combination of plains, ridges of rock, and isolated flat-topped hills. Mysore has a vegetable soil, very thick and fertile.

1. The Sautpoora Hills (Satpura), which run parallel to the S. bank of the Nerbudda. They have an average elevation of 4000 feet. The summits are in many cases grassy plateaux, descending by sharp teak-clad ravines to the Tapty. Farther E. the name Mokal Hills occurs; and still further, Behar Mountains and Rajmahal Hills, which terminate opposite the great S. bend of the Ganges, but which are felt beyond the stream in the Khasia Hills.

2. West Ghauts extend from the Tapty to C. Comorin. Their greatest distance from the coast is at Mangalore. The average distance is 40 miles. The mean height is about 4000 feet, and the culminating point Dodabetta (8800 feet), at the junction of the

3. Neilgherries (7000) or Nilgiri, which are a transverse range, forming the S. boundary of the Deccan, and connecting the E. and W. Ghauts. South of the range is the Gap of Coimbatore, drained by the Cauvery, through which the railway from Calicut to Madras passes. The Cinchona, or Peruvian bark-tree has been planted in this range, and found to succeed admirably.

The southern part of the W. Ghauts is known as the Aligherries (7845) or Cardamum Hills, an offshoot from which near the N. extremity, the Palnai Hills, forms the N. boundary of the Dindigal valley. The whole western slope of these Ghauts is drained by numberless small mountain streams, which in some instances rise on the tableland beyond.

4. East Ghauts.-These Ghauts, i.e., passes, terraces, or steps, as the word ghaut implies, are much lower and more broken than the western range. Their mean elevation is about 1500 feet. As a general rule they are further from the coast than the Western Ghauts, but north of the Godavery they nearly form the coast-line.

Beside these border ranges the surface of the Deccan is diversified by transverse ones along each bank of its great rivers.

D. Mountains of Further India.

These ranges may be regarded as eastern continuations of the Himalayas. They branch off between the rivers something like the fingers from the palm of the hand. Along the S.E. border of Assam are the Naga, Cossyah, Garrow, and other hills (8000 to 9000 feet); and the Patkoi, or Aracan Yoma Mountains, which contain amber mines and serpentine works, and have an elevation of about 4000 feet. This range also, after bending

more S., forms the eastern boundary of Chittagong, and terminates in Cape Negrais. In it is Blue, sometimes called Table Mount (8900). Beyond the Irawaddy is another range called Pegu Hills, or geographically, Heights of Burmah.

CEYLON is a mountainous island, surrounded by a narrow belt of plain, which is almost the only inhabited part. Vast forests, in which wild elephants and other animals abound, cover the interior. The culminating point is Pedrotallagalla (8880), S. of Kandy. South-east of this summit is Kande, à volcano, and S.W. of it Adam's Peak (7500).

3. Plains.

(1.) Plain of Ganges, one of the most fertile parts of India, noted for its wheat, opium, and indigo.

(2.) Plain of Indus, in many places covered with salt. It is fertile only within the region of irrigation. The delta consists of either rice grounds or sterile salt marshes.

(3.) The Runn of Cutch (7000 square miles) is either a swamp or a desert. In April the waves driving over it, leave only a few eminences above the water. The wild ass is found here.

(4.) Indian Desert (Thurr). It consists of a hard clay soil, covered with shifting sands, which are driven into ridges by the wind, like the sand hills in Peru. After the rainy season

some parts are covered with vegetation.

(5.) Western littoral, from 20 to 50 miles broad, is extremely fertile. The wooded Ghauts rise sheer up from the plains.

(6.) Eastern littoral is wider than the western, but not so fertile. It is very much parched in the hot season, and the Ghauts are not only lower and more accessible, but nearly bare of wood.

