150,000. Among other branches of trade, there is an extensive slave-market. Its inhabitants are among the most bigoted of Mussulmans. The murder of our countrymen, Col. Connolly and Capt. Stodart, by order of the Ameer, or ruler, led to the mission of Dr. Wolff, in 1845, from which he returned with difficulty. The other cities of the Khanat are in a state of decay. Samarcand, 120 miles east of Bokhara, once the capital of the vast dominions of Tamerlane, has fallen into ruins, but the tomb of the conqueror remains, an octagonal edifice paved with white marble, and also the observatory of the astronomer Ulugh Beg. Balkh, 260 miles s.s.E. of Bokhara, one of the oldest cities of the globe, once of immense extent, has still more completely fallen. It was the birthplace of Zoroaster, and the capital of the Greek kingdom of Bactria, founded by the successors of Alexander. The Persians still call it the "mother of cities."

Kokan, on the Sir, N. E. of Bokhara, is the capital of a much smaller state.Population, 60,000. The Khanat contains Tashgend, a city of about the same size.

Khiva, N. w. of Bokhara, is the capital of a district extending along the Amoo about 150 miles in length by 100 in breadth, with a limited green and irrigated space. The authority of the khan is acknowledged by 300,000 souls. The town is strongly fortified with a broad embankment of earth, higher than the houses within, surrounded with turrets, outside of which is a deep moat. It is the greatest slave-market of Turkestan.

The Kirghiz of the steppes are estimated at 400,000 tents, or families, each containing five or six individuals. The Great Horde has 75,000 tents; the Middle, 165,000; and the Little Horde, 160,000; their designations being thus independent of numbers. The Little Horde occupies the country north of the Caspian and Aral seas, and adjoining the Russian government of Orenburg, it has felt most directly the sway of that power. The Middle Horde encamps on the north-east, while the Great Horde lies further south-eastward, on the borders of the Chinese Empire. The wealth of the Kirghiz consists in horses, sheep, camels, cattle, and slaves. They enjoy their nomadic life, have resisted all attempts to fix them in towns, and may be regarded as, if not the most barbarous of men, at least the most irreclaimable of semi-barbarians. Their character is far removed from that innocence and unconsciousness of evil which the imagination has associated with society subject to few wants, free from artificial restraints, and pastoral in its habits. They are crafty, cruel, false, intensely selfish, and insatiable. A Kirghiz will steal his neighbour's child to sell it as a slave, and will even part with his own.

The Sea of Aral is not quite one-fourth the size of the Caspian. It owes its name, "Sea of Islands," to the natural process by which the land gains upon the water. Gigantic reeds growing to the height of fifteen, ten, and even thirty feet, line its shores. They propagate also in the shallow water, and by arresting the drifting sands, are thus converted into islands. The diminution of the Aral is not due alone to excessive evaporation, but to the consumption of the fluid element by its reedy forests.

The river Amou is the ancient Oxus: the Syr is the Jaxartes.

In the steppes, north of the Aral, in the latitudes respectively of London and Paris, the thermometer often sinks in winter to 35° below zero, a degree of cold not surpassed by that of Greenland or Labrador. Even at the mouth of the Sir, in latitude 46°, corresponding to that of Milan and Venice, the thermometer descends 120 or more below zero. The troops of Tamerlane were frozen to death on the banks of that river; and in 1839-40, the attempted invasion of Khiva by a Russian army was frustrated by the extreme severity of the cold, which proved fatal to the camels and many men. This rigour is aggravated by the general want of fuel, and by hurricanes of indescribable violence whirling along the snow in clouds. On the other hand, upon the return of spring, the heat speedily becomes oppressive. Vegetation languishes by the close of April, and is soon burned up. The summer is that of the Sahara, the thermometer rising to 108° in the shade, and to 144° in the sun. Metal exposed cannot be touched by the naked hand, and eggs may be baked in the sand.

INDIA.

