6. The Sub-Himalaya, which is "easily defined by the fringing line of
hills, more or less broad, and in places very distinctly marked off
from the main chain by open valleys (dhuns) or narrow valleys,
parallel to the main axis of the chain." These include the Siwaliks.
Interspersed between these main geological axes are many other minor
ridges, on some of which are peaks of great elevation. In fact, the
geological axis seldom coincides with the line of highest elevation, nor
must it be confused with the main lines of water-divide of the Himalaya.
The great northern watershed of India.
On the north and north-west of Kashmir the great water-divide which
separates the Indus drainage area from that of the Yarkand and other
rivers of Chinese Turkestan has been explored by Sir F. Younghusband,
and subsequently by H. H. P. Deasy. The general result of their
investigations has been to prove that the Muztagh range, as it trends
south-eastwards and finally forms a continuous mountain barrier together
with the Karakoram, is the true water-divide west of the Tibetan
plateau. Shutting off the sources of the Indus affluents from those of
the Central Asian system of hydrography, this great water-parting is
distinguished by a group of peaks of which the altitude is hardly less
than that of the Eastern Himalaya. Mount Godwin-Austen (28,250 ft.
high), only 750 ft. lower than Everest, affords an excellent example in
Asiatic geography of a dominating, peak-crowned water-parting or divide.
From Kailas on the far west to the extreme north-eastern sources of the
Brahmaputra, the great northern water-parting of the Indo-Tibetan
highlands has only been occasionally touched. Littledale, du Rhins and
Bonvalot may have stood on it as they looked southwards towards Lhasa,
but for some 500 or 600 m. east of Kailas it appears to be lost in the
mazes of the minor ranges and ridges of the Tibetan plateau. Nor can it
be said to be as yet well defined to the east of Lhasa.
Eastern Tibet.
The Tibetan plateau, or Chang, breaks up about the meridian of 92 deg.
E., and to the east of this meridian the affluents of the Tsanpo (the
same river as the Dihong and subsequently as the Brahmaputra) drain no
longer from the elevated plateau, but from the rugged slopes of a wild
region of mountains which assumes a systematic conformation where its
successive ridges are arranged in concentric curves around the great
bend of the Brahmaputra, wherein are hidden the sources of all the great
rivers of Burma and China. Neither immediately beyond this great bend,
nor within it in the Himalayan regions lying north of Assam and east of
Bhutan, have scientific investigations yet been systematically carried
out; but it is known that the largest of the Himalayan affluents of the
Brahmaputra west of the bend derive their sources from the Tibetan
plateau, and break down through the containing bands of hills, carrying
deposits of gold from their sources to the plains, as do all the rivers
of Tibet.
Himalaya north of the central chain of snowy peaks.
Although the northern limits of the Tsanpo basin are not sufficiently
well known to locate the Indo-Tibetan watershed even approximately,
there exists some scattered evidence of the nature of that strip of
Northern Himalaya on the Tibeto-Nepalese border which lies between the
line of greatest elevation and the trough of the Tsanpo. Recent
investigations show that all the chief rivers of Nepal flowing
southwards to the Tarai take their rise north of the line of highest
crests, the "main range" of the Himalaya; and that some of them drain
long lateral high-level valleys enclosed between minor ridges whose
strike is parallel to the axis of the Himalaya and, occasionally, almost
at right angles to the course of the main drainage channels breaking
down to the plains. This formation brings the southern edge of the
Tsanpo basin to the immediate neighbourhood of the banks of that river,
which runs at its foot like a drain flanking a wall. It also affords
material evidence of that wrinkling or folding action which accompanied
the process of upheaval, when the Central Asian highlands were raised,
which is more or less marked throughout the whole of the north-west
Indian borderland. North of Bhutan, between the Himalayan crest and
Lhasa, this formation is approximately maintained; farther east,
although the same natural forces first resulted in the same effect of
successive folds of the earth's crust, forming extensive curves of ridge
and furrow, the abundant rainfall and the totally distinct climatic
conditions which govern the processes of denudation subsequently led to
the erosion of deeper valleys enclosed between forest-covered ranges
which rise steeply from the river banks.
Height of Himalayan peaks.
Although suggestions have been made of the existence of higher peaks
north of the Himalaya than that which dominates the Everest group, no
evidence has been adduced to support such a contention. On the other
hand the observations of Major Ryder and other surveyors who explored
from Lhasa to the sources of the Brahmaputra and Indus, at the
conclusion of the Tibetan mission in 1904, conclusively prove that Mount
Everest, which appears from the Tibetan plateau as a single dominating
peak, has no rival amongst Himalayan altitudes, whilst the very
remarkable investigations made by permission of the Nepal durbar from
peaks near Kathmandu in 1903, by Captain Wood, R.E., not only place the
Everest group apart from other peaks with which they have been confused
by scientists, isolating them in the topographical system of Nepal, but
clearly show that there is no one dominating and continuous range
indicating a main Himalayan chain which includes both Everest and
Kinchinjunga. The main features of Nepalese topography are now fairly
well defined. So much controversy has been aroused on the subject of
Himalayan altitudes that the present position of scientific analysis in
relation to them may be shortly stated. The heights of peaks determined
by exact processes of trigonometrical observation are bound to be more
or less in error for three reasons: (1) the extraordinary geoidal
deformation of the level surface at the observing stations in submontane
regions; (2) ignorance of the laws of refraction when rays traverse
rarefied air in snow-covered regions; (3) ignorance of the variations in
the actual height of peaks due to the increase, or decrease, of snow.
The value of the heights attached to the three highest mountains in the
world are, for these reasons, adjudged by Colonel S. G. Burrard, the
Supt. Trigonometrical Surveys in India, to be in probable error to the
following extent:
+-------------------+-----------------+---------------+
| | Present Survey | Most probable |
| | Value of Height.| Value. |
+-------------------+-----------------+---------------+
| Mount Everest | 29,002 | 29,141 |
| K2 (Godwin Austen)| 28,250 | 28,191 |
| Kinchinjunga | 28,146 | 28,225 |
+-------------------+-----------------+---------------+
These determinations have the effect of placing Kinchinjunga second and
K2 third on the list. (T. H. H.*)
_Geology._--The Himalaya have been formed by violent crumpling of the
earth's crust along the southern margin of the great tableland of
Central Asia. Outside the arc of the mountain chain no sign of this
crumpling is to be detected except in the Salt Range, and the
Peninsula of India has been entirely free from folding of any
importance since early Palaeozoic times, if not since the Archean
period itself. But the contrast between the Himalaya and the Peninsula
is not confined to their structure: the difference in the rocks
themselves is equally striking. In the Himalaya the geological
sequence, from the Ordovician to the Eocene, is almost entirely
marine; there are indeed occasional breaks in the series, but during
nearly the whole of this long period the Himalayan region, or at least
its northern part, must have been beneath the sea--the Central
Mediterranean Sea of Neumayr or Tethys of Suess. In the peninsula,
however, no marine fossils have yet been found of earlier date than
Jurassic and Cretaceous, and these are confined to the neighbourhood
of the coasts; the principal fossiliferous deposits are the
plant-bearing beds of the Gondwana series, and there can be no doubt
that, at least since the Carboniferous period, nearly the whole of the
Peninsula has been land. Between the folded marine beds of the
Himalaya and the nearly horizontal strata of the peninsula lies the
Indo-Gangetic plain, covered by an enormous thickness of alluvial and
wind-blown deposits of recent date. The deep boring at Lucknow passed
through 1336 ft. of sands--reaching nearly to 1000 ft. below
sea-level--without any sign of approaching the base of the alluvial
series. It is clear, then, that in front of the Himalaya there is a
great depression, but as yet there is no indication that this
depression was ever beneath the sea.