4. Rivers.

India is a well-watered country, if we except the Great Desert. Yet its rivers are useful rather for drainage and irrigation than for navigation. They contain numerous islands, falls, rapids; sometimes widen out into lakes, and then contract into swift narrow streams. The banks, except those of the Deccan rivers, are as a rule low, frequently overflowed, and frequently bordered by two and sometimes three subsidiary channels or ana-branches. The bed is often changed, owing to the rapidity of the stream, and the soft alluvial character of the soil. All have multitudes of tributaries, many of them much larger than our well-known Thames or Severn or Ouse, but we shall not be able to name them here. Nearly all have deltas at their mouths, which fact shows that they carry down immense quantities of mud to form new coast plains. We may arrange these rivers into two slopes

(1.) The S.E. or Bay of Bengal slope. (2.) The S.W. or Arabian Sea slope.

I. BASIN OF BAY OF BENGAL.

1. GANGES (length about 1500 miles; area basin, 432,000 square miles).

a. Source.-The Ganges rises (in a stream no less than 40 yards across) from a huge cave in a perpendicular wall of ice 11,000 feet above the sea, between the giant summit of Jawahir (25,670), and the Niti Pass. The view from the glacier is described as perfectly amazing, as if it were a cluster of all the snow-peaks in the world.

b. Course. The course is first S.W. for 200 miles along the N. border of Kumaon to Hurdwar, where it enters the plain. In this upper part of its course it falls 10,000 feet. From Hurdwar to the head of the delta, 1000 miles, may be considered as the middle course, where it runs in a general S. E. direction, with a double S like curve. In this part of its course it receives a score of large tributaries, twelve of which are larger than the Rhine. Its valley is exceedingly fertile, producing indigo, wheat, and opium. From the Rajmahal Hills to the mouth, 300 miles, is the lower course, through a unique delta, of which the uninhabitable marsh along the coast, as large as Wales, is called the Sunderbunds. The most eastern stream is called Ganges, and the western Hooghly. Besides these there are a vast number of others intersecting in all directions, but having a general S.E. direction.

c. Tributaries.-On the right or S. bank are

(1.) Jumna (800), which rises near the Ganges, and runs parallel to it to Allahabad. On it are the famous cities of Delhi and Agra. It receives on its right bank the Chumbul (600), a large river rising near Indore in the Vindya, and draining the tableland of Malwa. It has numerous important tributaries.

(2.) Sone, rising near the Nerbudda, and joining above Patna.

On the N. or left bank are scores of large rivers. The chief are

(1.) Goomtee, the river of Oude, on which is Lucknow. (2.) Gogra, a very long river, rising in the vast glaciers of W. Nepaul, and running S. and E. into the main stream at Chupra. On one of its tributaries is Goruckpore.

(3.) Gunduck, the river of Nepaul, rises beyond the main chain of the Himalayas in two streams, one of which flows under the base of Dhawalagiri, and the other through the Gorkha district. It joins the main stream near Patna, but

sends off other delta-like branches as far as the confluence of the Coosy.

(4.) Coosy, or Sun Kosi, rises near Khatmandu, and flows S.E., but its greatest tributary, the Arun, rises far beyond the main range, and flows under Everest as straight S. as an arrow. The lower course forms a huge lake.

(5.) Tista, the river of Sikhim, rises near Kunchinginga, and flows directly S. into the delta streams.

d. Towns.-The chief towns on the main stream are Hurdwar, Furruckabad, Cawnpore, Allahabad, Benares, Patna, Moorshedabad, and Calcutta.

The river overflows every year, owing to the heavy Monsoon rains (April-October). The rise is sometimes 45 feet at Allahabad, and 7 at Calcutta. As an illustration of the river's course being changed, it is known that the battle-field of Plassey (1757) is now on the other side of the stream from that on which it was when the battle was fought. It is calculated that the Ganges brings down annually mud, &c., enough to cover 120 square miles to the depth of a foot. The Bay of Bengal, like the Gulf of Mexico in the case of the Mississippi, is coloured nearly 100 miles from the shore.