324. The great central peninsula of southern Asia, or Continental India, called also the East Indies, and in the

Persian language, Hindoostan, the country of the blacks, or Hindoos, has its boundary in general very distinctly marked by nature, consisting of the Himalaya Mountains on the north, the highlands of Afghanistan on the north-west, and the Indian Ocean, with its arms, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea respectively, on the south, east, and west. There is no very definite natural frontier on the north-east; and in that direction its limits may be conveniently considered as embracing Assam, Chittagong, and Aracan, as continuous portions of British India, though really belonging to the Indo-Chinese peninsula. The territory thus defined extends nearly 1,900 miles from the southern projection of Cape Comorin to the north of Cashmere, and about 1,800 miles from the Indus river to the opposite extremity of Assam. The area is certainly no less than 1,000,000 square miles, though estimated much higher by some authorities, equal to nearly one-third of the united surface of European countries. The length of the coast line is rudely calculated at 3,280 miles, of which 1,830 belong to the western side, and 1,450 to the eastern. A large portion of this great country, including the fairest and most populous districts, is under the direct government of Great Britain, administered through the medium of the East India Company, and nearly the whole of it is controlled by British influence. Insular India includes the island of Ceylon, separated from the south-eastern extremity of the peninsula by Palk Strait and the Gulf of Manar, the Laccadive Islands off the Malabar coast, and the Maldives, south of the preceding group.

The large oval island of Ceylon, 270 miles long by 140 broad, is a British possession, but not subject to the East India Company. It is mountainous, well watered, and of unsurpassed fertility. The highest points are nearly central, Adam's Peak, 7,379 feet, a renowned place of pilgrimage, and Pedrotallagalla, 8,326 feet. The principal river, the Maharillaganga, reaches the sea in the splendid harbour of Trincomalee. Kandy, the ancient capital, is in the interior: its modern successor, Colombo, is on the west coast. The island produces the finest woods, ebony, satin-wood, and iron-wood; and the cinnamon-tree grows in greater abundance than in any other part of the world. It yields three principal articles of commerce; the aromatic buds, called cassia buds; the dried bark of the tree, or cinnamon; and the essential oil used in medicine, obtained by distillation. The pearl-fisheries, on the north-west coast, have long been famous. The population, according to the return from the Colonial-office, amounted to 1,507,326 in the year 1847. Stupendous monuments of a remote and almost entirely unknown antiquity, ruins of cities, pagodas, and prodigious stone embankments for irrigation, proclaim the superiority of a departed race to the present natives.

The channel between Ceylon and the continent, 60 miles and upwards, derives its name of Palk Strait from a Dutch navigator, and of the Gulf of

Manar from the island so called on the Ceylonese side. A ridge of sand-banks at that point, known by the name of Adam's Bridge, completely obstructs the passage of the channel to large vessels. In Hindoo mythology, the bridge

figures as the route by which the demi-god Rama invaded Ceylon.

The Luccadives are a cluster of seventeen islands. The Maldives include upwards of a thousand isles and reefs, extending in a chain 500 miles from north to south, but never more than 50 miles in direct breadth. Both groups are partially inhabited, and richly clothed with palms. The term Maldive is said to be derived from mal, signifying in the Malabar language a thousand, or a number not to be counted, and diva, an island.

The meaning of some descriptive terms of common occurrence in the geography of India is added:

Abad, patam, poor, or pore, are frequent terminals, all signifying a dwelling, city, or town. Allahabad, God's house; Hydrabad, Hyder's Town; Seringapatam, town of Sriranga, a name of Vishnoo; Nagpoor, town of serpents. Cot, cotta, gotta, a fort. Gunge, gung, gang, a wholesale market-place. War, warra, a region or country. Rajwarra, country of the Rajpoots. Stan, a country; Hindoostan, country of the blacks.

Giri, gherri, a mountain or hill. Dhwalagiri, White Mountain; Nilgherries, Blue Mountains.

Ghaut, a mountain pass; a form of the Sanscrit gati; a way or path, closely resembling our word "gate.' "Bala Ghaut, above the passes, or the central table-land; Payan Ghaut, below the passes, or the maritime lowlands.

Ab, water, river or lake. Doab, two waters; Punjaub, five waters.

Nuddy, a river; maha, great. Maha-nuddy, great river. Nulla, a rivulet. Jeel, a shallow lake.

Nil, blue. Nilab, blue waters, one of the names of the Indus.
Bungalow, a temporary dwelling. Droog, a fort, or castle.
Cuttah, a temple. Calcutta, a temple of the goddess Kali.