In the light thrown by recent researches on the structure and origin
of mountain chains the explanation of these facts is no longer
difficult. From early Palaeozoic times the peninsula of India has been
dry land, a part, indeed, of a great continent which in Mesozoic times
extended across the Indian Ocean towards South Africa. Its northern
shores were washed by the Sea of Tethys, which, at least in Jurassic
and Cretaceous times, stretched across the Old World from west to
east, and in this sea were laid down the marine deposits of the
Himalaya. The tangential pressures which are known to be set up in the
earth's crust--either by the contraction of the interior or in some
other way--caused the deposits of this sea to be crushed up against
the rigid granites and other old rocks of the peninsula and finally
led to the whole mass being pushed forward over the edge of the part
which did not crumple. The Indo-Gangetic depression was formed by the
weight of the over-riding mass bending down the edge over which it
rode, or else it is the lower limb of the S-shaped fold which would
necessarily result if there were no fracture--the Himalaya
representing the upper limb of the S.
Geologically, the Himalaya may be divided into three zones which
correspond more or less with orographical divisions. The northern zone
is the Tibetan, in which fossiliferous beds of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic
age are largely developed--excepting in the north-west no such rocks
are known on the southern flanks. The second is the zone of the snowy
peaks and of the lower Himalaya, and is composed chiefly of
crystalline and metamorphic rocks together with unfossiliferous
sedimentary beds supposed to be of Palaeozoic age. The southern zone
comprises the Sub-Himalaya and consists entirely of Tertiary beds, and
especially of the upper Tertiaries. The oldest beds which have
hitherto yielded fossils, belong to the Ordovician system, but it is
highly probable that the underlying "Haimantas" of the central
Himalaya are of Cambrian age. From these beds up to the top of the
Carboniferous there appears to be no break; but the Carboniferous beds
were in some places eroded before the deposition of the _Productus_
shales, which belong to the Permian period. It is, however, possible
that this erosion was merely local, for in other places there seems to
be a complete passage from the Carboniferous to the Permian. From the
Permian to the Lias the sequence in the central Himalaya shows no sign
of a break, nor has any unconformity been proved between the Liassic
beds and the overlying Spiti shales, which contain fossils of Middle
and Upper Jurassic age. The Spiti shales are succeeded conformably by
Cretaceous beds (Gieumal sandstone below and Chikkim limestone above),
and these are followed without a break by Nummulitic beds of Eocene
age, much disturbed and altered by intrusions of gabbro and syenite.
Thus, in the Spiti area at least, there appears to have been
continuous deposition of marine beds from the Permian _Productus_
shales to the Eocene Nummulitic formation. The next succeeding deposit
is a sandstone, often highly inclined, which rests unconformably upon
the Nummulitic beds and resembles the Lower Siwaliks of the
Sub-Himalaya (Pliocene) but which as yet has yielded no fossils of any
kind. The whole is overlaid unconformably by the younger Tertiaries of
Hundes, which are perfectly horizontal and have been quite unaffected
by any of the folds.
From the absence of any well-marked unconformity it is evident that in
the northern part of the Himalayan belt, at least in the Spiti area,
there can have been no post-Archaean folding of any magnitude until
after the deposition of the Nummulitic beds, and that the folding was
completed before the later Tertiaries of Hundes were laid down. It
was, therefore, during the Miocene period that the elevation of this
part of the chain began, while the disturbance of the Siwalik-like
sandstone indicates that the folding continued into the Pliocene
period. Along the southern flanks of the Himalaya the history of the
chain is still more clearly shown. The sub-Himalaya are formed of
Tertiary beds, chiefly Siwalik or upper Tertiary, while the lower
Himalaya proper consist mainly of pre-Tertiary rocks without fossils.
Throughout the whole length of the chain, wherever the junction of the
Siwaliks with the pre-Tertiary rocks has been seen, it is a great
reversed fault. West of the Blas river a similar reversed fault forms
the boundary between the lower Tertiaries and the pre-Tertiary rocks
of the Himalaya, while between the Sutlej and the Jumna rivers, where
the lower Tertiaries help to form the lower Himalaya, the fault lies
between them and the Siwaliks. The hade of the fault is constantly
inwards, towards the centre of the chain, and the older rocks which
form the Himalaya proper, have been pushed forward over the later beds
of the sub-Himalaya. But the fault is more than an ordinary reversed
fault: it was, nearly everywhere, the northern boundary of deposition
of the Siwalik beds, and only in a few instances do any of the Siwalik
deposits extend even to a short distance beyond it. The fault in fact
was being formed during the deposition of the Siwalik beds, and as the
beds were laid down, the Himalaya were pushed forward over them, the
Siwaliks themselves being folded and upturned during the process.
Accordingly, in some places the Siwaliks now form a continuous and
conformable series from base to summit, in other places the middle
beds are absent and the upper beds of the series rest upon the
upturned and denuded edges of the lower beds. The Siwaliks are
fluviatile and torrential deposits similar to those which are now
being formed at the foot of the mountains, in the Indo-Gangetic plain;
and their relations to the older rocks of the Himalaya proper were
very similar to those which now exist between the deposits of the
plain and the Siwaliks themselves. But the great fault just described
is not the only one of this character. There is a series of such
faults, approximately parallel to one another, and although they have
not been traced throughout the whole chain, yet wherever they occur
they seem to have formed the northern boundary of deposition of the
deposits immediately to the south of them. It appears, therefore, that
the Himalaya grew southwards in a series of stages. A reversed fault
was formed at the foot of the chain, and upon this fault the
mountains were pushed forward over the beds deposited at their base,
crumpling and folding them in the process, and forming a sub-Himalayan
ridge in front of the main chain. After a time a new fault originated
at the foot of the sub-Himalayan zone thus raised, which now became
part of the Himalaya themselves, and a new sub-Himalayan chain was
formed in front of the previous one. The earthquakes of the present
day show that the process is still in operation, and in time the
deposits of the present Indo-Gangetic plain will be involved in the
folds.
The regular form of the Himalaya, constituting an arc of a true
circle, appears to indicate that the whole chain has been pushed
forward as one mass upon a gigantic thrust-plane; but, if so, the dip
of the plane must be low, for a line drawn along the southern foot of
the Himalaya would coincide with the outcrop of a plane inclined to
the surface at an angle of about 14 deg. The thrust-plane, then, does
not coincide with any of the boundary faults already mentioned, which
are usually inclined at angles of 50 deg. or 60 deg. The latter are
due to the fact that, although, perhaps, the whole mass above the
thrust-plane may move, yet the pressure which pushes it forwards
necessarily proceeds from behind. The back, accordingly, moves faster
than the front, and the whole is packed together; as when an ice-floe
drives against the shore, the ice breaks and the outer fragments ride
over those within. The great thrust-plane which is thus imagined to
exist at the base of the Himalaya, corresponds with the "major
thrusts" of the N.W. Highlands of Scotland, and the reversed faults
which appear at the surface with the "minor thrusts." (P. La.)
