116 FORESTRY IN BRITISH EAST INDIA. 



extremity of India at Cape Comorin. A section drawn from 

 the Thibetan plateau in a south-westerly direction until it reaches 

 the Indian Ocean at Travancore, would present the shape given 

 in fig. 2, except that the elevations have been greatly exaggerated. 



Fig. 3 gives an idea of the proportionate extent of each of the 

 regions. 



The river system of India next claims attention. It is a 

 curious fact that India receives the drainage of both slopes 



a' ~ Thibetan plateau, mean height about 14,000 feet. 



b. = Himalayas, maximum height 29,000 feet. 



c. = Indo-Gangetic plain, height a few hundred feet above the sea. 



d. = Peninsula, height varying from 2,000 to 8,000 feet. 



e. = The sea. 



* = Points where the clouds coming from the sea must rise, cool, and drop 

 their moisture. 



of the Himalayas. At the back of that mountain chain three 

 rivers take their rise in fairly close proximity to each other ; 

 one, the Sutlej, immediately breaks through the Himalayan chain 

 and descends into the Punjab ; the other two run parallel to the 

 Himalayas, the one in a north-westerly and the other in an easterly 

 direction. The former breaks, after some time, through the 

 Himalayas and emerges into the Punjab plain as the River Indus, 

 finding its way, through Sind, into the Arabian Sea. The latter 

 of the two rivers, after running for hundreds of miles to the north 

 of the Himalayas, also breaks through that mountain chain and 

 appears in Upper Assam as the Bramaputra ; it then proceeds 



