PHYSICAL FEATURES. 15 



teristic for the greater part of Central Asia. It is bounded on the 

 south by the great ranges of the Himalayas, and in particular by the 

 range of sedimentary rocks which forms the watershed between the 

 upper drainage of the Sutlej and the Ganges. The strike of these 

 ranges coincides generally with the direction of the great flexures 

 of the Himalayas, namely, from south-east to north-west. 



In PI. 12 I have given a view of the Hundes plain as seen from 

 near Dongpu nearly in the centre of the valley. As will be observed, 

 the Hundes province is not, properly speaking, a plateau ; in fact 

 the enclosing rim, which consists of the Himalayan ranges and the 

 " Kailas" chain, rather defines it as a basin highly elevated above the 

 surrounding parts of Central Asia. When travelling northwards 

 from India to Tibet, through the deep valleys and over the great 

 passes of the Himalayas, the eye becomes so accustomed to stupen- 

 dous mountain masses, and a seemingly interminable succession of 

 ranges and steep cliffs, that when finally reaching the last crest of 

 the watershed, the view over the Hundes basin, which meets the eye, 

 fairly takes one by surprise. At one's feet stretches, as far as the 

 eye can see, an apparently level expanse of country, a level in which 

 at that distance all lower ridges and inequalities seem to disappear. 

 All of it is more or less of a brownish green colour — bare patches of 

 gravelly soil with streaks of bright green pasturage. Not a soul, nor 

 living creature apparently inhabits this immense waste, only rarely 

 and at great intervals one may detect a solitary black tent belonging 

 to a party of nomadic shepherds, whose flocks may be grazing in the 

 sheltered depressions of this great expanse, where better pasturage is 

 possibly found. Or a wild kyang (Equus hemionus Pallas) may be 

 seen careering across the plain, or standing and intently watching 

 travellers from a distance. No town or village anywhere ; such settle- 

 ments as there are, are always found below the level of the plain, near 

 the rivers, which have eroded their deep gorges through the horizontal 

 post-tertiary deposits of Hundes. And beyond this great expanse of 

 more or less level country may be seen the serrated range of snowy 

 mountains, which frame in the view ; to the north the great chain of 



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