Topographical results of evolution.
Such is the general outline of Himalayan evolution as now understood,
and the process of it has led to certain marked features of scenery
and topography. Within the area of the trans-Indus mountains we have
beds of hard limestone or sandstone alternating with soft shales,
which leads to the scooping out by erosion of long narrow valleys
where the shales occur, and the passage of the streams through deep
rifts or gorges across the hard limestone anticlinals, which stand in
irregular series of parallel ridges with the eroded valleys between.
The great mass of the Himalaya exhibits the same structure, due to the
same conditions acting for longer periods and on a much larger scale;
but the structure is varied in the eastern portions of the mountains
by the effect of different climatic conditions, and especially by the
greater rainfall. Instead of wide, barren, wind-swept valleys, here
are found fertile alluvial plains--such as Manipur--but for the most
part the erosive action of the river has been able to keep pace with
the rise of the river bed, and we have deep, steep-sided valleys
arranged between the same parallel system of folds as we see on the
western frontier, connected by short transverse gaps where the rivers
cross the folds, frequently to resume a course parallel to that
originally held. An instance of this occurs where the Indus suddenly
breaks through the well-defined Ladakh range in the North-west
Himalaya to resume its north-westerly course after passing from the
northern to the southern side of the range. The reason assigned for
these extraordinary diversions of the drainage right across the
general strike of the ridges is that it is antecedent--i.e. that the
lines of drainage were formed ere the folds or anticlinals were
raised; and that the drainage has merely maintained the course
originally held, by the power of erosion during the gradual process of
upheaval.
In the outer valleys of the Himalaya the sides are generally steep, so
steep as to be liable to landslip, whilst the streams are still
cutting down the river beds and have not yet reached the stage of
equilibrium. Here and there a valley has become filled with alluvial
detritus owing to some local impediment in the drainage, and when this
occurs there is usually to be found a fertile and productive field for
agriculture. The straits of the Jhelum, below Baramulla, probably
account for the lovely vale of Kashmir, which is in form (if not in
principles of construction) a repetition on grand scale of the Maidan
of the Afridi Tirah, where the drainage from the slopes of a great
amphitheatre of hills is collected and then arrested by the gorge
which marks the outlet to the Bara.
General Himalayan formation is typical.
Other rivers besides the Indus and the Brahmaputra begin by draining a
considerable area north of the snowy range--the Sutlej, the Kosi, the
Gandak and the Subansiri, for example. All these rivers break through
the main snowy range ere they twist their way through the southern
hills to the plains of India. Here the "antecedent" theory will not
suffice, for there is no sufficient catchment area north of the snows
to support it. Their formation is explained by a process of "cutting
back," by which the heads of these streams are gradually eating their
way northwards owing to the greater rainfall on the southern than on
the northern slopes. The result of this process is well exhibited in
the relative steepness of slope on the Indian and Tibetan sides of the
passes to the Indus plateau. On the southern or Indian side the routes
to Tibet and Ladakh follow the levels of Himalayan valleys with no
remarkably steep gradients till they near the approach to the
water-divide. The slope then steepens with the ascending curve to the
summit of the pass, from which point it falls with a comparatively
gentle gradient to the general level of the plateau. The Zoji La, the
Kashmir water-divide between the Jhelum and the Indus, is a prominent
case in point, and all the passes from the Kumaon and Garhwal hills
into Tibet exhibit this formation in a marked degree. Taking the
average elevation of the central axial line of snowy peaks as 19,000
ft., the average height of the passes is not more than 10,000 owing to
this process of cutting down by erosion and gradual encroachment into
the northern basin.
[Illustration: Section across the sub-Himalayan zone.]
_Meteorology._--Independently of the enormous variety of topographical
conformation contained in the Himalayan system, the vast altitude of
the mountains alone is sufficient to cause modifications of climate in
ascending over their slopes such as are not surpassed by those
observed in moving from the equator to the poles. One half of the
total mass of the atmosphere and three-fourths of the water suspended
in it in the form of vapour lie below the average altitude of the
Himalaya; and of the residue, one-half of the air and virtually almost
all the vapour come within the influence of the highest peaks. The
regular variations in pressure of the air indicated by the barometer
and the annual and diurnal oscillations are as well marked in the
Himalaya as elsewhere, but the amount of vapour held in suspension
diminishes so rapidly with the altitude that not more than one-sixth
(sometimes only one-tenth) of that observed at the foot of the
mountains is found at the greatest heights. This is dependent on the
temperature of the air which rapidly decreases with altitude. On the
mountains every altitude has its corresponding temperature, an
elevation of 1000 ft. producing a fall of 3(1/2) deg., or about 1 deg.
to each 300 ft. The mean winter temperature at 7000 ft. (which is
about the average height of Himalayan "hill stations") is 44 deg. F.
and the summer mean about 65 deg. F. At 9000 ft. the mean temperature
of the coldest month is 32 deg. F. At 12,000 ft. the thermometer never
falls below freezing-point from the end of May to the middle of
October, and at 15,000 ft. it is seldom above that point even in the
height of summer. It should be noted that the thermometrical
conditions of Tibet vary considerably from those of the Himalaya. At
12,000 ft. in Tibet the mean of the hottest month is about 60 deg. F.
and of the coldest about 10 deg. F. whilst, at 15,000 ft. the frost is
only permanent from the end of October to the end of April. The
distribution of vegetation and topographical conformation largely
influence the question of local temperature. For instance it may be
found that the difference of temperature between forest-clad ranges
and the Indian plains is twice as much in April and May as in December
or January; and the difference between the temperature of a
well-wooded hill top and the open valley below may vary from 9 deg. to
24 deg. within twenty-four hours. The general relations of temperature
to altitude as determined by Himalayan observations are as follows:
(1) The decrease of temperature with altitude is most rapid in summer.
(2) The annual range diminishes with the elevation. (3) The diurnal
range diminishes with the elevation. Comparisons are, however, apt to
become anomalous when applied to elevated zones with a dense covering
of forest and a great quantity of cloud and open and uncloudy regions
both above and below the forest-clad tracts.
Rainfall.
The chief rainfall occurs in the summer months between May and October
(i.e. the period of the monsoon rains of India), the remainder of the
year being comparatively dry. The fall of rain over the great plain of
northern India gradually diminishes in quantity, and begins later, as
we pass from east to west. At the same time the rain is heavier as we
approach the Himalaya and the greatest falls are measured in its outer
ranges; but the quantity again diminishes as we pass onward across the
chain, and on arriving at the border of Tibet, behind the great line
of snowy peaks, the rain falls in such small quantities as to be
hardly susceptible of measurement. Diurnal currents of wind, which are
established from the plains to the mountains during the day, and from
the hills to the plains during the night, are important agents in
distributing the rainfall. The condensation of vapour from the
ascending currents and their gradual exhaustion as they are
precipitated on successive ranges is very obvious in the cloud effects
produced during the monsoon, the southern or windward face of each
range being clothed day after day with a white crest of cloud whilst
the northern slopes are often left entirely free. This shows how large
a proportion of the vapour is arrested and how it is that only by
drifting through the deeper gorges can any moisture find its way to
the Tibetan table-land.
