Plateau Sentence Examples

The city stands on a rocky plateau, which projects southwards from the main line of hills.

The town is charmingly situated on a small plateau, 1680 ft.

Snows are frequent during the winter, and sometimes deep in the higher plateau and mountain districts.

There are many forests which clothe the slopes of the plateau.

The plateau was too small for it to land, but it hovered near the edge.

The entire plateau area is drained by the Ohio river and its tributaries.

It is beautifully situated in the centre of a valley basin on a plateau 3500 ft.

Petroleum and natural gas also occur in the plateau rocks in great quantities.

Gold-dust is found in almost all the alpine regions fringing the great plateau.

Rye, on the other hand, one of the least valuable of the cereals, is grown chiefly in the poor agricultural territories of the central plateau and western Brittany.

From this a gently-sloping plateau extends to almost due north of Spencer Gulf, at which point its height has fallen almost to sealevel.

South of this the country rises graudally to a high plateau with open campos.

In general the climate is dry and bracing all over the plateau.

The eastern part of Bastar is a flat elevated plateau, from 1800 to 2000 ft.

The three principal rivers - the Ob, the Yenisei, and the Lena - take their rise on the high plateau or in the alpine regions fringing it, and, after descending from the plateau and piercing the alpine regions, flow for many hundreds of miles across the high plains and lowlands before they reach the Arctic, Ocean.

The Amur, the upper tributaries of which rise on the eastern border-range of the high plateau, is similar.

The latter descend from the plateau much nearer the coast, and are in most cases navigable for short distances only.

The general slope of the plateau is toward the N., and the drainage of the state is chiefly through the above-named rivers - the principal tributaries of the Araguaya being the Grande and Vermelho, and of the Upper Tocantins, the Manoel Alves Grande, Somno, Paranan and Maranhao.

The surface of the plateau is generally open campo and scrubby arboreal growth called caatingas, but the streams are generally bordered with forest, especially in the deeper valleys.

The climate of the plateau is usually described as temperate, but it is essentially sub-tropical.

Thus it consists of the immense plains and flat lands which extend between the plateau formation and the Arctic Ocean, including the series of parallel chains and hilly spurs which skirt the former region on the N.W.

The picturesque Bureya Mountains above the Amur, the forest-clad Sikhota-alin on the Pacific, and the volcanic chains of Kamchatka belong, however, to quite another orographical construction, being the border-ridges of the terraces by which the great plateau formation descends to the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Taking their rise on the plateau formation, or in its outskirts, they flow first along lofty longitudinal valleys formerly filled with great lakes, next they cleave their way through the rocky barriers, and finally they enter the lowlands, where they become navigable, and, describing wide curves to avoid here and there the minor plateaus and hilly tracts, they bring into watercommunication with one another places thousands of miles apart.

A broad depression - the Aral-Caspian desert - has arisen where the plateau formation reaches its greatest altitude, and at the same time suddenly changes its direction from N.W.

In the Valdai plateau there are only a few beds of mediocre coal.

The round flattened summits of the Valdai plateau do not rise above 1100 ft., and they present the appearance of mountains only in consequence of the depths of the valleys - the rivers which flow towards the depression of Lake Peipus being only 200 to 250 ft.

In the Piedmont Plateau Region oaks, hickories and elms are the most common.

On reaching the Tibetan plateau, with the increased dryness the flora assumes many features of the Siberian type.

Gold is found on the high plateau in the basin of the upper Vitim, on the lower plateau in the Nerchinsk district, and on the upper tributaries of the Amur (especially the Oldoi) and the Zeya, in the north-east continuation of the Nerchinsk Mountains.

North of the Sao Francisco the watershed projecting from the plateau eastward toward Cape St Roque, known as the Serra da Borborema in Parahyba and Rio Grande do Norte where its direction becomes north-east, leaves a triangular section of the easterly slope in which the river courses are short and much broken by rapids.

Large areas of the plateau are covered with grass and occasional thorn trees.

The Russians in Sokolnitz surrendered, an opportune cavalry charge further discomfited the allied left, and the Pratzen plateau was now in full possession of the French.

The last serious attempt of the allies in the centre led to some of the hardest fighting of the day; the Russian Imperial Guard under the grand-duke Constantine pressed closely upon St Hilaire and Vandamme on the plateau, and only gave way when the French Guard and the Grenadiers came into action.

No further attempt was made on the plateau, which was held by the French from Pratzen to the Olmiitz road.

The fighting in Telnitz was perhaps the hardest of the whole battle, but the inevitable retreat, every part of which was now under the fire of the French on the plateau, was terribly costly.

On the north the crag is crowned by a sort of plateau sloping backwards into a round-topped hill.

The Carpathians separate Hungary and Transylvania from Lower Austria, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukovina and Rumania, while its ramifications fill the whole northern part of Hungary, and form the quadrangular mass of the Transylvanian plateau.

On the plateau there are but few hills; the streams run slowly and the country is a mixture of plain and undulating ground covered by dense sdl forests.

There are also indications of another series of faults roughly parallel to the south-east coast, which point to the islands being fragments of a former extensive plateau.

The latter almost at once encountered the heads of the 6th cavalry division, at that moment just clearing the defile leading up to the Rezonville plateau from Gorze.

Without pausing to fire, the men raced onward, but the French striking their outer wing rolled up the whole line in succession, the actual collision occurring in and near the Bruville ravine, a deep-cut natural trench which, starting from the Tronville copses, here intersects the plateau from west to east.

In the extreme western part of the state is Chautauqua Lake, beautifully situated in the plateau of western New York.

At Kufstein, down to which point it has still pursued a north-easterly direction, it breaks through the north Tirol limestone formation, and, now keeping a northerly course, enters at Rosenheim the Bavarian high plateau.

This ocean, already diminished in area, retreated after Oligocene times from the Iranian plateau, Turkestan, Asia Minor and the region of the north-west Alps.

The Sicilian-Ionian basin has a mean depth of 885 fathoms, and the Levant basin, 793 fathoms. Deep water is found close up to the coast of Sicily, Greece, Crete and the edge of the African plateau.

The more important of the suburbs lie towards the east, where the promontory joins the main plateau, of which it forms the north-western extremity.

The northern slope of this great plateau is drained by the AraguayaTocantins, Xingu, Tapajos and Guapore-Mamore-Madeira, which flow northward, and, except the first, empty into the Amazon; the southern slope drains southward through a multitude of streams flowing into the Parana and Paraguay.