325. The physiognomy of the surface is marked with very decided features developed upon a great scale. The stupendous Himalayan range, which forms the northern border, belonging to India and Thibet, deserves a separate section, as the loftiest mountain region of the globe, including a greater variety of elevated scenes and natural productions than any other alpine district. Its culminating points are known to attain the height of 28,000 feet and upwards. They present a succession of peaks shrouded with perpetual snow to their summits, where the inclination is more gradual, while others, which are too precipitous to afford a restingplace for the snows, rise in naked barrenness, exhibiting nothing to the eye but vast pyramids of granite. From certain points of view, the aspect of this great barrier is not more magnificent than extraordinary, clouds completely concealing the declivities, and the crests starting up against the clear blue sky without a recognisable solid basement. Intercourse is maintained with Thibet by passes, difficult and dangerous routes. The Tungrung Pass ascends 13,739 feet; the Boorendo, 15,095; the Khoonawur, 16,000; the Niti, 16,895; the Charung, 17,348; the Manerung, 18,612; and the Pass of Nako, 18,683,-probably the highest in the world, near the sources of the Sutlej. The

R

chain consists of a number of ridges, in some places connected with each other by transverse ridges, in others separated by ravines of immense depth, the general direction of the whole being from north-west to south-east. Three divisions may be made of the range; the eastern, which includes the mountains of Assam and Bhotan; the central, or the mountains of Nepaul, which contain the highest points, Kunchinginga, and Dhawalagiri; and the western, or the mountains stretching from thence to the Indus, which nearly environ with their branches the lovely valley of Cashmere. The greatest height attained by the foot of man on the Himalaya Mountains, was reached by Captain Gerrard, October the 18th, 1818, who ascended on the Tarhigang, near the Sutlej, north of Shipke, to the height of 19,411 feet, which is 288 feet lower than the point reached by Hall and Boussingault on Chimborazo.

The number of people who annually perish in the passes is very great. Dr. Gerrard lost two of his attendants in the Shatool Pass, who were absolutely frozen to death at midday, such was the keen fury of the drifting snow. The debility caused by the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere, conspires with the cold in producing a somnolence, from which those who once give way to it never awaken. Danger also arises from the almost incessant fall of enormous bodies of snow and ice, with blocks of rocks, stones, and rubbish. The passes are, however, the only channels of communication between India and Thibet, and are largely used as commercial routes.

Almost every kind of natural curiosity occurs. The dripping rock of Sansadarrah, on the banks of the Saone, an affluent of the Ganges, is formed by an overhanging precipice, through which a small stream filters, falling in a perpetual shower. Beautiful stalactites hang from the roof of the rock, which are met by stalagmitic incrustations from the floor, and resemble pillars supporting an edifice. The occurrence of thermal waters, at great heights, in juxta-position with perpetual snow, is a remarkable circumstance. The celebrated springs of Jumnotree, near the sources of the Jumna, issue from caverns of snow, and have a temperature of 194°, which, considering the elevation, 10,849 feet, is nearly the boiling-point of water. Not far from the same spot, a spring rises sufficiently hot to boil rice.

Vegetation has been observed at the following heights:

The word Himalaya is Sanscrit, compounded of hima, "cold, or frost, or snow, and alaya, "abode." The resemblance of hima to the Greek xequa. cheima and the Latin hiems, of the same signification, is obvious.

326. The subordinate highlands of India are of very inferior elevation, though of great extent. Nearly the whole of that portion of the country which really forms the peninsula, is a table-land, or a plateau broken into a series. of table-lands by a few river valleys. This region is the original Deccan, so called from its position in relation to Northern India, the term being derived from the Sanscrit, dakshina, or the south. It advances in height from north to south, and attains its greatest elevation in the Mysore, from 2,400 to 3,000 feet. This high country does not extend to the ocean, but is separated from the Bay of Bengal on the east, and the Arabian Sea in the west, by low tracts of unequal breadth. Its edges rise in mountain ridges, or scattered high hills, of which the most important are the Aravulli and Vindhya ranges on the north; the eastern and western Ghauts running parallel to the east and west coasts; and the Nilgherry Mountains, on the southern border. Of these, the western Ghauts are by far the boldest, and the most persistent, rising to upwards of 6,000 feet in about the latitude of Seringapatam. Immediately south of the Nilgherries, a low valley crosses the peninsula, called in its narrowest part the Gap of Coimbatoor, from the town of that name, situated near its eastern extremity; and from thence hilly ridges clothed with 'forests extend to Cape Comorin. The remaining prominent features of the surface consist of the great lowlands of Northern India, stretching in the form of a curve from the mouths of the Ganges to those of the Indus, along both sides of these rivers, forming their respective plains, and converging to the west of Delhi. The Gangetic plain has an immense extent of the richest alluvial soil. It is the best cultivated and most densely inhabited portion of the country, containing upon its surface more than half the population. The plain of the Indus has a very varying character, highly fertile, mingling with the most sterile tracts in the Punjaub; but sandy or stony wastes, naked flats of hard caked clay, and salt morasses, prevail in the country to the south, from the Sutlej to the Runn of Cutch, a region known by the name of Thur or Desert, also called Maroosthulli or the Region of Death.