Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/27



is an Independent State wedged in between India and Tibet, and occupies a parallelogram 450 miles long and 150 miles wide, running almost east and west. Clinging on the north to the Himalayas at their highest point, it slopes down at the south into the flat rice fields of Hindustan. In its small width of 150 miles it can boast of such diverse conditions as the eternal snows of Mount Everest and the hot languid temperature of the plains of India. On the eastern border is the State of Sikkim with its high road into Tibet, and within a few short miles is the I