The yearly rainfall, which amounts to between 60 and 70 in. in the
delta of the Ganges, is reduced to about 40 in. when that river issues
from the mountains, and diminishes to 30 in. at the debouchment of the
Indus into the plains. At Darjeeling (7000 ft. altitude) on the outer
ranges of the eastern Himalaya it amounts to about 120 in. At Naini
Tal north of the United Provinces it is about 90 in.; at Simla about
80 in., diminishing still further as one approaches the north-western
hills. All these stations are about the same altitude.
Snowfall.
In the eastern Himalaya the ordinary winter limit of snow is 6000 ft.
and it never lies for many days even at 7000 ft. In Kumaon, on the
west, it usually reaches down to the 5000 ft. level and occasionally
to 2500 ft. Snow has been known to fall at Peshawar. At Leh, in
western Tibet, hardly 2 ft. of snow are usually registered and the
fall on the passes between 17,000 and 19,000 ft. is not generally more
than 3 ft., but on the Himalayan passes farther east the falls are
much heavier. Even in September these passes may be quite blocked and
they are not usually open till the middle of June. The snow-line, or
the level to which snow recedes in the course of the year, ranges from
15,000 to 16,000 ft. on the southern exposures of the Himalaya that
carry perpetual snow, along all that part of the system that lies
between Sikkim and the Indus. It is not till December that the snow
begins to descend for the winter, although after September light falls
occur which cover the mountain sides down to 12,000 ft., but these
soon disappear. On the snowy range the snow-line is not lower than
18,500 ft. and on the summit of the table-land it reaches to 20,000
ft. On all the passes into Tibet vegetation reaches to about 17,500
ft., and in August they may be crossed in ordinary years up to 18,400
ft. without finding any snow upon them; and it is as impossible to
find snow in the summer in Tibet at 15,500 ft. above the sea as on the
plains of India.
_Glaciers._--The level to which the Himalayan glaciers extend is
greatly dependent on local conditions, principally the extent and
elevation of the snow basins which feed them, and the slope and
position of the mountain on which they are formed. Glaciers on the
outer slopes of the Himalaya descend much lower than is commonly the
case in Tibet, or in the most elevated valleys near the snowy range.
The glaciers of Sikkim and the eastern mountains are believed not to
reach a lower level than 13,500 or 14,000 ft. In Kumaon many of them
descend to between 11,500 and 12,500 ft. In the higher valleys and
Tibet 15,000 and 16,000 ft. is the ordinary level at which they end,
but there are exceptions which descend far lower. In Europe the
glaciers descend between 3000 and 5000 ft. below the snow-line, and in
the Himalaya and Tibet about the same holds good. The summer
temperatures of the points where the glaciers end on the Himalaya also
correspond fairly with those of the corresponding positions in
European glaciers, viz. for July a little below 60 deg. F., August 58
deg. and September 55 deg.
Measurements of the movement of Himalayan glaciers give results
according closely with those obtained under analogous conditions in
the Alps, viz. rates from 9(1/2) to 14(1/4) in. in twenty-four hours.
The motion of one glacier from the middle of May to the middle of
October averaged 8 in. in the twenty-four hours. The dimensions of
the glaciers on the outer Himalaya, where, as before remarked, the
valleys descend rapidly to lower levels, are fairly comparable with
those of Alpine glaciers, though frequently much exceeding them in
length--8 or 10 m. not being unusual. In the elevated valleys of
northern Tibet, where the destructive action of the summer heat is far
less, the development of the glaciers is enormous. At one locality in
north-western Ladakh there is a continuous mass of snow and ice
extending across a snowy ridge, measuring 64 m. between the
extremities of the two glaciers at its opposite ends. Another single
glacier has been surveyed 36 m. long.
The northern tributaries of the Gilgit river, which joins the Indus
near its south-westerly bend towards the Punjab, take their rise from
a glacier system which is probably unequalled in the world for its
extent and magnificent proportions. Chief amongst them are the
glaciers which have formed on the southern slopes of the Muztagh
mountains below the group of gigantic peaks dominated by Mount
Godwin-Austen (28,250 ft. high). The Biafo glacier system, which lies
in a long narrow trough extending south-west from Nagar on the Hunza
to near the base of the Muztagh peaks, may be traced for 90 m. between
mountain walls which tower to a height of from 20,000 to 25,000 ft.
above sea-level on either side.
In connexion with almost all the Himalayan glaciers of which precise
accounts are forthcoming are ancient moraines indicating some previous
condition in which their extent was much larger than now. In the east
these moraines are very remarkable, extending 8 or 10 m. In the west
they seem not to go beyond 2 or 3 m. reach. They have been observed on
the summit of the table-land as well as on the Himalayan slope. The
explanation suggested to account for the former great extension of
glaciers in Norway would seem applicable here. Any modification of the
coast-line which should submerge the area now occupied by the North
Indian plain, or any considerable part of it, would be accompanied by
a much wetter and more equable climate on the Himalaya; more snow
would fall on the highest ranges, and less summer heat would be
brought to bear on the destruction of the glaciers, which would
receive larger supplies and descend lower.
_Botany._--Speaking broadly, the general type of the flora of the
lower, hotter and wetter regions, which extend along the great plain
at the foot of the Himalaya, and include the valleys of the larger
rivers which penetrate far into the mountains, does not differ from
that of the contiguous peninsula and islands, though the tropical and
insular character gradually becomes less marked going from east to
west, where, with a greater elevation and distance from the sea and
higher latitude, the rainfall and humidity diminish and the winter
cold increases. The vegetation of the western part of the plain and of
the hottest zone of the western mountains thus becomes closely allied
to, or almost identical with, that of the drier parts of the Indian
peninsula, more especially of its hilly portions; and, while a general
tropical character is preserved, forms are observed which indicate the
addition of an Afghan as well as of an African element, of which last
the gay lily _Gloriosa superba_ is an example, pointing to some
previous connexion with Africa.
The European flora, which is diffused from the Mediterranean along the
high lands of Asia, extends to the Himalaya; many European species
reach the central parts of the chain, though few reach its eastern
end, while genera common to Europe and the Himalaya are abundant
throughout and at all elevations. From the opposite quarter an influx
of Japanese and Chinese forms, such as the rhododendrons, the tea
plant, _Aucuba_, _Helwingia_, _Skimmia_, _Adamia_, _Goughia_ and
others, has taken place, these being more numerous in the east and
gradually disappearing in the west. On the higher and therefore cooler
and less rainy ranges of the Himalaya the conditions of temperature
requisite for the preservation of the various species are readily
found by ascending or descending the mountain slopes, and therefore a
greater uniformity of character in the vegetation is maintained along
the whole chain. At the greater elevations the species identical with
those of Europe become more frequent, and in the alpine regions many
plants are found identical with species of the Arctic zone. On the
Tibetan plateau, with the increased dryness, a Siberian type is
established, with many true Siberian species and more genera; and some
of the Siberian forms are further disseminated, even to the plains of
Upper India. The total absence of a few of the more common forms of
northern Europe and Asia should also be noticed, among which may be
named _Tilia_, _Fagus_, _Arbutus_, _Erica_, _Azalea_ and _Cistacae_.
