Schlagintweit's Geographical Configurations, etc. L 



[It is now probable tbat the Government will be soon able to resut 

 these and other important scientific labors, as soon as the discharge 

 the officers before engaged on them from active military service sh 

 render it possible to go'' forward again with peaceful labors. It is a c 

 curastance of happy augury for science that during the progress of t 

 present war, the Government has found on numerous occasions t 

 value of its labors in science, equally in the data before recorded and 

 the personal services of those whose experience in the various depa 

 ments of scientific training in the Government service has enabled th( 

 to serve their country with an intelligible efficiency not otherwise atta 

 able. Hereafter we have a right to expect less unwillingness on the pi 

 of Congress to the measures involving expenditures for scientific purpos 

 If it were needful it would not be difficult to unite the plea of science 

 public consideration as demonstrated by the campaign experiences of t 

 last fifteen months.] 



Art. XIL—IL andJR. de ScJdavginiweit on iJie Geographical Con- 

 figuralions of India and High Asia.* 



Plateaux, in consequence of their being more or less inter- 

 sected by deep and broad valleys, or from being covered with 

 "dges, are so variable in their form, that the use of the name, in 

 niany instances, appears to be somewhat arbitrary. We prefer 

 not to extend the meaning of the name too far, and in so domg 

 Qiverge from the practice of earlier travelers, who commonly 

 applied the term to every mountainous region of great general 

 e'-^vrtions-as the natives of the Himalaya have a tendency to 

 '•"-'"'■''^pectiveof its form. 



' '^"i there are many plateaux, which, for the most part, 



^ Dukhan, Maiss^r, and Malva ; they are well defined, 



' '^v elevation, and very limited in extent as compared 



-ose of the Andes or Turkistan. Among the most im- 



". ■ ^n are Mahabak'shvar (4,500 ft.), Amarkantak (3,590), and 



^^^aikonda (3,070 ft). ,. . 



,ln the Himalaya which is composed in almost every direction 



"■ ' ^r:y and irregular ridges, and intersected by numerous valleys 



■'-■nMderabfe width, no plateau of any extenthas been discov- 



^ ^et, nor is it at all probable, that one exists 



' n Tibet was for a long time supposed to be little else than 



^y of plateaux— an erroneous impression emanating from 



^t observers, though Humboldt, with his usual sagacity, 



'^^'-^ early pointed out the error of this belief. Plateaux certainly 



* Extracted from the Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia by 



