EXPLANATION OF THE MAPS. 259 



year is of importance, and therefore mapped ; whereas in Ben- 

 gal, many infinitely larger perennial rivers are of no import- 

 ance, and are omitted: the result is, that the two countries 

 being brought together on a general map, appear equally well 

 watered. We have therefore omitted in certain provinces 

 many of the small rivers which are conspicuous in ordinary 

 maps. 



The relations of the rivers to the mountain-chains appear 

 to us to be more or less inaccurate on our best maps of India : 

 thus we find all the river's on the eastern side of the peninsula 

 of Hindostan usually represented as cutting through a coast 

 range of hills called the Eastern Ghats ; the rivers of east- 

 ern Afghanistan and Beluchistan in like manner seem to cut 

 through a similar range parallel to the Indus ; and, most ex- 

 traordinary of all, the larger Himalayan rivers are made to 

 cut through a lofty crest of that range. 



The source of these errors may, we think, be traced to the 

 neglect of a very simple law of perspective ; in consequence of 

 which, masses of mountains, of whatever configuration, resolve 

 themselves into ranges perpendicular to the line of sight : 

 thus, the so-called Eastern Ghats are the terminal spurs of 

 ranges that branch off from the Peninsular chain, and which, 

 from their number and tolerably uniform elevation and sur- 

 face, form what is called the table-land of the Dekhan. The 

 imaginary Suliman range, skirting the west bank of the In- 

 dus, is in like manner formed of the terminal spurs of ranges 

 from a distant axis, which, with the rivers they enclose, de- 

 scend at right angles to the Indus. 



The Himalayan river-system is more complicated, but re- 

 ducible to the same law. The great snowy peaks, as seen 

 from the plains of India, are all thrown, by perspective, into 

 one continuous range, and were hence originally assumed to 

 indicate the axis of the Himalaya, and laid down as such in 

 maps : next came the information of the natives that aU 

 the larger rivers rise behind the snowy masses; and they 

 have consequently been represented as cutting through the 



