III. Cultivable, Uncultivable, and Cultivated Land in Provinces for which Returns exist, THE INDIAN EMPIRE: ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, AND PRODUCTS. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL ASPECTS. outline. INDIA forms a great irregular triangle, stretching southwards General from Mid-Asia into the sea. Its northern base rests upon the Himalayan ranges; the chief part of its western side is washed by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part of its eastern side by the Bay of Bengal. It extends from the eighth degree to the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; that is to say, from the hottest regions of the equator to far within the temperate zone. The capital, Calcutta, lies in 88° E. long.; so that when the sun sets at six o'clock there, it is just past mid-day in England. The length of India from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to west, are both about 1900 miles; but the triangle tapers with a pear-shaped curve to a point at Cape Comorin, its southern extremity. To this compact dominion the English have added, under the name of British Burma, the strip of country on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. The whole territory thus described contains close on 1 millions of square miles, and 253 millions of inhabitants. India, therefore, has an area and a population about equal to the area and population of the whole of Europe less Russia.1 Its people more than double Gibbon's estimate of 120 millions for all the races and nations which obeyed Imperial Rome. India is shut off from the rest of Asia on the north by a Boun vast mountainous region, known in the aggregate as the daries, Himalayas. Among their southern ranges lie the Independent on the 1 Totals of population refer to 1881; but details, necessarily, to 1871. C north; on the west; on the east. States of Bhután and Nepál: the great tableland of Tibet stretches behind. The Native Principality of Kashmir occupies their north-western Indian angle. At this north-western angle (in lat. 35° N., long. 74° E.), an allied mountain system branches southwards. India is thus separated by the wellmarked ranges of the Safed Koh, and the Suláimán from Afghánistán; and by a southern continuation of lower hills (the Hálas, etc.) from Baluchistán. The last part of the western land frontier is formed by the river Hab, and the boundary ends with Cape Monze, at the mouth of its estuary, in lat. 24° 50′ N., long. 66° 38′ E. Still proceeding southwards, India is bounded along the west and south-west by the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Turning northwards from its southern extremity at Cape Comorin (lat. 8° 4' 20" N., long. 77° 35′ 35′′ E.), the long sea-line of the Bay of Bengal forms the main part of its eastern boundary. But in the north-east, as in the north-west, India has again a land frontier. The Himalayan ranges at their northeastern angle (in about lat. 28° N., long. 97° E.) throw off spurs and chains to the southward. These spurs separate the British Provinces of Assam and Eastern Bengal from Independent Burma. They are known successively as the Abar, Nágá, Patkoi, and Barel ranges. Turning almost due south in lat. Burmese 25°, they culminate in the Blue Mountain, 7100 feet, in lat. boundary. 22° 37′ N., long. 93° 10′ E. ; and then stretch southwards under the name of the Arakan Yomas, separating British Burma from Independent Burma, until they again rise into the great mountain of Myeng-mateng (4700 feet), in 19 degrees of north latitude. Up to this point, the eastern hill frontier follows, generally speaking, the watershed which divides the river systems of the Brahmaputra, Meghná, Kuladan (Koladyne), etc., in Bengal and British Burma, from the Irawadi basin in Independent Burma. But from near the base of the Myengmateng Mountain, in about lat. 191, the British frontier stretches almost due east in a geographical line, which divides the lower Districts and delta of the Irawadi in British Burma from the middle and upper Districts of that river in Independent Burma. Proceeding south-eastwards from the 'delta of the Irawadi, a confused succession of little explored ranges serim separates the British Province of Tenasserim from the Native boundary. Kingdom of Siam. The boundary line runs down to Point Victoria at the extremity of Tenasserim (lat. 9° 59′ N., long. 98° 32′ E.), following the direction of the watershed between the rivers of the British territory on the west and of Siam on the east. Tenas of India. The Empire included within these boundaries is rich in Physical varieties of scenery and climate, from the highest mountains aspects. in the world, to vast river deltas raised only a few inches above the level of the sea. It forms a continent rather than a country. But if we could look down on the whole from a balloon, we The three should find that India consists of three separate and well-defined Regions tracts. The first includes the lofty Himálaya Mountains, which shut it out from the rest of Asia, and which, although for the most part beyond the British frontier, form an overruling factor in the physical geography of Northern India. The second region stretches southwards from the base of the Himalayas, and comprises the plains of the great rivers which issue from them. The third region slopes upward again from the edge of the river plains, and consists of a high three-sided tableland, supported by the Vindhyá Mountains on the north, and by the 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 tableland, thus enclosed, is dotted with peaks and ranges, broken by river valleys, and interspersed by broad level uplands. It comprises the southern half of the peninsula. The Himá The first of the three regions is the Himálaya Mountains First and their offshoots to the southward. The Himálayas—literally, Regionthe 'Dwelling-place of Snow," from the Sanskrit hima, frost layas. (Latin, hiems, winter), and álaya, a house-consist of a system of stupendous ranges, the loftiest in the world. They are the Emodus or Imaus of the Greek geographers, 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 Himalayas. At the opposite or north-western angle, the Indus in like manner pierces the Himálayas, and turns southwards on its course through the Punjab. The Himálayas, like the Kuen-luen chains, the Tián-shan, and the Hindu Kush, converge towards the Pamir tableland - that central knot whence all the great mountain systems of Asia radiate. With the Kuen-luen the Himálayas have a closer connection, as these two mighty ranges form the northern and southern buttresses of the lofty Tibetan plateau. But regarded merely double as a natural frontier separating India from the Tibetan plateau, Himálayan Wall and the Himalayas may be described as a double mountain wall Trough running nearly east and west, with a trough or series of deep beyond. The Himalayan Offshoots of the Himá layas ; valleys beyond. The southernmost of the two walls rises steeply from the plains of India to 20,000 feet, or nearly 4 miles, in height. It culminates near its centre in KANCHANJANGA, 28,176 feet, and MOUNT EVEREST, 29,002 feet, the latter being the loftiest measured peak in the world. This outer or southern wall of the Himálayas subsides on the northward into a series of dips or uplands, 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, beyond which rises the second or inner range of Himalayan peaks. The double Himálayan wall thus formed, then descends into a great trough or line of valleys, in which the Sutlej, the Indus, and the mighty Tsan-pu (Sangpu) gather their waters. The Sutlej and the Indus flow westwards, and pierce by separate passes through the western Himalayas into the Punjab. The Tsan-pu (or Sangpu), after a long unexplored course eastwards along the valley of the same name in Tibet, finds its way through the Dihang gorge of the Eastern Himálayas into Assam, where it takes its final name of the Brahmaputra. On the north of the river trough, beyond the double Himalayan wall, rise the Karakoram and Gangri Mountains, which form the immediate escarpment of the Tibetan tableland. Behind the Gangris, on the north, the lake-studded plateau of Tibet spreads itself out at a height averaging 15,000 feet. Broadly speaking, the double Himálayan wall rests upon the low-lying plains of India, and descends into a river trough beyond which rises the Tibetan plateau. The higher ranges between Tibet and India are crowned with eternal snow; while vast glaciers, one of which is known to be 60 miles in length, slowly move their masses of ice downwards to the valleys. 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 Túrkistán and Tibet. The Mustagh (Snowy Mount), the Karakoram (Black Mount), and the Chang-chenmo 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 southwards, which protect its northeastern and north-western frontiers. On the north-east, those |