In the more humid regions of the east the mountains are almost
everywhere covered with a dense forest which reaches up to 12,000 or
13,000 ft. Many tropical types here ascend to 7000 ft. or more. To the
west the upper limit of forest is somewhat lower, from 11,500 to
12,000 ft. and the tropical forms usually cease at 5000 ft.
In Sikkim the mountains are covered with dense forest of tall
umbrageous trees, commonly accompanied by a luxuriant growth of under
shrubs, and adorned with climbing and epiphytal plants in wonderful
profusion. In the tropical zone large figs abound, _Terminalia_,
_Shorea_ (sal), laurels, many _Leguminosae_, _Bombax_, _Artocarpus_,
bamboos and several palms, among which species of Calamus are
remarkable, climbing over the largest trees; and this is the western
limit of _Cycas_ and _Myristica_ (nutmeg). Plantains ascend to 7000
ft. _Pandanus_ and tree-ferns abound. Other ferns, _Scitamineae_,
orchids and climbing _Aroideae_ are very numerous, the last named
profusely adorning the forests with their splendid dark-green foliage.
Various oaks descend within a few hundred feet of the sea-level,
increasing in numbers at greater altitudes, and becoming very frequent
at 4000 ft., at which elevation also appear _Aucuba_, _Magnolia_,
cherries, _Pyrus_, maple, alder and birch, with many _Araliaceae_,
_Hollbollea_, _Skimmia_, _Daphne_, _Myrsine_, _Symplocos_ and _Rubus_.
Rhododendrons begin at about 6000 ft. and become abundant at 8000 ft.,
from 10,000 to 14,000 ft. forming in many places the mass of the
shrubby vegetation which extends some 2000 ft. above the forest.
Epiphytal orchids are extremely numerous between 6000 and 8000 ft. Of
the Coniferae, _Podocarpus_ and _Pinus longifolia_ alone descend to
the tropical zone; _Abies Brunoniana_ and _Smithiana_ and the larch (a
genus not seen in the western mountains) are found at 8000, and the
yew and _Picea Webbiana_ at 10,000 ft. _Pinus excelsa_, which occurs
in Bhutan, is absent in the wetter climate of Sikkim.
On the drier and higher mountains of the interior of the chain, the
forests become more open, and are spread less uniformly over the
hill-sides, a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation appears, and the number
of shrubby _Leguminosae_, such as _Desmodium_ and _Indigofera_,
increases, as well as _Ranunculaceae_, _Rosaceae_, _Umbelliferae_,
_Labiatae_, _Gramineae_, _Cyperaceae_ and other European genera.
Passing to the westward, and viewing the flora of Kumaon, which
province holds a central position on the chain, on the 80th meridian,
we find that the gradual decrease of moisture and increase of high
summer heat are accompanied by a marked change of the vegetation. The
tropical forest is characterized by the trees of the hotter and drier
parts of southern India, combined with a few of European type. Ferns
are more rare, and the tree-ferns have disappeared. The species of
palm are also reduced to two or three, and bamboos, though abundant,
are confined to a few species.
The outer ranges of mountains are mainly covered with forests of
_Pinus longifolia_, rhododendron, oak and _Pieris_. At Naini Tal
cypress is abundant. The shrubby vegetation comprises _Rosa_, _Rubus_,
_Indigofera_, _Desmodium_, _Berberis_, _Boehmeria_, _Viburnum_,
_Clematis_, with an _Arundinaria_. Of herbaceous plants species of
_Ranunculus_, _Potentilla_, _Geranium_, _Thalictrum_, _Primula_,
_Gentiana_ and many other European forms are common. In the less
exposed localities, on northern slopes and sheltered valleys, the
European forms become more numerous, and we find species of alder,
birch, ash, elm, maple, holly, hornbeam, _Pyrus_, &c. At greater
elevations in the interior, besides the above are met _Corylus_, the
common walnut, found wild throughout the range, horse chestnut, yew,
also _Picea Webbiana_, _Pinus excelsa_, _Abies Smithiana_, _Cedrus
Deodara_ (which tree does not grow spontaneously east of Kumaon), and
several junipers. The denser forests are commonly found on the
northern faces of the higher ranges, or in the deeper valleys, between
8000 and 10,500 ft. The woods on the outer ranges from 3000 up to 7000
ft. are more open, and consist mainly of evergreen trees.
The herbaceous vegetation does not differ greatly, generically, from
that of the east, and many species of _Primulaceae_, _Ranunculaceae_,
_Cruciferae_, _Labiatae_ and _Scrophulariaceae_ occur; balsams abound,
also beautiful forms of _Campanulaceae_, _Gentiana_, _Meconopsis_,
_Saxifraga_ and many others.
Cultivation hardly extends above 7000 ft., except in the valleys
behind the great snowy peaks, where a few fields of buckwheat and
Tibetan barley are sown up to 11,000 or 12,000 ft. At the lower
elevations rice, maize and millets are common, wheat and barley at a
somewhat higher level, and buckwheat and amaranth usually on the
poorer lands, or those recently reclaimed from forest. Besides these,
most of the ordinary vegetables of the plains are reared, and potatoes
have been introduced in the neighbourhood of all the British stations.
As we pass to the west the species of rhododendron, oak and _Magnolia_
are much reduced in number as compared to the eastern region, and both
the Malayan and Japanese forms are much less common. The herbaceous
tropical and semi-tropical vegetation likewise by degrees disappears,
the _Scitamineae_, epiphytal and terrestrial _Orchideae_, _Araceae_,
_Cyrtandraceae_ and _Begoniae_ only occur in small numbers in Kumaon,
and scarcely extend west of the Sutlej. In like manner several of the
western forms suited to drier climates find their eastern limit in
Kumaon. In Kashmir the plane and Lombardy poplar flourish, though
hardly seen farther east, the cherry is cultivated in orchards, and
the vegetation presents an eminently European cast. The alpine flora
is slower in changing its character as we pass from east to west, but
in Kashmir the vegetation of the higher mountains hardly differs from
that of the mountains of Afghanistan, Persia and Siberia, even in
species.
The total number of flowering plants inhabiting the range amounts
probably to 5000 or 6000 species, among which may be reckoned several
hundred common English plants chiefly from the temperate and alpine
regions; and the characteristic of the flora as a whole is that it
contains a general and tolerably complete illustration of almost all
the chief natural families of all parts of the world, and has
comparatively few distinctive features of its own.
