THE ETHNOLOGY OF SOUTH EASTERN ASIA. 



17 



Saluen, Mekong and Yang-tse-kiang, with the included or secon- 

 dary basins of the Menam, Song*ka and Hon^-kiarig. The 

 principal rivers either, as in the South-west or Ultraindian division, 

 by direct courses, or, as in the East or Chinese division, by very 

 wandering courses, carry us up to a country on the west of the 

 monosyllabic region in which they all approach each oftfer. If 

 we take the head of the Yang-tse-kiang as the centre or apex of 

 this Jam?, of origin or upper river region, we see that the region 

 in question in nearly a quadrant of a circle with a radius of about 

 20* of lat. and with the coast, from Mergui (12? N.) to the head 

 of the Yellow Sea, agreeing; roughly with its arc. The northern 

 boundary both p/ the Burmah-Chiuese region and of the land of 

 origin of its rivers, is well defined by the long mountain range 

 which begins in the Nan-shan in Tangut, the southern extremity 

 of Mongolia, and extends to the head of the Gulf of Leatong, 

 »e para ting it from Mongolia and Tangusia. The southern boun- 

 dary of the land of origin is formed by the Himalaya, and it is lo 

 the circumstance of this vast longitudinal range being interrupted 

 on die S. E. confines of Tibet by the transverse system that forms 

 the Ultraindian peninsulas, that the divergence of the eastern 

 rivers is owing. This transverse system begins further north in 

 the great Chinese meridional system consisting of the Yun-Iing 

 and the allied northern ranges, by which the Hoang-ho is forced 

 far north to the Shan Gajar or boundary ran^c, and the Yang-tse- 

 kiang south to the borders of Yun-nan. In the narrow space 

 between the eastern extremity of the Himalaya and the southern 

 extremity of the Yun-ling, the valleys of the Zangbo, Saluen, 

 Me-kong and Yanj|-tse-kiang are compressed. From this 

 point the Yang-tse-kiang becomes involved in the longitudinal 

 ranges that reappear on the eastward, and is forced by them 

 towards the Yellow Sea. The whole lower region, or that beyond 

 the place of convergence, presents two well marked divisions. The 

 eastern, or Chinese, consisting of the basins of the Hoang-ho and 

 Yang-tse-kiang, to the eastward of the Yon-ling range and its 

 northern branches ; and the southern or Ultraindian, consisting of 

 the basins of the other principal rivers, and having the Assam chain 

 as their landward or northern boundary. The indentation of the 

 Gulf of Tonkin coincides with the divergence of the two divisions. 



It is in the region occupied by the closely approaching upper 

 basins, lying west of the Yun-ling and north of the Assam and 

 Himalaya system, that we must seek for the cause of the resem- 

 blance between the languages of the Irawadi and those of the 

 Hoang-ho. This mountain land, with the eastern and southern 

 divisions of the lower region proceeding from it, is at once 

 united and insulated by nature. From the angle formed by 

 the approximation of the Himalaya and Yun-ling systems, the 

 compressed river courses again diverge, ascending to the west 

 and north west through the elevated basins between the mountain 