The first industry was that of mining, gold having been discovered in the river valleys on the southern slopes of the plateau, and diamonds on the head-waters of the Paraguay, about Diamantino and in two or three other districts.

On the north their most noteworthy offshoots are, in the centre, the plateau of Lannemezan from which rivers radiate fanwise to join the Adour and Garonne; and in the east the Corbire.

Farther to the north a number of small rivers, the chief of which is the Svre Niortaise, drain the coast region to the south of the plateau of Gtine.

The oldest rocks, the gneisses and schists of the Archean period, form nearly the whole of the Central Plateau, and are also exposed in the axes of the folds in Brittany.

On the east the valley of the Kidron separates this plateau from the ridge of the Mount of Olives, which is 100 to 200 ft.

As the tableland runs northward it decreases both in height and width, until it narrows to a few miles only, with an elevation of scarcely 1500 ft.; under the name of the Blue Mountains the plateau widens again and increases in altitude, the chief peaks being Mount Clarence(4000 ft.), Mount Victoria (3525 ft.), and Mount Hay (3270 ft.).

Australia is essentially the fragment of a great plateau land of Archean rocks.

They are also preserved in basins on the western plateau, as shown by brown coal deposits passed through in the Lake Phillipson bore.

The second and marine type of the Jurassics occurs in Western Australia, on the coastal plain skirting the western foot of the western plateau.

The sea does not appear to have extended completely across Australia, breaking it into halves, for a projection from the Archean plateau of Western Australia extended as far east as the South Australian highlands, and thence probably continued eastward, till it joined the Victorian highlands.

Tasmania and Victoria were separated by the foundering of Bass Strait, and at the same time the formation of the rift valley of Spencer Gulf, and Lake Torrens, isolated the South Australian highlands from the Eyre Peninsula and the Westralian plateau.

On both sides of the central ridge deep troughs extend southwards from the Telegraph plateau to the Southern Ocean, the deep water coming close to the land all the way down on both sides.

On the hills the baobab and hyphaene palm are characteristic; on the plateau are stretches of open savanna, and park-like country with clumps of silk cotton and shea-butter trees.

In the interior cattle and sheep are plentiful, on the plateau horses and donkeys.

It is well situated on a hill forming part of the plateau of la Goole, and is known as Dammartin-en-Goole to distinguish it from Dammartin-sousTigeaux, a small commune in the same department.

It collects nearly all the drainage of the Udaipur plateau with that of the eastern slopes and hill-tracts of the Aravallis, and joins the Chambal a little beyond the northeastern extremity of the Bundi state, after a course of about 300 m.

Geologically considered, the country may be divided into three regions - a central, and the largest, comprising the whole width of the Aravalli system, formed of very old sub-metamorphic and gneissic rocks; an eastern region, with sharply defined boundary, along which the most ancient formations are abruptly replaced by the great basin of the Vindhyan strata, or are overlaid by the still more extensive spread of the Deccan trap, forming the plateau of Malwa; and a western region, of very ill-defined margin, in which, besides some rocks of undetermined age, it is more or less known or suspected that Tertiary and Secondary strata stretch across from Sind, beneath the sands of the desert, towards the flanks of the Aravallis.

This plateau region is watered by numerous tributaries of the Parnahyba, chief of which are the Urussuhy, the Caninde and its tributary the Piauhy, the Gurgueia and its tributary the Parahim, which drains the large inland lake of Parnagua, the Longa, and the Poty, which has its source in the state of Ceara.

On the 28th of March 1888 the negus indeed descended from the Abyssinian high plateau in the direction of Saati, but finding the Italian position too strong to be carried by assault, temporized and opened negotiations for peace.

Menelek, by means of Count Antonelli, resident in the Shoa country, requested Italy to execute a di version in his favor by occupying Asmar and other points on the high plateau.

Bath-Agos, the native chieftain who ruled the Okul-Kusai and the cis-Mareb provinces on behalf of Italy, intrigued with Mangash, ras of the trans-Mareb province of Tigr, and with Menelek, to raise a revolt against Italian rule on the high plateau.

Groningen is connected with the Drente plateau by the sandy tongue of the Hondsrug which extends almost up to the capital.

For example, in southern Algeria, a region of steppes is situated on a flat plateau, about 3000 ft.

The third part is the north, which belongs to the central plateau, still much higher, and therefore rough and very cold in the winter.

He appears to have ascended from Kabul to the plateau of the Pamir, and thence onwards by Yarkand, Khotan and Aksu.

The continental plateau might for purposes of detailed study be divided into the continental shelf from - 660 ft.

It comprises a comparatively narrow coastal zone, a high inland plateau, and an intermediate zone formed by the terraces and slopes between the two.

The rivers of the state include a number of small plateau streams flowing southward to the Sao Francisco River, and several large streams in the eastern part flowing eastward to the Atlantic. The former are the Moxoto, Ema, Pajehu, Terra Nova, Brigida, Boa Vista and Pontai, and are dry channels the greater part of the year.

By their means the plains of the central plateau - the very heart of Russia, whose natural outlet was the Caspian - were brought into water-communication with the Baltic, and the Volga basin was connected with the Gulf of Finland.

The plateau "lowlands" in the centre of the Basin are approximately 5000 ft.

The whole Basin is marked by three features of elevation - the Utah basin, the Nevada basin and, between them, the Nevada plateau.

The Falkland Islands form essentially a part of Patagonia, with which they are connected by an elevated submarine plateau, 1 See B Stechele, in'Milnchener geographische Studien, xx.(1906), and Geographical Journal (December 1907).

This plateau, however, is not a plain, but contains many buttes and mesas and isolated mountain ranges rising from 1000 to 8000 ft.

From this depression eastward the general level of the plateau gradually rises to an elevation of 6000 ft.

From the valley of the Humboldt river southward the plateau gradually rises until the divide between this stream and the Colorado river, in the vicinity of the White Pine Mountains, is reached.

At a distance from the central core the radiating ridges become less abrupt and descend with a gentle gradient, finally passing somewhat abruptly, at a height of some 7000 ft., into the level plateau.

Its territory is divided into two nearly equal parts by the eastern branch of the Sierra Madre Occidental, the northern part belonging to the great central plateau region, and the southern to an extremely broken region formed by the diverging branches of the Sierra Madre, with their wooded terraces and slopes and highly fertile valleys.

