Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/860

822 HIMALAYA feet abound along the entire chain. The plains of India which skirt the Himalayan face of the table-land, for a length of rather more than 1500 miles, along the northern border of British India, nowhere rise so much as 1000 feet above the sea, the average being much less. The low lands on the north, about Kashgar and Yarkend, have an elevation of from 3000 to 4000 feet, and no part of the Central Asiatic desert seems to fall below 2000 feet, the lake of Lob-nor being somewhat above that level, The greatest dimension of the Tibetan mountain area from east to west may be about 2000 miles, while its average breadth some what exceeds 500 miles; about 100 miles on either side constitute the sloping faces, the central table-land having a width of about 200 miles on the west and probably 500 miles at its eastern border. The southern portion of the Tibetan table-land throws off its waters to the north-west and south-east from a cen tral line almost on 82 E. long., the Indus flowing in the former direction, and the Brahmaputra in the latter. These two rivers maintain their courses for a great distance in opposite ways, longitudinally, along the summit of the table-land ; they receive as they proceed the drainage of a large portion of its surface ; and their accumulated waters are at length discharged by two openings In the Himalayan slope across the plains of Hindustan into the Indian Ocean. With the one exception of the basin of the Sutlej, the Tibetan ai ea that discharges itself southward at points intermediate between the debouchure of the Indus and that of the Brahmaputra is comparatively insignifi cant. No important part of the drainage of the table-land, so far as is yet known, passes in the opposite direction through the northern slope to join the rivers which flow from that slope to the Central-Asiatic plain. The waters of the southern slope, together with the drainage of the exceptional Tibetan area above referred to, traverse the Himalaya more or less directly, and constitute the main tributaries of the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra. Thus the northern border of the table-land, or the sum mit of its northern slope, so far as it is known, seems to form the real watershed between the rivers that flow to the Indian Ocean and those that lose themselves in the plains of Turklstan and Mongolia. The summit of the Himalayan slope forms a subordinate watershed, separating the rivers that fall into the Indian Ocean into two classes, those that pass directly through the Himalaya to the plains of India, and those that are collected on the summit of the table-land and discharged, also through the Himalaya, but by two concentrated streams at distant points towards the opposite ends of the chain. It has been proposed to call these dividing lines, respectively, the Turkish and the Indian watershed. riucipil The waters that issue from the Himalaya to the west of Vtrs the 77th meridian combine to form the Indus. Between Ml lake the 77tll and gg th meridians a n the streams fall into the Ganges, and eastward of the 88th meridian into the Brahmaputra. Of the continuity of the Brahmaputra, beyond the point up to which it has been explored from Assam, with the Tibetan river called on the maps Sanpoo, Yarou-dzangbo-tchou, and so forth, there is no room for doubt. The correct Tibetan name for the river is Tachok- tsangpo, i.e., "Horse-river," or simply " Tsangpo," i.e., "Great river", the word "tsangpo" being applied exactly like the corresponding Indian term "ganga," or the Chinese " kyang," as a generic affix to the name of any large river. In the mountains on the border of Assam the river is called " Dihong," but on entering the plain it receives the waters of the sacred stream locally called " Lohit," which is also believed to have a Tibetan source ; and this name the united river retains throughout the greater part of its course in Assam, Brahmaputra being a classical Sanskrit name not commonly used. In its course through Bengal local names are given to the various branches into which it there divides ; and this is also the case with the Ganges, which unites with the Brahmaputra about 100 miles from the sea. That part of Tibet which lies north of the 30th parallel of latitude and between the 82d and 92d meridians east is believed to have no escape open for its waters, which are consequently collected in lakes occupying de pressions on its surface. The region east of the 92d meridian, excluding the comparatively small tract which drains into the Brahmaputra, feeds the great rivers of western China, Siam, and Burmah. At the western extremity of the Tibetan table-land two transverse watershed lines are established in connexion with it, by mountain ranges nearly at right angles to what may be regarded as its general direction in this region, first, on the south by the mountains which under the name of Hindu-Knsh form the north-east angle of the high land of Afghanistan, and from the north-west of which the waters flow -into the Oxus (the true Turki name of which is " Amu "), and thence to the Aral Sea, whi-le those from its south-eastern face join the Indus through the Cabul river ; and second, on the north by the Terek-tagh, which unites the Tibetan system with the mountains of northern Turkis- tan, and separates the Jaxartes (in Turki "Sir") from the basin of Yarkend. The Oxus and Jaxartes flow off to the Aral Sea in a north-westerly direction, Laving between them a range which probably represents the extremity of either the Tibetan or the Thian-shan mountains, and which falls away into hills of minor importance beyond the 70th meridian. Some further particulars of the relations of the Tibeto -Himalayan region with the contiguous mountain systems, and of its influence both pLysical and political on the Asiatic continent in the heart of which it is situated, are contained in the article ASIA, to which reference may be made. A more detailed account of TIBET will be given under that heading, and the remainder of this notice will be confined to the description of the restricted Himalayan area, as already defined. The northern provinces of British India occupy the great plain which flanks the Himalaya on the south, along its whole extent from the issue of the Brahmaputra on the east to the ranges that lie along the Indus. The whole tract, excepting Assam, i.e., the valley of the Brahmaputra, is highly cultivated and populous ; and with the same ex ception the population throughout is of the race known ay Aryan, being almost exclusively Hindu in religion on the east, but passing into Mahometan on the west. The most eastern portion of the Himalayan mountain slope, as far as the 92d meridian, is occupied by wild tribes of which, or of the country they occupy, little is known. They are in small communities under petty chiefs, and their languages, which vary considerably in detail, are to some extent allied to Tibetan and monosyllabic. Between the 92d and 89th meridians is the small state of Bhotan, the local name of which is " Lhopato." It approximates in language, customs, and religion to Tibet proper, and its government is carried on by two separate chiefs, temporal and spiritual. Its northern border, where it is met by Tibet, lies along the 28th degree of north latitude. The small British dis trict of Sikim succeeds, occupying the lower part of the basin of the Tista river, and having Darjeling as its chief settlement. The native state of Sikim, in Tibetan called " Demojong," extends north of British Sikim to Tibet ; it is almost as Tibetan as Bhotan, and still less important. Its western border falls nearly on the 88th meridian. From the 88th nearly to the 80th meridian the whole southern slope is occupied by the kingdom of Nepal, which Oxus and Jaxar tes. Artie ASIA ferrec Geog pliica sketc Plain Nortl India Easte Hiim lay a : liiioti

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