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ranges, some of the peaks of the former reaching to a height 
of 11,000 feet; on the north-east, the heights of Assam, 
the Naga Hills, divide the drainage of the Brahmapootra from 
that of the Irawaddy. It is separated from Burmah and Siam 
by the Youmadong and other mountain chains, whilst its 
coasts have the Bay of Bengal on the east, and the Arabian 
Sea and Indian Ocean on the west and south, enclosing a 
table-land of from 1,500 to 3,000 feet above the sea level, 
between the Eastern and Western Ghats ; this table-land 
slopes gradually to the east, most of the rivers running 
to the Bay of Bengal. The mountains are separated into 
two distinct systems by a continuous low land extending 
from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. This is 
washed by the streams of the Ganges and its tributaries on 
the east, by the Indus and its branches on the west. The 
western slope includes Scinde, the Punjaub, and part of 
Bajpootana ; the eastern, which is divided from it by a water 
parting 900 feet above the sea level, contains the greater part 
of the North-west Provinces, Oude, and the lower provinces 
of Bengal. The north part of this lowland skirts the foot of 
the hills, and forms the damp region, called the Terai. The 
first or outer range of hills known as the Siwalik, and 
Salt Range, is about 2,000 feet high, whilst the valley 
separating these from the Himala} r as is known as the Doon ; 
the forest-clad base of the mountain range is known as the 
Bhabur. South of the lowlands of Hindostan is the triangular 
table-land of the Deccan, extending through 20° of latitude. 
The basins of the Indus and the Ganges are its base ; its 
sides are the Eastern and Western Ghats and the littorals of 
the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, whilst the table-land seldom 
exceeds 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, and gradually slopes to the east. 
The Western Ghats rise to 4,000 and 5,000 feet; Dodabetta, 
the southern peak in the Neilgherries, is 8,640 feet high. The 
Eastern Ghats are not so high, and much less continuous than 
the Western. The whole of India forms two great water- 
sheds ; that of the Bay of Bengal on the east ; that of the 
Arabian sea on the west. The former includes the whole 
of the peninsula east of the Aravulli Hills and Western 
Ghats ; the latter, the basin of the Indus, Nerbudda, Tapti, 
and the declivity of the Western Ghats. The water, parting, 
runs nearly vertically from Cashmere to Cape Comorin. 
This vast country, which has nearly two hundred and fifty 
millions of inhabitants, of races more ethnically distinct, 
and more numerous than those of Europe, has, owing to 
the nature of its physical geography and the extent of its 
area, every kind of climate, from that of the Torrid to the 