Though the plateau region was settled soon after the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, there are large districts on the southern and Pacific slopes that still belong almost exclusively to the Indians.

The c nquest of the peninsula was undertaken in 1527 by Francisco de Montejo, who en-, countered a more vigorous opposition than Cortes had on the high plateau of Anahuac. In 1549 Montejo had succeeded in establishing Spanish rule over barely one-half of the peninsula, and it was never extended further.

The " Fall Line," the boundary between the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau, has a very irregular course across North Carolina, but lies in a general S.W.

The Piedmont Plateau Region extends from this line to the Blue Ridge Escarpment, toward which its mean elevation increases at the rate of about 32 ft.

In the Mountain Region and in the Piedmont Plateau Region the rivers have numerous falls and rapids which afford a total water power unequalled perhaps in any other state than Maine on the Atlantic Coast, the largest being on the Yadkin, Roanoke and Catawba; and in crossing some of the mountains, especially the Unakas, the streams have carved deep narrow gorges that are much admired for their scenery.

The species of fauna that are at all characteristic of this part of the United States are found in the Piedmont Plateau Region and the western portion of the Coastal Plain Region.

For the Coastal Plain Region it is 54 in.; for the Piedmont Plateau Region, 48 in.; and for the Mountain Region, 53 in.

Throughout much of the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions the decomposition of felspar and of other aluminous minerals has resulted in a deep soil of clay with which more or less sand is mixed.

Farmers of the Piedmont Plateau formerly kept large numbers of horses and cattle from April to November in ranges in the Mountain Region, but with the opening of portions of that country to cultivation the business of pasturage declined, except as the cotton plantations demanded an increased supply of mules; there were 25,259 mules in 1850, 110,011 in 1890, 138,786 in 1900, and 181,000 in 1910.

At the beginning of the 20th century a great number of minerals were found in the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions, but most of them in such small quantities as to be of little or no commercial value, and in 1902 the total value of the products of the mines and quarries was only $927,376; but in 1907 their value was $2,961,381, and in 1908, $2,145,947.

The cotton mills are mostly in the Piedmont Plateau Region; durham|Durham, Durham county, and Winston, Forsyth county, are leading centres of tobacco manufacture; and High Point (pop. in 1900, 4163) in Randolph is noted for its manufacture of furniture.

It rises near the peak of Itatiaya, on the northern slopes of the Mantiqueira, and flows north-west and west across the Minas plateau, receiving several large tributaries from the south.

All these rivers of the Brazilian plateau are interrupted by falls and rapids.

The portion of Asia west of British India, excluding Arabia and Syria, forms another extensive plateau covering an area as large as that of Tibet, though at a much lower altitude.

The western part of the range, which received the name of Paropamisus Mons from the ancients, diminishes in height west of the 65th meridian and constitutes the northern face of the Afghan and Persian plateau, rising abruptly from the plains of the Turkoman desert, which lies between the Oxus and the Caspian.

West of Ararat high hills extend along the Black Sea, between which and the Taurus range lies the plateau of Asia Minor, reaching to the Aegean Sea; the mountains along the Black Sea, on which are the Olympus and Ida of the ancients, rise to 6000 or 7000 ft.; the Taurus is more lofty, reaching 8000 and 10,000 ft.; both ranges decline in altitude as they approach the Mediterranean.

This great plateau, extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus, has a length of about 2500 m.

From it the Oxus, or Amu, flows off to the west, and the Jaxartes, or Syr, to the north, through the Turki state of Khokand, while to the east the waters run down past Kashgar to the central desert of the Gobi, uniting with the streams from the northern slope of the Tibetan plateau that traverse the principalities of Yarkand and Khotan, which are also Turki.

The central area bounded on the north and north-west by the Yablonoi Mountains and their western extension in the Tian-shan, on the south by the northern face of the Tibetan plateau, and on the east by the Khingan range before alluded to, forms the great desert of central Asia, known as the Gobi.

It includes an immense high and broken plateau which spreads from south-west to north-east, losing in width and altitude as it advances north-east.

Bonvalot, accompanied by Prince Henri d'Orleans, crossed the Tibetan plateau from north to south, but failed to enter Lhasa.

The great highland plateau which tion stretches from the Himalaya northwards to Chinese Turkestan, and from the frontier of Kashmir eastwards to China, has now been defined with comparative geographical exactness.

The great central depression of the continent which reaches from the foot of the Pamir plateau on the west through the Tarim desert to Lop Nor and the Gobi has yielded up many interesting Chinese secrets.

South and east of the Palaeozoic plateau is an extensive area consisting chiefly of Archean rocks, and including the greater part of Mongolia north of the Tian-shan.

Farther south, in the Chinese provinces of Shansi and Shensi, the geological succession is similar in some respects to that of the Siberian Palaeozoic plateau, but the sequence is more complete.

The city of Ayacucho, capital of the department of that name and of the province of Guamanga, is situated on an elevated plateau, 8911 ft.

It consists chiefly of an extensive plateau between the Eastern and Western Ghats, of a height varying from Boo to 1000 ft.

The disturbances among the underlying rocks of Ohio have been slight, and originally the surface was a plain only slightly undulating; stream dissection changed the region to one of numberless hills and valleys; glacial drift then filled up the valleys over large broken areas, forming the remarkably level till plains of northwestern Ohio; but at the same time other areas were broken by the uneven distribution of the drift, and south-eastern Ohio, which was unglaciated, retains its rugged hilly character, gradually merging with the typical plateau country farther S.E.

Its southern extremity penetrates into the high plateau of Asia, and the lake lies entirely in the Alpine zone which fringes that plateau on the north-west.

The deepest part is in the south-east, at the foot of the Khamardaban border-ridge of the high plateau.

With the exception of the extreme north (Commagene), which is shut off by a barrier of hills and belongs to foreign hydrographic systems, the whole country is roughly a gable-shaped plateau, falling north and south from a medial ridge, which crosses Syria at about its central point.

Thereafter it broadens out and becomes the high table-land of Galilee, Samaria and Judaea, and gradually sinks into the plateau of north Sinai.

The Drakensberg forming the buttress of the plateau seaward, attain their highest elevation on the BasutoNatal border.

It is commonly said to take its origin in some small lakes a little south of the summit plateau of the Mont Genevre Pass.

