Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/751

] plateau and the North Pacific, having its northern and southern limits about on tho 40th and the 20th parallels of N. lat. respectively. The country though generally broken up with mountains of moderate elevation, possesses none of very great importance apart from those of its western border. It is well watered, populous, and, as a rule, highly cultivated, fertile, and well wooded ; the climate is analogous to that of southern Europe, with hot summers, and winters everywhere cold and in the north decidedly severe.

15. From the eastern extremity of the Tibetan mountains, between the 95th and 100th meridians, high ranges extend from about lat. 35 N., in a southerly direction, which, spreading outwards as they go south, reach the sea at various points in Cochin-China, the Malayan peninsula, and the east flank of Bengal. Between these ranges, which are probably permanently snowy to about the 27th degree of N. lat., flow the great rivers of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, the Mekong, the Menam, the Salwen, and the Irawady, the valleys of which form the main portions of the states of Cochin-China (including Tonquin and Camboja), of Siam (including Laos), and of Burmah. The people of Cochin-China are called Anam ; it is probably from a corruption of their name for the capital of Tonquin, Kechao, that the Portuguese Cochin has been derived. All these countries are well watered, populous, and fertile, with a climate very similar to that of eastern Bengal. The geography of the region in which the mountains of Cochin-China and Siam join Tibet is still very imperfectly known, but there is no ground left for doubting that the great river of eastern Tibet, the Tachok- tsangpo, supplies the main stream of the Brahmaputra. The two great rivers of China, the Hoang-ho and the Yang-tse-kyang, take their rise from the eastern face of Tibet, the former from the north-east angle, the latter from the south-east. The main stream of this last is called Bri-chu in Tibet, and its chief feeder is the Ya-lung-kyang, which rises not far from the Hoang-ho, and is considered the territorial boundary between China and Tibet.

16. British India comprises approximately the area between the 95th and 70th meridians, and between the Tibetan table-land and the Indian Ocean. The Indian peninsula from the 25th degree of latitude southwards is a table-land, having its greatest elevation on the west, where the highest points rise to over 8000 feet, though the ordinary altitude of the higher hills hardly exceeds 4000 feet ; the general level of the table-land lies between 3000 feet as a maximum and 1000 feet.

17. From the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the east to that of the Indus on the west, and intervening between the table-land of the peninsula and the foot of the Himalayan slope of the Tibetan plateau, lies the great plain of northern India, which rises at its highest point to about 1000 feet, and includes altogether, with its prolon gation up the valley of Assam, an area of about 500,000 square miles, comprising the richest, the most populous, and most civilised districts of India. This great plain extends, with an almost unbroken surface, from the most western to the most eastern extremity of British India, and is composed of deposits so finely comminuted, that it is no exaggeration to say that it is possible to go from the Bay of Bengal up the Ganges, through the Punjab, and down the Indus again to the sea, over a distance of 2000 miles and more, without finding a pebble, however small.

18. The great rivers of Northern India the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Indus all derive their waters from the Tibetan mountain mass ; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that the waters of almost the whole of the summit of the plateau are carried off into British India between the 95th and 75th meridians, and that the only j part of the drainage thrown off to the north, is that of the northern mountain slope. 19. The population of India is very large, some of its districts being probably among the most densely peopled in the world. The country is generally well cleared, and forests are, as a rule, found only along the flanks of the mountains, where the fall of rain is most abundant. The more open parts are highly cultivated, and large cities abound. The climate is generally such as to secure the population the necessaries of life without severe labour ; the extremes of heat and drought are such as to render the land unsuitable for pasture, and the people everywhere subsist by cultivation of the soil or commerce, and live in settled villages or towns.

20. The island of Ceylon is distinguished from the neighbouring parts of British India by little more than its separate administration and the Buddhistic religion of its population. The highest point in Ceylon rises to about 9000 feet above the sea, and the mountain slopes are densely covered with forest. The lower levels are in climate and cultivation quite similar to the regions in the same latitude on the Malay peninsula.

21. Of the islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Nicobar and Andaman groups are alone worth notice. They are placed on a line joining the north end of Sumatra and Cape Negrais, the south-western extremity of Burmah. They possibly owe their existence to the volcanic agencies which are known to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean.

22. The Laccadives and Maldives are groups of small coral islands, situated along the 73d meridian, at no great distance from the Indian peninsula, on which they have a very slight and ill-defined political dependency.

23. The portion of Asia west of British India, excluding Highlar.&amp;lt;! Arabia and Syria, forms another extensive plateau cover- ing an area as large as that of Tibet, though at a much lower altitude. Its southern border runs along the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Tigris, and thence westward to the north-east angle of the Levant ; on the north the high land follows nearly the 36th degree of N. lat. to the southern shore of the Caspian, and thence to the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora. Afghánistán, Balúchistán, Irán or Persia, Armenia, and the provinces of Asia Minor, occupy this high region, with which they are nearly conterminous. The eastern flank of this table land follows a line of hills drawn a short distance from the Indus, between the mouth of that river and the Himalaya, about on the 72d meridian ; these hills do not generally exceed 4000 or 5000 feet in elevation, but a few of the summits reach 10,000 feet or more. The southern and south-western face follows the coast closely up the Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Indus, and is formed further west by the mountain scarp which, rising in many points to 10,000 feet, flanks the Tigris and the Mesopotamian plains, and extends along Kurdistan and Armenia nearly to the 40th meridian; beyond which it turns along the Taurus range, and the north-eastern angle of the Mediterranean. The north-eastern portion of the Afghan table-land abuts on the Himalaya and Afgba Tibet, with which it forms a continuous mass of moun- 1S tain between the 71st and 72d meridians, and the 34th and 3Gth parallels of N. lat. From the point of inter section of the 71st meridian with the 3Gth parallel of latitude, which falls nearly on the pass called Hindu- kosh (a name which has been extended by geographers to the ridge on which it is placed), an mbroken range of mountain stretches on one side towards the north-east, up to the crest of the northern slope of the Tibetan plateau, and on the other nearly due west as far as the Caspian. The north-eastern portion of this range is of 