The timber trees of the Himalaya are very numerous, but few of them
are known to be of much value. The "Sal" is one of the most valuable
of the trees; with the "Toon" and "Sissoo," it grows in the outer
ranges most accessible from the plains. The "Deodar" is also much
used, but the other pines produce timber that is not durable. Bamboos
grow everywhere along the outer ranges, and rattans to the eastward,
and are largely exported for use in the plains of India.
Though one species of coffee is indigenous in the hotter Himalayan
forests, the climate does not appear suitable for the growth of the
plant which supplies the coffee of commerce. The cultivation of tea,
however, is carried on successfully on a large scale, both in the east
and west of the mountains. In the western Himalaya the cultivated
variety of the tea plant of China succeeds well; on the east the
indigenous tea of Assam, which is not specifically different, and is
perhaps the original parent of the Chinese variety, is now almost
everywhere preferred. The produce of the Chinese variety in the hot
and wet climate of the eastern Himalaya, Assam and eastern Bengal is
neither so abundant nor so highly flavoured as that of the indigenous
plant.
The cultivation of the cinchona, several species of which have been
introduced from South America and naturalized in the Sikkim Himalaya,
promises to yield at a comparatively small cost an ample supply of the
febrifuge extracted from its bark. At present the manufacture is
almost wholly in the hands of the Government, and the drug prepared is
all disposed of in India.
_Zoology._--The general distribution of animal life is determined by
much the same conditions that have controlled the vegetation. The
connexion with Europe on the north-west, with China on the north-east,
with Africa on the south-west, and with the Malayan region on the
south-east is manifest; and the greater or less prevalence of the
European and Eastern forms varies according to more western or eastern
position on the chain. So far as is known these remarks will apply to
the extinct as well as to the existing fauna. The Palaeozoic forms
found in the Himalaya are very close to those of Europe, and in some
cases identical. The Triassic fossils are still more closely allied,
more than a third of the species being identical. Among the Jurassic
Mollusca, also, are many species that are common in Europe. The
Siwalik fossils contain 84 species of mammals of 45 genera, the whole
bearing a marked resemblance to the Miocene fauna of Europe, but
containing a larger number of genera still existing, especially of
ruminants, and now held to be of Pliocene age.
The fauna of the Tibetan Himalaya is essentially European or rather
that of the northern half of the old continent, which region has by
zoologists been termed Palaearctic. Among the characteristic animals
may be named the yak, from which is reared a cross breed with the
ordinary horned cattle of India, many wild sheep, and two antelopes,
as well as the musk-deer; several hares and some burrowing animals,
including pikas (_Lagomys_) and two or three species of marmot;
certain arctic forms of carnivora--fox, wolf, lynx, ounce, marten and
ermine; also wild asses. Among birds are found bustard and species of
sand-grouse and partridge; water-fowl in great variety, which breed on
the lakes in summer and migrate to the plains of India in winter; the
raven, hawks, eagles and owls, a magpie, and two kinds of chough; and
many smaller birds of the passerine order, amongst which are several
finches. Reptiles, as might be anticipated, are far from numerous, but
a few lizards are found, belonging for the most part to types, such as
_Phrynocephalus_, characteristic of the Central-Asiatic area. The
fishes from the headwaters of the Indus also belong, for the most
part, to Central-Asiatic types, with a small admixture of purely
Himalayan forms. Amongst the former are several peculiar small-scaled
carps, belonging to the genus _Schizothorax_ and its allies.
The ranges of the Himalaya, from the border of Tibet to the plains,
form a zoological region which is one of the richest of the world,
particularly in respect to birds, to which the forest-clad mountains
offer almost every range of temperature.
Only two or three forms of monkey enter the mountains, the langur, a
species of _Semnopithecus_, ranging up to 12,000 ft. No lemurs occur,
although a species is found in Assam, and another in southern India.
Bats are numerous, but the species are for the most part not peculiar
to the area; several European forms are found at the higher
elevations. Moles, which are unknown in the Indian peninsula, abound
in the forest regions of the eastern Himalayas at a moderate altitude,
and shrews of several species are found almost everywhere; amongst
them are two very remarkable forms of water-shrew, one of which,
however, _Nectogale_, is probably Tibetan rather than Himalayan. Bears
are common, and so are a marten, several weasels and otters, and cats
of various kinds and sizes, from the little spotted _Felis
bengalensis_, smaller than a domestic cat, to animals like the clouded
leopard rivalling a leopard in size. Leopards are common, and the
tiger wanders to a considerable elevation, but can hardly be
considered a permanent inhabitant, except in the lower valleys.
Civets, the mungoose (_Herpestes_), and toddy cats (_Paradoxurus_) are
only found at the lower elevations. Wild dogs (_Cyon_) are common, but
neither foxes nor wolves occur in the forest area. Besides these
carnivora some very peculiar forms are found, the most remarkable of
which is Aelurus, sometimes called the cat-bear, a type akin to the
American racoon. Two other genera, _Helictis_, an aberrant badger, and
linsang, an aberrant civet, are representatives of Malayan types.
Amongst the rodents squirrels abound, and the so-called flying
squirrels are represented by several species. Rats and mice swarm,
both kinds and individuals being numerous, but few present much
peculiarity, a bamboo rat (_Rhizomys_) from the base of the eastern
Himalaya being perhaps most worthy of notice. Two or three species of
vole (_Arvicola_) have been detected, and porcupines are common. The
elephant is found in the outer forests as far as the Jumna, and the
rhinoceros as far as the Sarda; the spread of both of these animals as
far as the Indus and into the plains of India, far beyond their
present limits, is authenticated by historical records; they have
probably retreated before the advance of cultivation and fire-arms.
Wild pigs are common in the lower ranges, and one peculiar species of
pigmy-hog (_Sus salvanius_) of very small size inhabits the forests at
the base of the mountains in Nepal and Sikim. Deer of several kinds
are met with, but do not ascend very high on the hillsides, and belong
exclusively to Indian forms. The musk deer keeps to the greater
elevations. The chevrotains of India and the Malay countries are
unrepresented. The gaur or wild ox is found at the base of the hills.
Three very characteristic ruminants, having some affinities with
goats, inhabit the Himalaya; these are the "serow" (_Nemorhaedus_),
"goral" (_Cemas_) and "tahr" (_Hemitragus_), the last-named ranging to
rather high elevations. Lastly, the pangolin (_Manis_) is represented
by two species in the eastern Himalaya. A dolphin (_Platanista_)
living in the Ganges ascends that river and its affluents to their
issue from the mountains.
Almost all the orders of birds are well represented, and the
marvellous variety of forms found in the eastern Himalaya is only
rivalled in Central and South America. Eagles, vultures and other
birds of prey are seen soaring high over the highest of the
forest-clad ranges. Owls are numerous, and a small species,
_Glaucidium_, is conspicuous, breaking the stillness of the night by
its monotonous though musical cry of two notes. Several kinds of
swifts and nightjars are found, and gorgeously-coloured trogons,
bee-eaters, rollers, and beautiful kingfishers and barbets are common.