Physically Moravia may be described as a mountainous plateau sloping from north to south, just in the opposite direction of the adjoining Bohemia plateau, which descends from south to north, and bordered on three sides by mountain ranges.

The city was built by the state on an open plateau, and provided with all necessary public buildings, gas, water and tramway services before the seat of government was transferred from Ouro Preto.

The state occupies an elevated plateau, extending from two spurs of the Sierra Madre, called the Sierra Fria and Sierra de Laurel, eastward to the rolling fertile plains of its eastern and south-eastern districts.

These railway communications, and the situation of the city (on the Piedmont Plateau) on the water-parting between the streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and those flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, have given Atlanta its popular name, the "Gate City of the South."

As is shown by its name the province is situated in the centre of the Indian peninsula, comprising a large proportion of the broad belt of hill and plateau country which separates the plains of Hindustan from the Deccan.

The, 6th century saw the establishment of a powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th of the petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions so as to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura highlands.

In the 17th century Chhatarsal, the Bundela chieftain, deprived the Mandla principality of part of the Vindhyan plateau and the Nerbudda valley.

The whole region is characterized by a remarkable degree of physical uniformity, and may be broadly described as a vast plateau of an average elevation of 3000 ft., bounded westwards by the Ethiopian and Galla highlands and northwards by an inner and an outer coast range, skirting the south side of the Gulf of Aden in its entire length from the Harrar uplands to Cape Guardafui.

The plateau, known as the Ogaden plateau, everywhere presents the same monotonous aspect of a boundless steppe clothed with a scanty vegetation of scrubby plants and herbaceous growths.

In the north the plateau is overlain by red and purple unfossiliferous sandstones, capped near its edge by a cherty limestone also unfossiliferous but possibly of Lower Cretaceous age.

The plains inland from Berbera, and the maritime margins between the coast and foot of the plateau, consist of limestones of Lower Oolitic age with Belemnites subhastatus.

On an average the coast-belt temperatures are some 10 0 higher than those of the plateau.

In consequence of the elevation of the plateau and the dryness of the air, the heat is less oppressive than is indicated by the temperatures recorded.

On the plateau many forms common elsewhere in East Africa, such as the Borassus palm and the baobab tree, are missing.

The antelopes include the beisa oryx, fairly common and widely distributed; the greater and lesser kudu (the greater kudu is not found on the Ogaden plateau); the Somali hartebeest (Bubalis Swaynei), found only in the Haud and Ogo districts; waterbuck, rare except along the Webi Shebeli and the Nogal; the dol or Somali bushbuck; the dibatag or Clarke's gazelle; the giraffe-like gerenuk or Waller's gazelle, very common; the aoul or Soemmering's gazelle, widely distributed; the dero (Gazella Speki); and the small dikdik or sakaro antelope, found in almost every thicket.

The Hawiya domain comprises the Ogaden plateau and the region generally between the Nogal and Webi-Shebeli rivers.

Between the Harrar plateau and Cape Guardafui the coast ranges maintain a mean altitude of from 4000 to 5000 ft., and fall generally in steep escarpments down to the narrow strip of sandy lowlands skirting the Gulf of Aden.

South of the Golis the ground falls gradually to the central plateau known as the Haud, a waterless but not unfertile district.

Its waters are lost in the arid stony plateau of the Sorl.

The northern part can best be regarded as a low plateau (once marine sediments) sloping southward, traversed by the large diluvial valleys of the Mississippi, Red and Ouachita rivers, and recut by smaller tributaries into smaller plateaus and rather uniform flat-topped hills.

The region between the lines of the two coastal systems is a much dissected plateau, imperfectly explored.

Its summit consists of a plateau too acres in area, with a slight slope to the south, terminating on its north-eastern side in a sheer fall of more than 1500 ft.

They comprise the geographically distinct regions of the Anatolian plateau (Asia Minor), the Armenian and Kurdish highlands, the Mesopotamian lowlands, the hilly and partly mountainous territory of Syria and Palestine and the coast lands of west and north-east Arabia.

The main body were between Weimar and Apolda during the 12th, and the Saxons duly effected their junction with Hohenlohe in the vicinity of Vierzehnheiligen, whilst the latter had withdrawn his troops all but some outposts from Jena to the plateau about Capellendorf, some 4 m.

Hohenlohe now brought up the remainder of his command, but in the meanwhile the French had poured across the neck between the Landgrafenberg and the main plateau, and the troops of Soult and Augereau were working up the ravines on either hand.

Davout in obedience to his orders of the previous morning was packed on the narrow plateau of the mountain, whilst, below in the ravines on either flank, Soult on the right, and Augereau on the left, were getting into position.

The latter with at least 50,000 men was marching in two columns, and ought therefore to have delivered its men into line of battle twice as fast as the French, who had to deploy from a single issue, and whose columns had opened out in the passage of the Kosen defile and the long ascent of the plateau above.

The city commands pleasant views from its position on a plateau, which, at places on bluffs along the shore, has elevations of about 75 ft.

Situated on the northern border of the Central Plateau, the department slopes from south to north.

Plains alternating with forests occupy the northern zone of the department, while the central and western regions form an undulating and well-watered plateau.

The harbour town is Adamanta; from this there is an ascent to the plateau above the harbour, on which are situated Plaka, the chief town, and Kastro, rising on a hill above it, and other villages.

Up to the year 1862 not only was the fortress of Belgrade garrisoned by Turkish troops, but the Danubian slope of the town was inhabited by Turks, living under a special Turkish administration, while the modern part of the town (the plateau of the ridge and the western slope) was inhabited by Servians living under their own authorities.

On the margins of the plateau there are several gaps or indentations, which can best be likened to gigantic trenches, like railway cuttings, as with an insensible gradient they climb to a higher level.

These trenches have for successive geological periods been the drainage valleys of immense lakes (probably also of glaciers) which formerly extended over the plateau or fiords of the seas which surrounded it.

And it is along these trenches that the principal commercial routes have been made for reaching the higher levels of the plateau itself.

In the plateau there are in reality two terraces - a higher and a lower, both very well defined in Transbaikalia and in Mongolia.

Several low chains of mountains have their base on the lower terrace and run from south-west to north-east; they are known as the Nerchinsk Mountains in Transbaikalia, and their continuations reach the northern parts of the Gobi.4 The great plateau is fringed on the north-west by a series of lofty border-ranges, which have their southern base on the plateau and their northern at a much lower level.

