The Geographical Congress assembled at Paris has formed a .collection
of maps, one of which, of great interest to Englishmen, shows the wonderful extent of the section of the Himalaya between India and Yarkund, regarded often in this country as if the range were a sort of lofty wall. The shortest distance across the mountains, from the plains on one side to the plains on the other, is 400 English miles, much of it being over passes 16,000 feet above the sea. "The vastness of this mountain system," writes the Times' reporter of the meetings, "will be appreciated, when it is remembered that a strong man can in a summer day walk from a village on one side of the Alps to a village on the -other side ; whereas it would take the same man, assisted by a pony, 65 days of incessant marching to cross [this section of] the Himalayas." The difficulties of the march are greatly increased by the necessity of carrying food, and for much of the journey, -water. The want of water, is from Beloochistan to Bootan the characteristic feature of the Indian mountain frontier. It contains from end to end but one solitary lake.
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