; their height above 

 the plains of Rohilcund being about 27,000 feet: 

 branches spread from them to the south, as far as the 

 borders of Bengal, Oude, and Delhi. The last pro- 

 vince is also separated from Northern Hindostan by the 

 Seevalic or Kemaoon mountains, which are low com- 

 pared with those of Himalaya ; the principal pass into 

 these mountains from the province of Delhi, is called 

 the Lottdony Pass. The Vendhya mountains, among 

 which lies the Arcadia of India, pass through Bahar, 

 Benares, Allahabad and Malwah, along the north side 

 of the Nerbuddah, nearly to the western coast : to the 

 south of these is a less elevated chain, called the Ta- 

 hya hills. The Ghauts, however, are the most re- Ghauts 

 markable mountains in India. They are divided into 

 the Eastern and Western ; the latter, which are called 

 Sukhien Purbut, or hills of Sukhien, stretch from Cape 

 Comorin to tlie Tuptee river near Surat, in a line nearly 

 parallel with the sea coast ; their general distance from 

 it is 40 miles ; in some places 70, and in one part on- 

 ly 6 miles. At the Tuptee, their direction is suddenly 

 changed from north, with a little inclination to the 

 west, to east, running nearly parallel with that river. 

 These Ghauts run through 13 degrees of latitude, be- 

 ing nearly unbroken the whole of their course, except 

 opposite to Paniany: here there is a valley which ex- 

 tends 14 or 15 miles between the termination of the 

 northern Ghauts and the commencement of the south- 

 ern Ghauts ; through this valley the river Paniany 

 flows from the Coimbetoor province. In that part of 

 the western Ghauts which runs parallel to the Tuptee, 

 there are several passes from which there is a descent 

 into the province of Khandeish. There are also some 

 passes from the Concan district of the provinces of Be- 

 japoor through the Ghauts; the principal of which 

 are the Ambah-Ghaut and the Tourna-Ghaut, (for the 

 word Ghaut properly signifies a port or pass.) The 

 mountains near the Ambah-Ghaut rise to a very great 

 height ; the pass at Tourna is much more rugged and 

 steep than that of Ambah ; and in the middle of it 

 there is a plain of some extent. The principal pass 

 from the Mysore country through the Western Ghaut 

 is Bergeley Ghaut, which leads into the maritime pro- 

 vince of Canara. As this pass is much frequented for 

 the purpose of conveying grain by means of oxen to 

 the sea-coast, and bringing back salt, the road has 

 been formed with great labour ; notwithstanding 

 which, the strength and rapidity of the torrents are 

 such, as frequently to wash away all the smaller and 

 softer parts, and to leave single rocks four or five feet 



