66 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



south latitude, to the general system of mountains and 

 the configuration of the earth's surface in Central Asia. 

 They form a kind of continuation to the great rampart-like 

 mountain elevations of the Ghauts and the more northern 

 chain of Bolor, to which correspond in the trans- Gangetic 

 Peninsula the North and South Chains which are intersected 

 near the great bend of the Thibetian Tzang-bo Kiver by 

 several transverse mountain systems running east and 

 west. In this eastern peninsula are situated the chains of 

 Cochin China, Siam, and Malacca which are parallel with 

 each other, as well as those of Ava and Arracan which 

 all, after courses of unequal length, terminate in the Gulfs 

 or Bays of Siam, Martaban, and Bengal. The Bay of 

 Bengal appears like an arrested attempt of nature to form 

 an inland sea. A deep invasion of the ocean, between the 

 simple western system of the Ghauts, and the eastern very 

 complex trans-Gangetic system of mountains, has swallowed 

 up a large portion of the low lands on the eastern side, but 

 met with an obstacle more difficult to overcome in the 

 existence of the extensive high plateau of Mysore. 



Such an invasion of the ocean has occasioned two almost 

 pyramidal peninsulas of very different dimensions, and 

 differently proportioned in breadth and length; and the 

 continuations of two mountain systems (both running in the 

 direction of the meridian, i. e., the mountain system of 

 Malacca on the east, and the Ghauts of Malabar on the 

 west), shew themselves in submarine chains of mountains 

 or symmetrical series of islands, on the one side in the 

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are very poor 