There are, however, among these border-ranges several breaches of continuity - broad depressions or trenches leading from Lake Balkash and Lake Zaisan to the upper parts of the plateau.

On the other hand, there are on the western outskirts of the plateau a few mountain chains which take a direction at right angles to the above (that is, from north-west to south-east), and parallel to the great line of upheavals in south-west Asia.

The orography of the Aldan region is little known; but travellers who journey from the Aldan (tributary of the Lena) to the Amur or to the Sea of Okhotsk have to cross the same plateau and its border-range.

A typical feature of the north-eastern border of the high plateau is a succession of broad longitudinal 5 valleys along its outer base, ' The wide area between the middle Lena and the Amur, as well as the hilly tracts west of Lake Baikal, and the Yeniseisk mining region are in this condition.

The south-eastern slope of the great plateau of Asia cannot properly be reckoned to Siberia, although parts of the province of Amur and the Maritime Province are situated on it; - they have quite a different character, climate and vege- eastern, tation, and ought properly to be reckoned to the Manslope of, churian region.

Two such folds maybe distinguished, corresponding on a smaller scale to the belt of alpine tracts which fringe the plateau on the north-west.

This conformation is seen in the valley of the Us in West Sayan, in that of the upper Oka and Irkut in East Sayan, in the valley of the Barguzin, the upper Tsipa, the Muya and the Chara, at the foot of the Vitim plateau, as also, probably, in the Aldan.

Volcanic formations, so far as is known, occur chiefly along the north-western border-range of the great plateau.

Ejections of basaltic lava have been observed on the southern slope vo of this range, extending over wide areas on the plateau itself, over a stretch of more than 600 m.

There are wide areas on the plains of West Siberia and on the high plateau of East Siberia, which, virtually, are still passing through the Lacustrine period; but the total area now under water bears but a trifling proportion to the vast surface .which the lakes covered even at a very recent period, when Neolithic man inhabited Siberia.

This arises chiefly from the orographical structure; the vast plateau of Central Asia prevents the moderating influence of the sea from being felt.

The Cevennes proper are formed by a folded belt of Palaeozoic rocks which lies along the south-east border of the central plateau of France.

The overthrust came from the south-east, and the Palaeozoic beds were crushed and crumpled against the ancient massif of the central plateau.

The Secondary and Tertiary beds of the Languedoc were crushed against the central plateau and were frequently overfolded.

The shore consists of a central plateau descending to the water in three terraces, each with its "tread" and "rise."

The central plateau is a plain whose surface presents "rounded, flat-topped hills and low ridges and reefs of limestone," with narrow intervening valleys.

This region is the smallest of the chapadao divisions of the great plateau, and might be considered either a southward extension of the Sao Francisco or an eastward extension of the Parana chapadao.

The Sao Francisco, which belongs to the inland plateau region, is the largest river of the eastern coast of Brazil and exists by virtue of climatic conditions wholly different from those of the coast where it enters the Atlantic. The tributaries of the lower half of this great river, which belong to the Atlantic coast region, are small and often dry, but the upper river where the rainfall is heavier and more regular receives several large affluents.

From the Sao Francisco to Cape Frio there are many short rivers rising on the slopes of the plateau and crossing the narrow coastal plain to the sea.

There are also a few of greater length which rise far back on the plateau itself and flow down to the plain through deeply cut, precipitous courses.

The navigable channels of these rivers are restricted to the coastal plain, except where a river has excavated for itself a valley back into the plateau.

This river system drains a large part of the northern mountainous region of the state, and has a considerable extension of navigable channels between the plateau margin and the lake.

Though the Uruguay plays a less important part, its relations to the country are similar to those of the Parana, and its tributaries from the plateau region are similarly broken by falls and rapids.

In general terms, it is a tropical country, with sub-tropical and temperate areas covering its three southern states and a great part of the elevated central plateau.

The climatic conditions of the Brazilian plateau are widely different from those of the coast in many respects.

The Brazilian Guiana plateau, lying immediately north of the equator, is in great part a hot, stony desert.

It lies in the north-east trade winds belt, but the mountain chain on its northern frontier robs these winds of their moisture and leaves the greater part of the Brazilian plateau rainless.

South of the Amazon valley and filling a great part of the eastern projection of the continent, is another arid, semi-barren plateau, lying within the southeast trade winds belt, and extending from Piauhy southward to southern Bahia.

In winter the plateau is less heated, and cold currents of air from the west and south-west cause precipitation over a part if not all of this region.

The most important buildings of which we have any remains are to be found in the lower part of Achradina and in Neapolis, a quarter of which we hear first in the time of Dionysius, and which at first was confined to the lower ground below Temenites, but in Roman times included it and the theatre also (Lupus 168), though it did not extend beyond the theatre to the uppermost part of the plateau.

The upper plateau (Achradina, Tyche, Epipolae itself) is now largely cultivated at the east end, less so at the west end.

In the north and west the clay is interspersed with patches of plateau gravel in the direction of Finchley (where boulder clay also appears), Enfield and Barnet; and of Bagshot sands on Hampstead Heath and Harrow Hill.

It is picturesquely situated on a well-wooded plateau and has a bracing climate.

The Egyptian pilgrim road crosses the peninsula from Suez to Akaba, passing the post of An Nakhl, with a reservoir and a little cultivation, about half way; a steep descent leads down from the edge of the Tih plateau to Akaba.

Part of it is built on a level plateau and part in deep valleys adjoining, the tops of the campaniles of the lower portions being on a level with the streets of the upper.

The central plateau region, stretching between the Majerda valley and the mountains of Gafsa.

The scene of the most important fighting was the Pratzen plateau.

Kutusovwaspursuing this march to the southwest when he was surprised by the swift advance of Soult's men on the plateau itself.

The French did not win the plateau without a severe struggle.

Many of the inhabitants are nominally Moslems. The greater part of the province may be said to consist of an extensive plateau, generally from 5000 to 7000 ft.

The state belongs to the elevated plateau region, with its semi-arid conditions.

Mr Gardiner regarded these banks as plateaus rising to different elevations beneath the surface of the sea from a main plateau rising steeply from the great depths of the Indian Ocean.

Geographically it is a table-land, forming the north-east corner of the great plateau of Asia Minor, edged on the north by a lofty mountain rim, along the foot of which runs a fringe of coast-land.

