762 On the Physical Geography of the Hirndlaya. [Aug. 



I had been for several years a traveller in the Himalaya before I 

 could get rid of that tyranny of the senses which so strongly impresses 

 almost all beholders of this stupendous scenery with the conviction that 

 the mighty maze is quite without a plan. My first step towards free- 

 dom from this overpowering obtrusiveness of impressions of sense was 

 obtained by steady attention to the fact that the vast volume of the 

 Himalayan waters, flows more or less at right angles to the general 

 direction of the Himalaya, but so that the numberless streams of 

 the mountains are directed into a few grand rivers of the plains, either 

 at or near the confines of the two regions. My next step was due to 

 the singular significance of the topographic nomenclature of the Nepa- 

 lese, whose " Sapt Gandaki" and " Sapt Cousika,"* rivetted my attention 

 upon the peculiar aqueous system of the Himalayas, urging me thence 

 forward to discover, if possible, what cause operated this marked con- 

 vergence of innumerable transverse parallel streams, so as to bring them 

 into a limited series of distinct main rivers. My third and last step 

 was achieved when I discovered that the transcendant elevation and 

 forward position, at right angles to the line of ghats, of the great 

 snowy peaks, presented that causal agency I was in search of, the re- 

 motest radiating points of the feeders of each great river being coinci- 

 dent with the successive loftiest massesf belonging to the entire extent 

 of the Himalaya. It was in Nepal that this solution of these problems 

 occurred to me, and so uniformly did the numerous routes I possessed 

 represent the points of extreme divergence of the great rivers by their 

 feeders as syntopical with the highest peaks, that I should probably 

 long ago have satisfied myself upon the subject, if my then correspon- 

 dent, Capt. Herbert, had not so decidedly insisted on the very opposite 

 doctrine — to wit, that the great peaks intersect instead of bounding the 

 principal alpine river basins. 



Capt. Herbert's extensive personal conversancy with the western 

 Himalaya, added to his high professional attainments, made .me for a 

 long time diffident of my own views. But, the progress of events and 

 increasing knowledge of other parts of the chain, seeming to confirm 



* See Journal, No. 198 for Dec. 1848, p. 646, &c. 



f This expression is used advisedly, for every pre-eminent elevation of the Hima- 

 laya is not so much a peak as a cluster of peaks springing from a huge sustaining 

 and connected base. 