Several large hornbills inhabit the highest trees in the forest. The
parrots are restricted to parrakeets, of which there are several
species, and a single small lory. The number of woodpeckers is very
great and the variety of plumage remarkable, and the voice of the
cuckoo, of which there are numerous species, resounds in the spring as
in Europe. The number of passerine birds is immense. Amongst them the
sun-birds resemble in appearance and almost rival in beauty the
humming-birds of the New Continent. Creepers, nuthatches, shrikes, and
their allied forms, flycatchers and swallows, thrushes, dippers and
babblers (about fifty species), bulbuls and orioles, peculiar types of
redstart, various sylviads, wrens, tits, crows, jays and magpies,
weaver-birds, avadavats, sparrows, crossbills and many finches,
including the exquisitely coloured rose-finches, may also be
mentioned. The pigeons are represented by several wood-pigeons, doves
and green pigeons. The gallinaceous birds include the peacock, which
everywhere adorns the forest bordering on the plains, jungle fowl and
several pheasants; partridges, of which the chikor may be named as
most abundant, and snow-pheasants and partridges, found only at the
greatest elevations. Waders and waterfowl are far less abundant, and
those occurring are nearly all migratory forms which visit the
peninsula of India--the only important exception being two kinds of
solitary snipe and the red-billed curlew.
Of the reptiles found in these mountains many are peculiar. Some of
the snakes of India are to be seen in the hotter regions, including
the python and some of the venomous species, the cobra being found as
high up as 8000 or 9000 ft., though not common. Lizards are numerous,
and as well as frogs are found at all elevations from the plains to
the upper Himalayan valleys, and even extend to Tibet.
The fishes found in the rivers of the Himalaya show the same general
connexion with the three neighbouring regions, the Palaearctic, the
African and the Malayan. Of the principal families, the
_Acanthopterygii_, which are abundant in the hotter parts of India,
hardly enter the mountains, two genera only being found, of which one
is the peculiar amphibious genus _Ophiocephalus_. None of these fishes
are found in Tibet. The _Siluridae_, or scaleless fishes, and the
_Cyprinidae_, or carp and loach, form the bulk of the mountain fish,
and the genera and species appear to be organized for a
mountain-torrent life, being almost all furnished with suckers to
enable them to maintain their positions in the rapid streams which
they inhabit. A few _Siluridae_ have been found in Tibet, but the
carps constitute the larger part of the species. Many of the Himalayan
forms are Indian fish which appear to go up to the higher streams to
deposit their ova, and the Tibetan species as a rule are confined to
the rivers on the table-land or to the streams at the greatest
elevations, the characteristics of which are Tibetan rather than
Himalayan. The _Salmonidae_ are entirely absent from the waters of the
Himalaya proper, of Tibet and of Turkestan east of the Terektag.
The Himalayan butterflies are very numerous and brilliant, for the
most part belonging to groups that extend both into the Malayan and
European regions, while African forms also appear. There are large and
gorgeous species of _Papilio_, _Nymphalidae_, _Morphidae_ and
_Danaidae_, and the more favoured localities are described as being
only second to South America in the display of this form of beauty and
variety in insect life. Moths, also, of strange forms and of great
size are common. The cicada's song resounds among the woods in the
autumn; flights of locusts frequently appear after the summer, and
they are carried by the prevailing winds even among the glaciers and
eternal snows. Ants, bees and wasps of many species, and flies and
gnats abound, particularly during the summer rainy season, and at all
elevations.
_Mountain Scenery._--Much has been written about the impressiveness
of Himalayan scenery. It is but lately, however, that any adequate
conception of the magnitude and majesty of the most stupendous of the
mountain groups which mass themselves about the upper tributaries and
reaches of the Indus has been presented to us in the works of Sir F.
Younghusband, Sir W. M. Conway, H. C. B. Tanner and D. Freshfield. It
is not in comparison with the picturesque beauty of European Alpine
scenery that the Himalaya appeals to the imagination, for amongst the
hills of the outer Himalaya--the hills which are known to the majority
of European residents and visitors--there is often a striking absence
of those varied incidents and sharp contrasts which are essential to
picturesqueness in mountain landscape. Too often the brown, barren,
sun-scorched ridges are obscured in the yellow dust haze which drifts
upwards from the plains; too often the whole perspective of hill and
vale is blotted out in the grey mists that sweep in soft, resistless
columns against these southern slopes, to be condensed and
precipitated in ceaseless, monotonous rainfall. Few Europeans really
see the Himalaya; fewer still are capable of translating their
impressions into language which is neither exaggerated nor inadequate.
Some idea of the magnitude of Himalayan mountain construction--a
magnitude which the eye totally fails to appreciate--may, however, be
gathered from the following table of comparison of the absolute height
of some peaks above sea-level with the actual amount of their slopes
exposed to view:--
_Relative Extent of Snow Slopes Visible._
+---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+
| | | Height | Amount |
| Name of Mountain. | Place of Observation.| above | of Slope |
| | | sea. | exposed. |
+---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+
| Everest | Dewanganj | 29,002 | 8,000 |
| " | Sandakphu | " | 12,000 |
| K2 or Godwin-Austen | Between Gilgit and | | |
| | Gor, 16,000 ft. | 28,250 | |
| Pk. XIII. or Makalu | Purnea, 200 ft | 27,800 | 8,000 |
| | Sandakphu, 12,000 ft.| " | 9,000 |
| Nanga Parbat | Gor, 16,000 ft. | 26,656 | 23,000 |
| Tirach Mir | Between Gilgit and | | |
| | Chitral, 8000 ft. | 25,400 |17-18,000 |
| Rakapushi | Chaprot (Gilgit), | | |
| | 13,000 ft. | 25,560 | 18,000 |
| Kinchinjunga | Darjeeling, 7000 ft. | 28,146 | 16,000 |
| Mont Blanc | Above Chamonix, 7000 | | |
| | ft. | 15,781 | 11,500 |
+---------------------+----------------------+--------+----------+
It will be observed from this table that it is not often that a
greater slope of snow-covered mountain side is observable in the
Himalaya than that which is afforded by the familiar view of Mont
Blanc from Chamonix. (T. H. H.*)
AUTHORITIES.--Drew, _Jammu and Kashmir_ (London, 1875); G. W. Leitner,
_Dardistan_ (1887); J. Biddulph, _Tribes of the Hindu Kush_ (Calcutta,
1880); H. H. Godwin-Austen, "Mountain Systems of the Himalaya," vols.
v. and vi. _Proc. R. G. S._ (1883-1884); C. Ujfalvy, _Aus dem
westlichen Himalaya_ (Leipzig, 1884); H. C. B. Tanner, "Our Present
Knowledge of the Himalaya," vol. xiii. _Proc. R. G. S._ (1891); R. D.
Oldham, "The Evolution of Indian Geography," vol. iii. _Jour. R. G.
S._; W. Lawrence, _Kashmir_ (Oxford, 1895); Sir W. M. Conway,
_Climbing and Exploring in the Karakoram_ (London, 1898); F. Bullock
Workman, _In the Ice World of Himalaya_ (1900); F. B. and W. H.
Workman, _Ice-bound Heights of the Mustagh_ (1908); D. W. Freshfield,
_Round Kangchenjunga_ (1903).
For geology see R. Lydekker, "The Geology of Kashmir," &c., _Mem.