2. BRAHMAPUTRA, or Burhamputra (-pooter), (1680 miles, 330,000 square miles), which brings down more water than the Ganges, rises in a small lake beyond the chief ridge of the Himalayas, very near the Sutlej, in 82° E. long.

It is called Yaru Tsanpo in its upper course. It runs almost directly E., with a bend southward, where it breaks through the eastern extremity of the Himalaya system, very much as the Indus does through the western. The extraordinary ring-shaped Lake Palte is most probably connected with it. It bends right round and through Upper Assam, has a W. and S. W. direction, and receives some very considerable tributaries. Its lower course may be considered to form part of the vast network of huge channels in the Ganges delta. The river S. of the Himalaya further resembles the Ganges in containing numerous islands, being bordered by many ana-branches, &c. One of its chief mouths is named Megna. Upper Assam is flooded from June to September. The volume of water discharged is said by Mrs Somerville to be 146,000 cubic feet a second, while the Ganges discharges 80,000 cubic feet in the same time.

3. IRAWADDY (800 miles long, 331,000 square miles).

The upper course of this river is very little known. The middle course is in Independent Burmah, in which empire the stream runs through two grand defiles, something like the Iron Gate of the Danube. On it are Ava and Amarapura. The lower course is in British Burmah. It has a large delta, the mouth extending from C. Negrais to the head of the gulf. The Rangoon (1825) is the only one of 14 mouths that is always navigable, and the commerce of that port is consequently very great. Pegu is on another mouth, and Bassein on a third.

4. Sittang, or Sittoung, a smaller river falling into the head of the Gulf of Martaban.

5. Salween (Lookiang or Martaban River), empties itself into the gulf between Martaban and Moulmein. We now follow the W. coast of the Bay of Bengal, and omit several large rivers in Bengal.

6. MAHANUDDY (520 miles, 60,000 square miles), rises under the name Shira, in Berar, in the Mokal Hills, from which it receives many feeders. Its delta, which is very large, and extends to the Chilka Lagoon, forms the province of Cuttack, the town of that name being at the head of the delta. Sumbulpore is in the middle course, and near one of its mouths is Juggernaut.

7. GODAVERY (900 miles, 105,000 square miles), rises at Trimbuck, in the W. Ghauts, not far from the Gulf of Cam-" bay. It is the river of the Deccan. The whole of its middle course is in the Nizam's Dominions. Assaye (1802) is on one of its upper tributaries; Ellora, famous for caves, and Aurungabad on another. The largest tributary, the Wurdah, is on the N., and is formed by the Peyn or Pain and Wyne Gunga. Nagpore is near the latter. It forms a small delta at its mouth, at the head of which is Rajahmundry, from which there is a canal to Coconada. The port is Coringa. Yanaon, a small French settlement, is on the delta coast-line. The navigation is seriously impeded by three series of barrier rapids, two in the main stream, the first of which is 20 miles long, and the second 14, and one in the Wurdah. These barriers are rocky outcrops. That of the Wurdah is 35 miles long. The gorge of the Godavery through the Ghauts is wild and grand in the extreme.

8. KISTNA (800 miles, 110,000 square miles), or Krishna, rises under the name Bimah in the W. Ghauts, opposite Bombay, and flows S.E. and then N.E. Neither its sources nor its mouths are far distant from those of the Godavery. (The student will remember that Asia is characterised by its binary rivers.) The Krishna proper rises near Mahabuleshwar, one of the most rainy places in the world. About 300 inches are collected annually. It drains the famous cotton districts of Belgaum and Dharwar, but its bed is far below the surface. One of the mouths in its delta drains Lake Colair. The port is Masulipatam. The Bheema is the most important left-hand tributary. The G.I.P.R. follows its lower course. On the Mussey, another left-hand tributary, are HYDERABAD and Golconda, once famous for diamonds. Its chief tributary is on the right bank, viz.

Toombudra, or Toongabudra, the sources of which in