The inhabitants of Baden are of various origin - those to the north of the Murg being descended from the Alemanni and those to the south from the Franks, while the Swabian plateau derives its name and its population from another race.

Nuevo Leon lies partly upon the great Mexican plateau and partly upon its eastern slopes, the Sierra Madre Oriental crossing the state N.W.

It is built for the most part on a plateau about 50 ft.

After the execution he sought a secluded retreat on the Plateau de Satory at Versailles and took exercise after nightfall.

The country is an elevated plateau, with hills in the southern and central parts.

It stands on a narrow plateau of ground supported on the south-east by a terrace wall.

The same idea had, however, occurred to Ladmirault, and he had called on the two nearest French cavalry divisions to put it into execution, and as the Prussians began to reach the plateau west of Mars-la-Tour and the Yron brook from the south, the French were deploying across it some two thousand yards to the north.

Corps succeeded in reaching the plateau between St Hubert and Point du Jour, where the debris of the VII.

The Paropamisus forms the southern face of the Turkestan plateau, which contains the sources of the Murghab river; the northern face of the same plateau is defined by the Band-i-Turkestan.

On the south of the plateau we find a similar succession of narrow valleys dividing parallel flexures, or anticlinals, formed under similar geological conditions to those which appear to be universally applicable to the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, and the Indus frontier mountain systems. From one of these long lateral valleys the Hari Rud receives its principal tributary, which joins the main river below Obeh, 180 m.

These mountains, which have in the northern part an altitude of 2700 ft., slope down towards the south-east near Tokaj in a hilly plateau of about 1500 ft.

The hills in the south of the duchy are a continuation of the Lorraine plateau, and the northern districts are crossed in all directions by outrunners from the Ardennes.

Besides the iron furnaces, situated in the south near the Lorraine plateau, there are tanneries, weaving and glove-making factories, paper-mills for all sorts of paper, breweries and distilleries, and sugar refineries.

The flora of the Great Plains region, consisting principally of nutritious grasses, enters the north-western portion of the state and extends south to the Edwards Plateau and east into the Prairie Plains region.

In the canyons of the Edwards Plateau grow the pecan, live oak, sycamore, elm, walnut and cypress; on the hilly dissected borders of the same plateau are cedars, dwarf and scrubby oak, and higher up are occasional patches of stunted oak, called "shinneries."

A very thin soil covers the Edwards Plateau, but on the Llano Estacado are brownish and reddish loams derived from the sediments of a Neocene lake.

To the south lies a rolling plateau of basaltic formation (with the sacred town of Multai, and the springs of the river Tapti at its highest point), extending over the whole of the southern face of the district, and finally merging into the wild and broken line of the Ghats, which lead down to the plains.

The principal exception is the Zatas or Sorraia, which, rising in the Serra d'Ossa, flows westwards across the plateau of Alemtejo, and joins the Mar de Pedro.

A deep narrow gorge, the so-called "eastern rift-valley," traverses the middle of the plateau in a meridional direction.

To the south of the Usambara hills, and on the eastern edge of the plateau, are the mountainous regions of Nguru (otherwise Unguru), Useguha and Usagara.

The St Lawrence system receives the most, mainly from short streams from the plateau province and from the Adirondacks.

Though, thanks to the overlaying porous pumice, the Taupo plateau is not fertile, it has a good rainfall and is drained by unfailing rivers running through deep terraced ravines.

East of the Taupo plateau and south of Opotiki on the Bay of Plenty the steep thickly-timbered ranges held by the Uriwera tribe still show scenery quite unspoiled by white intrusion.

Beyond the ground rises in steep slopes to a general level of over 1000 ft., the plateau being traversed in several directions by hills rising 2000 ft.

His tomb still exists on the plateau between lake Gygaea and the river Hermus to the north of Sardis - a large mound of earth with a substructure of huge stones.

The greater part is occupied by the low Baltic plateau, intersected by a network of streams and lakes, and rising to the Turmberg (1086 ft.) near Danzig.

The Vistula, here of great width, and subject to destructive floods, enters the province near Thorn, and flowing north in a valley which divides the plateau, enters Danzig Bay by a large delta, the Werder.

The eastern half of the state is occupied in the north by a westward extension of the Rocky Mountains, and in the centre and south by the north-western portion of the Columbia Plateau province.

East of the Cascade Mountains the Columbia and Spokane rivers mark the boundary between the Okanogan Highlands to the northward and the Columbia plateau to the southward; The Okanogan Highlands, an outlier of the Rocky Mountains extending westward from the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in Idaho, reach heights of 5000 to 6000 ft.

The Totonacs inhabit northern Vera Cruz and speak a language related to that of the Mayas; the Tarascos form a small group living in Michoacan; the Matlanzingos, or Matlaltzincas, live near the Tarascos, the savage Apaches, a nomadic group of tribes ranging from Durango northward into the United States; the Opata-Pima group, inhabiting the western plateau region from Sonora and Chihuahua south to Guadalajara, is sometimes classed as a branch of the Nahuatlaca; the Seris, a very small family of savages, occupy Tiburon Island and the adjacent mainland of Sonora; and the Guaicuros, or Yumas, are to be found in the northern part of the peninsula of Lower California.

It is celebrated because of the difficulties overcome on the precipitous eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre, the beauties of the mountain scenery through which it passes, and the rapid transition from the hot, humid coastal plain to the cool, arid plateau, 7924 ft.

The next important line is the F.C. Internacional Mexicano, running from Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, on the Rio Grande, south-westward across the plateau to Durango, and is to be extended to Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast.

In the Cumberland Plateau and Great Valley Regions are a red or brown loam, rich in decomposed limestone and calcareous shales, and sandy or gravelly loaTns.

In the Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Mountains Regions the surface soil is generally sandy, but in considerable areas the subsoil is a red clay derived largely from the decomposition of hornblende.

In the north the ground rises gradually to a plateau some 2000 ft.

The tributaries of the Amur (the Shilka with its affluent the Ingoda) become navigable only on the lower terrace of the plateau.

But the trench of the Uda, to the east of Lake Baikal, offers easy access for the Great Siberian railway up to and across the high plateau.

The Siberian larch predominates also in the alpine tracts fringing the plateau on the north, intermingled with the fir, stone-pine, aspen and birch.

The high plains of the west slope of the plateau are also rich prairies diversified with woods.