Geol. Surv. India_, vol. xxii. (1883); C. S. Middlemiss, "Physical
Geology of the Sub-Himalaya of Gahrwal and Kumaon," ibid., vol. xxiv.
pt. 2 (1890); C. L. Griesbach, _Geology of the Central Himalayas_,
vol. xxiii. (1891); R. D. Oldham, _Manual of the Geology of India_,
chap. xviii. (2nd ed., 1893). Descriptions of the fossils, with some
notes on stratigraphical questions, will be found in several of the
volumes of the _Palaeontologia Indica_, published by the Geological
Survey of India, Calcutta.
HIMERA, a city on the north coast of Sicily, on a hill above the east
bank of the Himeras Septentrionalis. It was founded in 648 B.C. by the
Chalcidian inhabitants of Zancle, in company with many Syracusan exiles.
Early in the 5th century the tyrant Terillas, son-in-law of Anaxilas of
Rhegium and Zancle, appealed to the Carthaginians, who came to his
assistance, but were utterly defeated by Gelon of Syracuse in 480
B.C.--on the same day, it is said, as the battle of Salamis.
Thrasydaeus, son of Theron of Agrigentum, seems to have ruled the city
oppressively, but an appeal made to Hiero of Syracuse, Gelon's brother,
was betrayed by him to Theron; the latter massacred all his enemies and
in the following year resettled the town. In 415 it refused to admit the
Athenian fleet and remained an ally of Syracuse. In 408 the Carthaginian
invading army under Hannibal, after capturing Selinus, invested and took
Himera and razed the city to the ground, founding a new town close to
the hot springs (Thermae Himeraeae), 8 m. to the west. The only relic of
the ancient town now visible above ground is a small portion (four
columns, lower diameter 7 ft.) of a Doric temple, the date of which
(whether before or after 480 B.C.) is uncertain.
HIMERIUS (c. A.D. 315-386), Greek sophist and rhetorician, was born at
Prusa in Bithynia. He completed his education at Athens, whence he was
summoned to Antioch in 362 by the emperor Julian to act as his private
secretary. After the death of Julian in the following year Himerius
returned to Athens, where he established a school of rhetoric, which he
compared with that of Isocrates and the Delphic oracle, owing to the
number of those who flocked from all parts of the world to hear him.
Amongst his pupils were Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great, bishop
of Caesarea. In recognition of his merits, civic rights and the
membership of the Areopagus were conferred upon him. The death of his
son Rufinus (his lament for whom, called [Greek: monodia], is extant)
and that of a favourite daughter greatly affected his health; in his
later years he became blind and he died of epilepsy. Although a heathen,
who had been initiated into the mysteries of Mithra by Julian, he shows
no prejudice against the Christians. Himerius is a typical
representative of the later rhetorical schools. Photius (cod. 165, 243
Bekker) had read 71 speeches by him, of 36 of which he has given an
epitome; 24 have come down to us complete and fragments of 10 or 12
others. They consist of epideictic or "display" speeches after the style
of Aristides, the majority of them having been delivered on special
occasions, such as the arrival of a new governor, visits to different
cities (Thessalonica, Constantinople), or the death of friends or
well-known personages. The _Polemarchicus_, like the _Menexenus_ of
Plato and the _Epitaphios Logos_ of Hypereides, is a panegyric of
those who had given their lives for their country; it is so called
because it was originally the duty of the polemarch to arrange the
funeral games in honour of those who had fallen in battle. Other
declamations, only known from the excerpts in Photius, were imaginary
orations put into the mouth of famous persons--Demosthenes advocating
the recall of Aeschines from banishment, Hypereides supporting the
policy of Demosthenes, Themistocles inveighing against the king of
Persia, an orator unnamed attacking Epicurus for atheism before Julian
at Constantinople. Himerius is more of a poet than a rhetorician, and
his declamations are valuable as giving prose versions or even the
actual words of lost poems by Greek lyric writers. The prose poem on the
marriage of Severus and his greeting to Basil at the beginning of spring
are quite in the spirit of the old lyric. Himerius possesses vigour of
language and descriptive powers, though his productions are spoilt by
too frequent use of imagery, allegorical and metaphorical obscurities,
mannerism and ostentatious learning. But they are valuable for the
history and social conditions of the time, although lacking the
sincerity characteristic of Libanius.
See Eunapius, _Vitae sophistarum_; Suidas, _s.v._; editions by G.
Wernsdorf (1790), with valuable introduction and commentaries, and by
F. Dubner (1849) in the Didot series; C. Teuber, _Quaestiones
Himerianae_ (Breslau, 1882); on the style, E. Norden, _Die antike
Kunstprosa_ (1898).
HIMLY (LOUIS), AUGUSTE (1823-1906), French historian and geographer, was
born at Strassburg on the 28th of March 1823. After studying in his
native town and taking the university course in Berlin (1842-1843) he
went to Paris, and passed first in the examination for fellowship
(_agregation_) of the _lycees_ (1845), first in the examinations on
leaving the Ecole des Chartes, and first in the examination for
fellowship of the faculties (1849). In 1849 he took the degree of doctor
of letters with two theses, one of which, _Wala et Louis le Debonnaire_
(published in Paris in 1849), placed him in the front rank of French
scholars in the province of Carolingian history. Soon, however, he
turned his attention to the study of geography. In 1858 he obtained an
appointment as teacher of geography at the Sorbonne, and henceforth
devoted himself to that subject. It was not till 1876 that he published,
in two volumes, his remarkable _Histoire de la formation territoriale
des etats de l'Europe centrale_, in which he showed with a firm, but
sometimes slightly heavy touch, the reciprocal influence exerted by
geography and history. While the work gives evidence throughout of wide
and well-directed research, he preferred to write it in the form of a
student's manual; but it was a manual so original that it gained him
admission to the Institute in 1881. In that year he was appointed dean
of the faculty of letters, and for ten years he directed the
intellectual life of that great educational centre during its
development into a great scientific body. He died at Sevres on the 6th
of October 1906.
HIMMEL, FREDERICK HENRY (1765-1814), German composer, was born on the
20th of November 1765 at Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg, Prussia, and
originally studied theology at Halle. During a temporary stay at Potsdam
he had an opportunity of showing his self-acquired skill as a pianist
before King Frederick William II., who thereupon made him a yearly
allowance to enable him to complete his musical studies. This he did
under Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, and the style of
that school Himmel himself adopted in his serious operas. The first of
these, a pastoral opera, _Il Primo Navigatore_, was produced at Venice
in 1794 with great success. In 1792 he went to Berlin, where his
oratorio _Isaaco_ was produced, in consequence of which he was made
court Kapellmeister to the king of Prussia, and in that capacity wrote a
great deal of official music, including cantatas, and a coronation Te
Deum. His Italian operas, successively composed for Stockholm, St
Petersburg and Berlin, were all received with great favour in their day.
Of much greater importance than these is an operetta to German words by
Kotzebue, called _Fanchon_, an admirable specimen of the primitive form
of the musical drama known in Germany as the _Singspiel_. Himmel's gift
of writing genuine simple melody is also observable in his songs,
amongst which one called "To Alexis" is the best. He died in Berlin on
the 8th of June 1814.