CHAPTER I. GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES. Boundaries-Extent-Himalaya Range and minor Hills-Valleys-Principal Rivers and Sources-Ports. Boundaries.-India, includes not only the great peninsula stretching southward, like a vast triangle, from the Himálayas to Cape Comorin, but also a long strip of seaboard on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, from Chittagong to the tenth parallel of northern latitude. The base of this pyramid is formed by the long mountain ranges of the Himálayas-the "Abode of Snow," answering to the Imaus of Greek geographers—which divide all upper India from Turkistan and Tibet, bearing away south-eastwards from Cashmere to the eastern corner of Assam. The natural barrier thus formed between India and the outer world, is carried on southwards by the hills which separate the Punjab and Scinde from Afghánistán and Beluchistan. From Assam, at the eastern end, a like hill-barrier marks off British territory from Burmah and Siam. The whole length of India's land-boundary is nearly 4,500 miles; the seaboard from Kurrachee on the west, to the southernmost point of Tenasserim on the east, being about 4,000 miles. Extent. Some idea of the size of our Indian Empire may be gathered from the fact that Peshawur and Cape Comorin are more than 1,800 miles apart, while the dis |