THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAIN CHAIN

the history of Rajputána-where the immigrant blood was not over-diluted by inter-marriage with the daughters of the soil-is a record of courage, of courtesy and of selfsacrifice such as the annals of classical or medieval Europe would find it difficult to equal.

Large areas of the plains remained under scrub jungle till a century ago. But at present very little that is culturable escapes cultivation, and from two-thirds to three-fourths of the total area is broken by the plough. The population is extraordinarily dense; over wide expanses of country it reaches an average of one person to the acre of total area, and this in localities where there are no large towns. If we take into consideration only the area actually cultivated there are large districts in which each acre supports two persons. Only a tenth of the population can be classed as urban, and yet its density, over thousands of square miles is as high as that of Belgium. In no large country of the world, not even excepting China, does the land directly support so large a population.

THE HIMALAYAS

The great plains of India are overlooked by the highest mountains of the world. Some of the peaks of the Himalayas soar to nearly 30,000 feet above sea-level-nearly twice the elevation of Mont Blanc. But the lines of snow crests stand seventy or eighty miles back from the foot hills, and it is only on exceptionally clear days that they appear, like clouds on the horizon, to the people of the lowlands. We speak of the Himalayas as a mountain chain. But they are really a series of enormous buttresses that support the tableland of Tibet. On the further side of their passes there is no great descent, and the traveller finds himself in a desert of gloomy rocks and barren valleys swept by the piercing wind of a plateau that ranges between 10,000 and 15,000 feet above sea-level. The Himalayas were thrust upwards in, geologically

speaking, recent times and at a period when the Indian peninsula had for ages been standing upon its present foundations. Marine deposits are to be found at a height of 20,000 feet, containing fossils (nummulites) which indicate that they formed a sea-bed during the Tertiary period.

At the eastern end of the Himalayas the lower slopes are densely forest-clad ; at the western end, with a lighter rainfall, they are bare, or scarcely covered by ragged pine forest and scrub. As one ascends, the air grows cooler : the character of the landscape rapidly changes: oaks and magnolias, firs and deodars throw dark shadows on the hillsides. Above them grassy peaks stand out from which one may obtain a first sight of the snowy range. But the snows are still eight or ten days distant, and, by the time they are approached, vegetation has almost disappeared. The valleys which lead up to the glaciers are bare and stony; ice and snow shed their brilliancy upon desolation, and there is no such contrast as in the Alps is afforded by the near proximity of forests and the abodes of men.

Towards the western extremity of the range a drive of 200 miles through the mountains conducts us into the Vale of Kashmir, where the deposits of the river Jhelum, dammed by a rocky barrier, have filled a broad valley with rich soil. Carpeted with crops and flowers, adorned with noble trees, brightened by lakes, and circled round by snow mountains it presents a vision of Paradise to the traveller from the plains. In the days of the Moghal empire Kashmir was a favourite summer resort of the emperor and his court. To the British a cool retreat from the scorched plains was still more attractive; and they have established, along the crest of the outer Himalayas, a chain of hill stations, the best known of which are Simla, Naini Tal, and Darjeeling.

Up to a height of at least 8,000 feet the Himalayas are inhabited by as large a population as they can support.

HIMALAYAN PEOPLES

Little can be grown without irrigation. Rivers are carefully led over their valley beds, and not a stream falls from the hillside but a village lies beside it, conducting its waters down the fields that are terraced on the slopes. West of Nepál the hill people are mostly Hindus, with regular features, and complexions lighter than one notices in the plains. The women are often exceedingly attractive. In Nepál the character of the population changes. Its inhabitants exhibit the broad faces, high cheek-bones, and oblique eyes of the Mongolian type. From amongst them are drawn the Gurkhas who enlist very freely in the Indian army and powerfully add to its fighting strength. East of Nepál the Mongolian type continues. Whether of Indian or Mongolian type, the people of the hills are generally of much shorter stature than those of the plains; and this is also the case with their cattle.

At either end of the Himalayas there is an abrupt change in the trend of the mountains. They run north and south instead of east and west, and form with the Himalayan chain a three-sided barrier, shutting in the plains of India from Afghanistán and Baluchistán on the one hand and from China on the other. The strain which produced this gigantic contortion may have forced up two subordinate hill-ranges,-the Punjab Salt Range within the western angle, and, within the eastern angle, the Hills of Assam,-which jut out, like a promontory, into the plain. In both these ranges earthquakes are of very frequent occurrence, and may indicate a subsidence which accompanies a gradual relaxation of pressure.

BURMA

Burma lies outside the Indian region, and owes its connection with India mainly to its recent history, and to its administrative arrangements. It was conquered at the expense of India, and in great measure by Indian troops; and, had it not been for the assistance of Indians