On the whole, we may say that the arctic and boreal faunas of Europe extend over Siberia, with a few additional species in the Ural and Baraba region - a number of new species also appearing in East Siberia, some spreading along the high plateau and others along the lower plateau from the steppes of the Gobi.

On the lower terrace of the great plateau we find an 1 In Vega Exped.

The Mongols (less than 300,000) extend into West Siberia from the high plateau - nearly 20,000 Kalmucks living in the eastern Altai.

The Tunguses (nearly 70,000) occupy as their hunting-grounds an immense region on the high plateau and its slopes to the Amur, but their limits are yearly becoming more and more circumscribed both by Russian gold-diggers and by Yakut settlers.

On the high plateau all attempts to grow cereals have failed, the wide trenches alone (Uda, Selenga, Jida) offering encouragement to the agriculturist.

On the lower plateau, in Transbaikalia, grain is successfully raised in the Nerchinsk region, with serious risks, however, from early frosts in the valleys.

During the great migrations in Asia from east to west many populations were probably driven to the northern borders of the great plateau and thence compelled to descend into Siberia; succeeding waves of immigration forced them still farther towards the barren grounds of the north, where they melted away.

It is situated upon a lofty plateau, the highest point of which (823 ft.), projecting to the W., was the ancient citadel, and is occupied by the well-preserved castle erected by Frederick II., and rebuilt by Pierre d'Angicourt about 1280.

The long straight lines of works which stretched to the plateau of the Michelsberg and formed the outworks of the main fortress on the left bank of the Danube were purchased in 1900 by the municipal authorities, in order to be levelled and laid out in streets for the extension of the town in this direction.

North of this line is the low hilly country, known as the Waldviertel, which lies at the foot and forms the continuation of the Bohemian and Moravian plateau.

On its northern aspect this plateau has a raised rim having all the appearances of being once the margin of an atoll.

The Orange here enters the great inner plateau of South Africa, which at Aliwal North, the first town of any size on the banks of the river, 80 m.

The Brazilian plateau slopes southward and eastward, traversed by broken ranges of low mountains and deeply eroded by river courses.

The table-topped hills of Almeyrin (or Almeirim) and Erere, which lie near the lower Amazon and rise to heights of 800 and 900 ft., are generally considered the southernmost margin of this plateau, though Agassiz and others describe them as remains of a great sandstone sheet which once covered the entire Amazon valley.

Its semi-arid character is due to the mountain ranges on its northern frontier, which extract the moisture from the north-east trades and leave the Brazilian plateau behind them with a very limited rainfall, except near the Atlantic coast.

In general, Brazilian Guiana, as this plateau region is sometimes called, is one of the least attractive parts of the republic.

The great Brazilian plateau, which is the most important physical division of Brazil, consists of an elevated tableland moo to 3000 ft.

This range forms the true backbone of the maritime mountainous belt and rises from the plateau itself, while the Coast Range rises on its eastern margin and forms a rim to the plateau.

The plateau breaks down abruptly toward the sea, and slopes gradually some hundreds of feet toward the south and west.

The northern and western parts of this plateau have an average elevation a little less than that of the Atlantic margin, and their slopes are toward the south and east, those of Goyaz and Matto Grosso being abrupt and deeply eroded.

This region is well wooded along the river courses of Minas Geraes, the lower Atlantic slopes of Bahia, which are perhaps outside the plateau proper, and on the weather side of some of the elevated ridges where the rainfall is heavy and regular.

Its general elevation is less than that of the Sao Francisco region, owing to the slope of the plateau surface toward the Amazon depression and to denudation.

The Amazonian chapadao, which includes the remainder of the great Brazilian plateau west of the Sao Francisco and Parnahyba regions and which appears to be the continuation of these tablelands westward, is much the largest of these plateau divisions.

South and south-west of this arid plateau lie the inhabited tablelands of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, where the climate is greatly modified by a luxuriant vegetation and southerly winds, as well as by the elevation.

The rainfall throughout this region is abundant, except in northern Minas Geraes, where the climatic conditions are influenced to some extent by the arid eastern plateau.

There is no absolutely dry season in this part of the great Brazilian plateau, though the year is customarily divided into a dry and wet season, the latter running from September to April in Goyaz, and from November to April in Matto Grosso.

The Amazon region is frequented by the giboia (boa constrictor), and the central plateau by the sucurid (Eunectes murinus), both distinguished for their enormous size.

Besides these, the flora of the Paraguay basin varies widely from that of the inland plateau, and that of the Brazilian Guiana region is essentially distinct from the Amazon.

The coast and tide-water rivers are fringed with mangrove, and the sandy plain reaching back to the margin of the inland plateau is generally bare of vegetation, though the carnahuba palm (Copernicia cerifera) and some species of low-growing trees are to be found in many places.

The slopes of the plateau, which receive a better rainfall, are more heavily forested, some districts being covered with deciduous trees, forming catingas in local parlance.

Then come the catinga tracts, and, beyond these, the open campos of the elevated plateau, dotted with clumps of low growing bushes and broken by tracts of carrasco, a thick, matted, bushy growth 10 to 12 ft.

In general, the carrasco growth extends over the whole central plateau, and heavy forests are found only in the deep river valleys.

One series of its numerous headstreams traverses the Kikuyu plateau north of the Athi, while others flow down the southern and eastern slopes of Kenya.

Hyde Park is a plateau almost in the centre of the city, which in the early days of Sydney was used as a race-course.

Ranges of hills lead to the first plateau, which has an average elevation of 2000 ft.

The second plateau, reached by a steep ascent, has an elevation of from nearly 4000 to fully 5000 ft.

Geographically, Mongolia may thus be said to occupy both terraces of the great plateau of east Asia, which stretches in the south of Siberia, between the Sailughem range of the Great Altai and the Great Khingan - with the exception of the Dzungarian depression.

From Manchuria and China it is separated by the border ridge of the plateau - the Great Khingan, while in the south-west it runs up to the foot of the high northern border ridges of the Tibetan plateau - an artificial frontier separating it from east Turkestan and Dzungaria.

It appears, however, from Russian explorations during the last third of the 19th North- century, that it has all the characteristics of an elevated western plateau, of a rhomboid shape (like Bohemia), bounded by four mountain ranges; namely, the Russian Altai on the N.W., the Sayans on the N.E., the Kentei range on the S.E., and the Ektagh Altai on the S.W.

