Himalaya mountain

This  is the highest mountain system on earth, the name Himalaya means the House of Snow and it consists of several parallel mountain ranges. 30 to 50 million years in different stages the Indian Plate has collided with the Eurasian Continental Plate to form the Himalaya Mountains.  The Himalaya system is the most common type of mountain formation, folded. They are created by tectonic plates pushing against each other and the only direction for these earth to move is up.

The mountains nearly extend 1,600-miles in an ellipse across southern Asia from the bend of the Indus River in the northwest to the Brahmapytra in the east. They form a barrier that . The Himalaya system, averaging 200 to 250 miles in width, rises sharply from the Indo-Gangetic Plain and separates northern India from the plateau of Tibet, in China. The Himalayas form the earths highest mountain region, containing 9 of the 14 highest peaks in the world. 

IN 1807 a Survey detachment was deputed by the Surveyor General of Bengal to explore the source of the Ganges: this was the first expedition to the Himalaya undertaken for purely geographical purposes. Two hundred years have now elapsed, during which geographical and geological information has been steadily accumulating and we have at length reached a stage where there is danger of losing our way in a maze of unclassified detail: it is therefore desirable to review our present position, to co-ordinate our varied observations and to see how far we have progressed and what directions appear favorable for future lines of advance.

First we look at a  paper that originated in a proposal submitted by the Survey of India to the Board of Scientific Advice at the meeting of the latter in May 1906. The proposal was as follows:

"The number of travelers in the Himalaya and Tibet is "increasing, and a wider interest is being evinced by the public in the geography of "these regions. It is therefore proposed to compile a paper summarizing the geographical position at the present time.''

Subject to the modification that the scope of the paper should be geological as well as geographical, this proposal received the sanction of the Government of India. The paper is intended primarily for the use of the public, and its writers have endeavoured to avoid purely technical details and to present our results in a popular manner. The  subject was fallen naturally into four parts, as follows: 

Part I.—The high peaks of Asia.Part II.—The principal mountain ranges of Asia.Part III.—The rivers of the Himalaya and Tibet.Part IV.—The geology of the Himalaya. 


Though the four parts are essentially interdependent, each has been made as far as possible complete in itself and will be published separately. The first three parts are mainly geographical, the fourth part is wholly geological: the parts are subdivided into sections, and against each section in the table of contents is given the name of the author responsible for it.


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The endeavour to render each part complete must be our apology for having repeated ourselves in more places than one: the relations, for instance, of a range to a river have been discussed in Part II, when the range was being described, and have been mentioned again in Part III under the account of the river.

As the mountains of Asia become more accurately surveyed, errors will doubtless be found in what we have written and drawn : it is not possible yet to arrive at correct generalisations and we have to be content with first approximations to truth.

Maps, too large for insertion in such a volume as this, are required for a study of the Himalayan mountains: the titles of maps illustrating the text are given in footnotes and are procurable from the Map Issue Office of the Survey of India in Calcutta. Constable's hand-atlas of India will be found useful.

We are much indebted to Babus Shiv Nath Saha and Ishan Chandra Dev, B.a., for the care with which they have checked our figures and names, and to Mr. J. H. Nichol for the trouble he has taken to ensure the correctness of the charts. Mr. Eccles and Major Lenox Conyngham have been kind enough to examine all proofs, and to give U3 the benefit of their advice and suggestions. Mr. Eccles has also supervised the drawing and printing of the charts, and we have profited greatly by the interest he has shown in them.

Mount Everest.

The elevation of Mount Everest was first observed in 1849, but its height was not computed till 1852. Though half a century has elapsed since its discovery and the mountains of Asia have been continually explored in the interval, no second peak of 29000 feet has been found. There is but little probability now of a higher peak than Mount Everest being discovered and even the prospect of finding new peaks of 27000 or 26000 feet is becoming remote.