TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 577 
to be a good geographer, something should be known of geology and its kindred 
sciences. This will be my excuse if in this address I dip somewhat below the 
surface, and, as some may think, introduce too much geology into this section. The 
basis, however, of this branch of knowledge is geography, and this the Royal 
Geographical Society and the British Association in this particular section “do 
all they can to foster. There is no gainsaying the fact that very many of our ablest 
men of science, the ablest naturalists and geologists this country has produced (and 
it has taken a leading part in geology), have commenced their careers in con- 
nection with geographical exploration. Darwin's earlier studies were prosecuted 
whilst he was attached to marine surveys in other parts of the world ; through the 
same school passed Huxley and Edward Forbes. There was no better example of an 
able geographer and geologist than Sir Roderick Murchison, who for years took a 
leading part at these meetings. The list might be largely extended—Sir Joseph 
Hooker, Wallace, Wyville Thomson, Moseley, &c. That most seductive of all 
studies, the geographical distribution of species, is intimately connected with 
geographical exploration. Just as the navy owes much of its efficiency to our 
coasting and mercantile marine and to our hardy fishermen, so have geography and 
other sciences been strengthened by the labours of those practical and scientific men 
who have been engaged in marine or territorial surveys. 
The Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world, have excited the interest of 
many travellers and many geographers; very much has been written about them, 
some from personal knowledge, and a good deal on second-hand information. Much 
confusion has resulted from the features of the north-western area being so 
dissimilar in composition to those of the rest, or eastern part, of the chain, and the 
limitation placed on the breadth and extent of the whole as a mountain mass. 
There has been a tendency to apply the term ‘ Himalaya’ in too extended a sense : 
it should, I consider, be restricted to those portions which dominate the plains 
of India, from the inhabitants of which country we have derived the name. This 
would, strictly speaking, apply only to the snowy range seen from the plains of India 
bordering upon the course of the Ganges; but we might, I think, use the term in 
an extended sense, so as to include, that which we may call the north-western 
Himalaya, north of the Panjab, and also the eastern Himalaya, bordering on Assam. 
The orography of this mountain mass has been recently ably handled by Messrs. 
Medlicott and Blanford,’ and I follow them in all their ‘main divisions and 
nomenclature, which are based upon a thorough understanding of the rocks of the 
country. Some line must be selected where the term Himalaya in its widest sense 
must cease to be used, and this certainly cannot be better defined than by the 
valley of the Indus from Attock to Bunji. On this line we find the great bending 
round or change in the strike of all the ranges. Strictly speaking, the change 
commences on the south, where the Jhelum River leaves the mountains, but this. 
line, north of Mozufferabad, continues on into the above-mentioned part of the 
Indus valley. To the mountains north of the Indus on its east and west course the 
name Himalaya should certainly never be applied. For this north-west Trans- 
Indus part of the Asian chain we have the well-known name Mustagh, so far as 
the head of the Gilgit valley; the Hindu Kush being an excellent term now in 
common use for its extension to the Afghan country. 
The observations made by many of the assistants of the Indian Geological 
Survey, more especially by Stoliczka, and more recently by Lydekker? in the 
Himalayas, combined with those made by myself in the same region, have, when 
considered in conjunction with the ascertained strike of the granitoid or gneissic 
rocks, led me to separate the great Central Asian chain into the following five 
principal divisions, with some minor subdivisions :— 
Central Asian Chain.® 
1, The main axis or Central Asian, 5. Himalaya 
Kuenlun 4. Outer or Lower Himalaya 
2. Trans-Himalaya 5. Sub-Himalaya 
1 A Manual of the Geology of India, 1879, p. 9. ? Memoirs of the Geology of India. 
* Consult Atlas sheets of the Indian Survey, 1 inch=4 miles, and latest map of 
1883. PP 
