A Sketch of the Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet: The principal mountain ranges of AsiaSuperintendent Government Printing, India, 1907 - 117 pages |
Common terms and phrases
Aghil Alai alignment Aling Kangri Asia axis basin bifurcation Brahmaputra chain chart XVI continuous crest-zone crossed crust deflection Dehra Dun Dhauladhar Dhauladhar range Dhaulagiri earth east eastern elevation feet flank fold frontispiece geological Gilgit Gurla height highest peaks Himalaya Range Hindu Kush Hindu Kush range inch Indus Kailas range Kaliana Kamet Karakoram Karakoram range Kashgar Kashgar range Kashmir Kinchinjunga Kuen Lun Kumaun Kumaun Himalaya Kunar river Ladak range lake Lesser Himalaya longitude Manasarowar maps miles mountain ranges Muztagh Nain Singh Nepal Nepal Himalaya Ninchinthangla north-west northern observations outer ranges Oxus Pamir Pamir plateau pass pendulum Pir Panjal range plains plumb-line portion Punjab Punjab Himalaya region ridges rock Sarikol Sarikol range Scale Sea Level Siwalik range snow snow-line southern spurs surface Survey of India Sutlej Sven Hedin Tarim Tian Shan Tibet Tibetan Tirich Tirich Mir Tista trigonometrical trough valleys water-parting western Zaskar range zone
Popular passages
Page 49 - If the earth were composed of homogeneous matter its normal figure of equilibrium without strain would be a true spheroid of revolution; but if heterogeneous, if some parts were denser or lighter than others, its normal figure would no longer be spheroidal. Where the lighter matter was accumulated there would be a tendency to bulge, and where the denser matter existed there would be a tendency to flatten or depress the surface. For this condition of equilibrium of figure, to which gravitation tends...
Page 70 - Pamir in fact, is therefore neither a plain, nor a down, nor a steppe, nor a " plateau, but a mountain valley of glacial formation, differing only from the adjacent or " other mountain valleys in its superior altitude, and in the greater degree to which its " trough has been filled up by glacial detritus and alluvium, and has thereby " approximated in appearance to a plain owing to the inability of the central stream to "scour for itself a deeper channel...
Page 60 - ... impulse given them at their sources. " I answer, it is because of the superior elevation of the lateral barriers of these river " basins, between which there are synclinal slopes of such decided preponderance, that :' they overrule the effect of all other inequalities of surface, how vast soever the latter "may sometimes be.
Page 60 - ... that, whatever is true of its natural divisions, is true of those of the residue, quoad ruling principle and geological causation. Now if the above facts relative to these three rivers be justly represented (and that they are so, in the main, I confidently assert), we are led irresistibly to inquire why the numerous large feeders of the rivers, instead of urging their impetuous way from the snows to the plains by independent courses, are brought together upon or near the verge of the plains?...
Page 49 - I would have preferred the word isobary, but it is preoccupied. We may also use the corresponding adjective, isostatic. An isostatic earth, composed of homogeneous matter and without rotation, would be truly spherical. If slowly rotating, it would be a spheroid of two axes. If rotating rapidly within a certain limit, it might be a spheroid of three axes.
Page 49 - It seems little doubtful that these subsidences of accumulated deposits and these progressive upward movements of eroded mountain platforms are, in the main, results of gravitation restoring the isostasy which has been disturbed by denudation on the one hand and by sedimentation on the other.
Page 60 - ... sometimes be. These lateral barriers of the river basins are crowned by the pre-eminent Himalayan peaks, that the peaks themselves have a forward position in respect to the ghat-line or great longitudinal watershed between Tibet and India, and that from these stupendous peaks, ridges are sent forth southwards proportionably immense.
Page 49 - ... preoccupied. We may also use the corresponding adjective, isostatic. An isostatic earth, composed of homogeneous matter and without rotation, would be truly spherical. If slowly rotating, it would be a spheroid of two axes. If rotating rapidly within a certain limit, it might be a spheroid of three axes. But if the earth be not homogeneous — if some portions near the surface...
Page 87 - Gurkha and Bhutani to the east. The inferior mountains of the eastern chain generally run at right angles to its axis, whereas those of the western chain are mostly disposed in subordinate parallel ranges.
Page 70 - I take to mean a broad stretch of flat and elevated land, surrounded, maybe, and even interspersed, but not positively broken up, with mountain masses. Nor can anything less like a down or a steppe be conceived than the troughs or valleys, of no great width, shelving downwards to a river-bed or lake, and uniformly framed on either hand by mountains whose heads are perpetually covered with snow, which anybody who has been to the Pamirs will at once recognize as a fair description of those regions.