732 INDIA [PHYSICAL Eastern and Western Ghats, which run down the coast on either side till they meet at a point near Cape Comorin. The interior three-sided table -land thus enclosed is broken by peaks and ranges, interspersed with broad expanses of level uplands, and covers the whole southern half of the peninsula. Hima- The first of the three regions is the Himalaya mountains layas. an j ti le i r offshoots to the southward. The Himalayas literally, the " Dwelling-place of Snow," from the Sanskrit hima, frost (Latin, hiems, winter), and dlaya, a house comprise a system of stupendous ranges, the loftiest in the world. They are the Emodus of Ptolemy (among other names), and extend in the shape of a scimitar, with its edge facing southwards, for a distance of 1500 miles along the northern frontier of India. At the north-eastern angle of that frontier, the Dihang river, the connecting link between the Tsan-pu (Sangpu) of Tibet and the Brahmaputra of Assam, bursts through the main axis of the range. At the opposite or north-western angle, the Indus in like manner pierces the Himalayas, and turns southwards on its course through the Punjab. The Himalayan region has been fully described in a separate article, vol. xi. p, 821. This wild region is in many parts impenetrable to man, and nowhere yields a passage for a modern army. It should be mentioned, however, that the Chinese outposts extend as far as a point only 6000 feet above the Gangetic plain, north of Khatmandu. Indeed, Chinese armies have seriously threatened Khatmandu itself ; and Sir David Ochterlony s advance from the plains of Bengal to that city in 1816 is a matter of history. Ancient and well-known trade routes exist, by means of which merchandise from the Punjab finds its way over heights of 18,000 feet into Eastern Turkestan and Tibet. The Muztagh (Snowy Mountain), the Karakoram (Black Mountain), and the Changchenmo are the most famous of these passes. The Himalayas not only form a double wall along the north of India, but at both their eastern and western extremities send out ranges to the south, which pro tect its north-eastern and north-western frontiers. On the north-east, those offshoots, under the name of the Naga and Patkoi mountains, &c., form a barrier between the civilized British districts and the wild tribes of Upper Burmah. The southern continuations of these ranges, known as the Yornas, separate British from Independent Burmah, and are crossed by pa ses, the most historic of which, the Aeng or An, rises to 4668 (formerly given at 4517) feet, with gradients of 472 feet to the mile. On the opposite or north-western frontier of India, the mountainous offshoots run down the entire length of the British boundaries from the Himalayas to the sea. As they proceed southwards, their best marked ranges are in turn known as the Sufed Koh, the Sulaiman, and the Hala mountains. These massive barriers have peaks of great height, culminating in the Takht-i-Sulaiman or Throne of Solomon, 11,317 feet above the level of the sea. But the mountain wall is pierced at the corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an opening through which the Kabul (Cabul) river flows into India. An ad jacent opening, the Khyber Pass (rising to 3373 feet), the Kuram Pass to the south of it, the Gwalarl Pass near Dera Ismail Khan, the Tal Pass debouching near Dera Ghazi Khan, and the famous Bolan Pass (5800 feet at top) still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and Afghanistan. The Hala, Brahui, and Pab mountains form the southern hilly offshoots between India and Baluchistan, and have a much less elevation. "River The wide plains watered by the Himalayan rivers form plains, the second of the three regions into which we have divided India. They extend from the Bay of Bengal on the east to the Afghan frontier and the Arabian Sea on the west, and contain the richest and most densely crowded provinces of the empire. One set of invaders after another has from prehistoric times entered by the passes at their eastern and north-western frontiers. They followed the courses of the rivers, and pushed the earlier comers southwards before them towards the sea. About 150 millions of people now live on and around these river plains, in the provinces known as the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal, Assam, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the Punjab, Sind, Raj pu tana, and other native states. The vast level tract which thus covers northern India is Rive: watered by three distinct river systems. One of these s yst systems takes its rise in the hollow trough beyond the Himalayas, and issues through their western ranges upon the Punjab as the Sutlej and Indus. The second of the three river systems also takes its rise beyond the double wall of the Himalayas, not very far from the sources of the Indus and the Sutlej. It turns, however, almost due east instead of west, enters India at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas, and becomes the Brahmaputra of Assam and Eastern Bengal. These rivers collect the drainage of the northern slopes of the Himalayas, and convey it, by long and tortuous although opposite routes, into India. Indeed, the special feature of the Himalayas is that they send down the rainfall from their northern as well as from their southern slopes to the Indian plains. Of the three great rivers of northern India, the two longest, namely the Indus with its feeder the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra, take their rise in the trough on the north of the Himalayas. The third river system of northern India receives the drainage of their southern slopes, and eventually unites into the mighty stream of the Ganges. In this way the rainfall, alike from the northern and i southern slopes of the Himalayas, pours down into the river plains of Bengal. Throughout the river plains of northern India, two Croi harvests, and in some provinces three, are reaped each year. These crops are not necessarily taken from the same land ; but in many districts the best fields have to yield two harvests within the twelve months, In Lower Bengal, pease, pulses, oil-seeds, and green crops of various sorts are reaped in spring; the early rice crops in September; the great rice harvest of the year, and other grains, in November and December. Before these last have been gathered in, it is time to prepare the ground for the spring crops, and the Bengal husbandman knows no rest except during the hot weeks of May, when he is anxiously waiting for the rains. But it should always be remembered that rice is the staple crop in only a limited area of India, and that it forms the everyday food of only a comparatively small proportion of the population. It has been estimated that, in the absence of irrigation, the rice crop requires an annual rainfall of at least 36 inches ; and an Indian pro* vince requires an average fall of not less than 50 or 60 inches in order to grow rice as its staple crop. A line might almost be drawn across Behar, to the north of which the food of the people ceases to be rice and becomes wheat and millets, &c. There are, indeed, great rice-growing tracts in irrigated or low-lying districts of north-western India, but their produce is consumed by the richer classes or exported. A detailed account of the most important products will be g cer , found under the heading of "Agriculture," farther on in the present article. They are here alluded to only so far as is necessary to give a general idea of the scenery of the river plains. In the northern and drier regions along the upper courses of the rivers, the country rises gently from their channels in fertile undulations, dotted with mud villages and adorned with noble trees. Mango groves scent the air
with their blossom in spring, and yield their abundant fruit
