Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/863

Rh HIMALAYA 823 since the wars with the British in 1814-16 has retained complete independence. The jealousy with which its o-ov eminent has excluded Europeans from most parts of the country leaves us with little precise knowledge of any part of it except its eastern border and the neighbourhood of the capital, Kathmandu. The people pass from the Tibetan and Buddhist type, which prevails on the east, into almost pure Hindus, speaking a Hindi dialect, on the west. The rivers Kosi, Gandak, Edpti, and Karnali are the prin cipal streams that issue from this ^part of the mountains. The northern border of Nepal follows the main watershed, and its western angle reaches the 30th parallel of north latitude in the vicinity of the well-known Tibetan lakes Eakas-tal and Manasarowar, where the general direction of the mountains has, from east and west, become nearly south-east and north-west. The Kali or Sarda river forms the boundary between Nepal and the British provinces of Kuinaon and Garhwal, the chief town in which is Almora, and which occupy the entire mountain face, from the watershed to the plains, as far as the main stream of the Ganges, for a distance from east to west of about 100 miles. Thence, an equal distance brings us to the Sutlej, the intermediate tract being occupied by many small principalities, independent in their civil government, but entirely under the political control of the British. In this region is situated Simla, the summer capital of the government of British India, on one of the outer ranges overlooking the Sutlej. Other small districts and principalities, partly British, occupy the Himalayan slope as far as the 76th meridian, beyond which we reach the territories of Jamu and Kashmir, which extend to within 50 miles of the Indus, a narrow band bordering on which river is mainly in the possession of Afghan tribes but partly under British rule. From the portion of the mountains west of the 79th meridian issue the rivers Ganges and Jumna ; also the five rivers of the Punjab, the Sutlej, the Eavi, the Chenab, the Jhelum, and the Indus, besides the Byas which unites with the Sutlej. The valley of Kashmir is the upper part of the basin of the Jhelum. The population of the whole of the mountain districts west of Nepal maintains to a great extent its Hindu type, though the Mahometan religion gradually becomes more prevalent as we approach tbe Indus, where it is found to have super seded Hinduism. In the more remote and elevated valleys an infusion of Tibetan race, religion, and language is found, diminishing as we pass to the west ; but otherwise the dialects spoken are everywhere Prakritic, and closely allied to Hindi. As a rule the people are short in stature, muscular, as is common among mountaineers, fairer than the inhabi tants of the plains, and in the western regions, where the Hindu or Aryan stock prevails, women of remarkable beauty are often seen. At the lower altitudes cotton cloth ing is usual, at tlie greater elevations hempen and woollen materials prevail, but an utter disregard of personal clean liness is universal. Goitre is frequent in both sexes, and cretinism seems to occur much in the European form. The eastern ranges are wetter, the climate generally warmer and more equable, and the vegetation more rank and of a more tropical character ; the mountains are more copiously covered with forest, and the extent of cultivation is less, and the population probably less also. To the west, with a drier atmosphere and greater variations of tempera ture, the climate above 5000 or 6000 feet becomes more like that of southern Europe, and the main features of the scenery become more conspicuously similar to those of . European mountains. On the east the customs of the people differ little from those of the neighbouring Tibetan or semi-Tibetan provinces. On the west there is no great distinction between the people of the hills and of the plains in their customs, agriculture, or other occupations. The summit of the table-land from the borders of China Tibet, to the 75th meridian, where the Indus suddenly turns off to the south, is comprised in Tibet, or as it is called in the language of its inhabitants &quot; Bod &quot; or &quot; Bodyul,&quot; the latter word being equivalent to &quot; Bod -land.&quot; Of the eastern half of Tibet very little is known, and that little chiefly relates to the most southern portion which borders on the Himalaya, and the most eastern which abuts on China. The table land here has its greatest development, and is perhaps as much as 500 miles from north to south. At its north western end its breadth is reduced to something under 200 miles. The physical features of Tibet, from its great elevation, are so peculiar, and it is so cut off by nature from communication with its neighbours, that it is not surprising to find in it a distinct race with a language of their own, and habits widely different from the surrounding nations. The extreme cold and drought make Tibet essentially poor ; and the character of its inhabitants approaches that of the denizens of the Arctic regions, wholive under somewhat simi lar physical conditions. The people are broadly built, with a strongly marked Mongolian physiognomy, dark hair, little or no beard, oblique eyes, and prominent cheek bones. In the warmer valleys they are mainly agricultural, and live in houses ; in the higher regions they are shepherds, living in tents, thinly scattered over a large area. They are clothed in woollens or sheep skins. The practice of polyandry prevails, a woman marrying a whole family of brothers. The government at Lhassa is nominally administered by the Tibetans themselves, but in reality is altogether under the control of a Chinese resident. The authority of the Lhassan Government extends to about 78 E. long. ; west of this as far as the Indus, the country was conquered some forty years ago by the sovereign of Kashmir and remains under him. In the most western province of Tibet, called &quot;Balti,&quot; the Buddhist religion ceases to prevail ; the population is exclusively Mahometan, and that religion only is known beyond the Indus. To the west of Tibet the mountains are prolonged to the Pamii 70th meridian at an elevation not greatly less than that which prevails eastward, and the table-land there ends in the region known as Pamir, which has all the characteristics of the higher parts of Tibet. Beyond this we pass into Turkistan and reach the limits by which the scope of the present article is restricted. The difficulty of accomplishing with any approach to Physi success such a task as that of giving a sufficient account fetui of the chief physical and other characteristics of mountains ^ fo like the Himalaya is much diminished by the remarkable s t mc. uniformity in many points of structure and other important ture. peculiarities, which prevails along the whole length of the chain. The perception of such general characteristics among mountains so vast is, indeed, too often overshadowed and obscured by the magnitude of their parts, the multitude of their details, and the variety of their forms ; yet when the idea of the subordination of all these elements to common laws has once been duly conceived, it obtains constantly growing confirmation from what at first only produced im pressions of hopeless confusion. The great plain of northern India stretches with an almost The unbroken surface along the foot of the Himalaya from the great upper Indus to the head of the delta of the Ganges, and DOT *h&amp;lt; thence has a narrow prolongation along the Brahmaputra * ai up the valley of Assam. Including its extensions to the sea, along the Indus on the west, and along the Ganges on the east, its area is about 500,000 square miles. It no where rises to more than 1000 feet above the sea-level, and to the unassisted eye it appears a perfectly dead flat. That part of the plain which lies along the foot of the mountains, and more particularly the central and eastern portion, is well watered, being intersected by the numerous streams