Thus the Ektagh Altai is a true border-rangethat is, a lofty and steep escarpment facing the Dzungarian depression, with a gentle and relatively short slope towards the plateau.

The Kobdo river, which rises in the Dain-gol (7060 ft.) in the Ektagh Altai, winds in great curves across the plateau, and enters Lake Kara-usu (3840 ft.), which also receives the Buyantu, an outflow from Lake Kobdo, and is connected by a small river with another large lake, Durga-nor, situated a score of miles to the east.

The plateau is built up of granites, gneisses and crystalline schists of Archean and probably Primary age.

The Hindu Kush represents the southern edge of a great central upheaval or plateau.

To the north the plateau gradually slopes away towards the Oxus,, falling from an average altitude of 15,000 ft.

Its surface is a roughly broken plateau, traversed N.W.

Lemberg is situated on the small river Peltew, an affluent of the Bug, in a valley in the Sarmatian plateau, and is surrounded by hills.

That part of the plateau east of Johannesburg is from 5000 to 6400 ft.

The northern edge of the plateau follows an irregular line from somewhat north of Mafeking on the west to the Mauchberg on the east.

The banken veld, formed by the denudation of the plateau, is much broken up and is rich in romantic scenery.

Thence issue many streams which in their way to the ocean have forced their way through the ranges of hills which mark the steps in the plateau, forming the narrow passes or poorts characteristic of South African scenery.

West and north of the Drakensberg the general level of the low veld is not much below that of the lowest altitudes of the middle veld, though the climatic 1 By the Boers the western and less elevated part of the plateau is known as the middle veld.

In the eastern part of the plateau snow occasionally falls, and frost at night is common during winter.

The rainfall in the low country is more erratic than on the plateau, and in some districts, a whole year will pass without rain.

The wild seringa (Burkea africana) is also characteristic of the low veld and, extends up the slopes of the plateau.

The Sierra Madre crosses the southern part of the state parallel with the coast, separating the low, humid, forested districts on the frontier of Tabasco from the hot, drier, coastal plain on the Pacific. The mountain region includes a plateau of great fertility and temperate climate, which is one of the best parts of Mexico and contains the larger part of the population of the state.

The capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez (pop. 9395 in 1900), is on the plateau, 31 m.

The plateau at its foot was the site of the English laager during the war of 1880-81, and is now occupied by the central railway station and workshops.

In its upper course it traverses a higher plateau, whence, after passing the town of Landeshut, it descends through a narrow and fertile valley to Kupferberg.

They did not, however, occupy Euryelus, at the western extremity of the high ground of Epipolae, and this omission allowed the Athenians to obtain possession of the whole plateau, and to begin the investment of the city.

Profiting by the experience gained during the Athenian siege, he included in his new lines the whole plateau of Epipolae, with a strong fortress at Euryelus, its apex on the west; the total length of the outer lines (excluding the fortifications of the island) has been calculated at about 12 m.

Here the wall gained the top of the cliffs which mark the southern edge of the plateau of Epipolae, which from this point onwards it followed as far as Euryelus.

Earlier writers make this the site of Labdalum, and put Euryelus farther west; but Labdalum must be sought somewhat farther east, near the northern edge of the plateau, in a point not visible from the Athenian central fort (KUKXos) with a view over Megara - not therefore in the commanding position of Dionysius's fort, with an uninterrupted view on all sides.

It was the main entrance on the north, and no doubt is to be identified with the so-called Scala Greca, where the modern highroad leaves the plateau.

They then form part of a system of ranges which curve north of the sources of the Chindwin river, and with the Kumon range and the hills of the Jade and Amber mines, make up a highland tract separated from the great Northern Shan plateau by the gorges of the Irrawaddy river.

In their upper courses all the southern affluents of the Ghazal flow across a plateau of ferruginous laterite, their valleys having steep banks.

The great highway from the west, on its long rough descent from the Anatolian plateau to Tarsus, ran through a narrow pass between walls of rock called the CilicianGate,Ghulek Boghaz.

Similarly Alexander found the Gates open, when he came down from the plateau in 333 B.C.; and from these facts it may be inferred that the great pass was not under direct Persian control, but under that of a vassal power always ready to turn against its suzerain.

It naturally falls into two divisions, the northern being more or less mountainous, while the southern is flat and marshy; the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely.

North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf-oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and north-eastern flank and the main mountain-line from which they detach themselves, rich plains and fertile valleys.

A rapid in the Tagus, artificially converted into a weir, renders irrigation easy, and has thus created an oasis in the midst of the barren plateau of New Castile.

Several fine hotels and a number of costly residences occupy a plateau along the shore and the hillsides farther back.

Armagnac is a region of hills ranging to a height of 1000 ft., watered by the river Gers and other rivers which descend fanwise from the plateau of Lannemezan.

It formerly abounded in sandalwood, and consists of a central plateau surrounded by a belt of cultivation.

The western escarpment of the plateau rises steeply from the Red Sea littoral to a height of from 4000 to 8000 ft., leaving a narrow belt of lowland rarely exceeding 30 m.

On the north-east and east the plateau shelves gradually to the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; only in the extreme east is this general easterly slope arrested by the lofty range of Jebel Akhdar, which from Ras Musandan to Ras el Had borders the coast of Oman.

Thence four marches, generally over a stony plateau dominated by bare, sterile mountains, brought them to Sana, where they received a cordial welcome from the imam, el Mandi Abbas.

Under Turkish protection, he visited the territory of the Hashid and Bakil tribes north-east of Sana, and though their hostile attitude compelled him to return after reaching their first important town, Khamr, he had time to reconnoitre the plateau lying between the two great wadis Kharid and Hirran, formerly covered with Himyaritic towns and villages; and to trace the course of these wadis to their junction at El Ish in the Dhu Husen country, and thence onward to the Jauf.

The greater part drains to the Mediterranean, from which the land rises gradually to the summit of the Tih plateau.

Hejaz, if we except the Taif district in the south, which is properly a part of the Yemen plateau, forms a well-marked physical division, Hejaz.

Eastward the plateau becomes still more sterile, and its elevation probably falls more rapidly till it reaches the level of the Jauf and Nejran valleys on the borders of the desert.

Farther north, in Asir, the plateau is more mountainous and contains many fertile valleys.

The mountain chain, too, is less distinctly marked, and becomes little more than the seaward escarpment of the plateau which intervenes between the coast and the Hadramut valley.