The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1925-07-30
forsv.rsd By the National Geographic So
Gle ty Washington. D. CD

Anf4
ty. Washington. D. CD
HAT might be called "the
Nv 4 Main Street of India" is the
w great roadway of the ages,
roughly paralleling the foot
hills of the Himalayas, that stretches
through the heart Of Hindustan
from the Afghanistan border in the
west to the east coast There is
nothing provincial about midas Main
street. Starting at the Khyber pass,
where the Afghan caravans weave a
tenuous thread Of trade between the
frontier hills, 1t runs to Calcutta,
where a goodly share of the worlds
shipping is idly swinging TO the tides
of the Lreacherous Hooghly.
The railways which parallel its more
than 1900 miles, as they parallel many
Of our own best highways, have d.
verted much traffic from the open road
and cooped it up like Grated fowls in
third-class cars. But the bullock-cart
still rolls on and the motorcar has
made its presence smelled from the
northwest frontier province to Bengal.
The broad road" of Kipling's lama
and his adventurous chela, Kim, runs
through one of the most thickly pop
ulated regions In the world. 1t Is a
plain road from beginning to end.
From the mud fort of Jamrud to the
docks at Kidderpore, this highway is
a low way. 1t passes over the water
shed between the Indus and the
Ganges at an altitude of less than
thousand feet, and thence runs along
with the Jumna or the Gauges to the
alluvial delta In the midst of which
Calcutta proudly reigns as queen.
To the left, throughout the length
of the road, are the eternal hills, be-
yond which the snow wall of the
worlds mightiest mountains can some
times be seen. To the right is the
tumble of low hills which bear various
names. but which, If the peninsula of
India were slightly lowered, would
form the irregular northern base Of
an arrow-shaped island, with Its point
at Cape Comorin, opposite Ceylon.
Although Main street runs through
a region of rivers, let US not think Of
of the year it is dusty and dry and
at no time does 1t have the lush love
illness which dots the hot southland
with scenes of refreshing beauty.
Throughout most of it's length irriga-
ton has been developed to high de-
gree
Hot and Cold, Dry and Wet.
From the arid furnace of Ali Masjid,
in the Khyber, to the steamy Sundar-
bans this road is deadly hot at times
yet along the watershed between In
dia's two most famous rivers the nights
in winter can be bitter cold, even for
those Monaghan peoples whose heavy
costumes remind one Of the Himalayan
SHOWS, whence they come.
Main street runs from the aridity OF
less than ten inches Of rain annually,
near the Afghan border, to the region
of rs inches, beside the lower Ganges
and were it to be continued farther, 1t
would soak in the rains Of Chittagong
or CherrapunjI, where Jupiter Pluvius
is always wringing out his heavy
clouds like washed towels, and where
in July, 1851, rain fell at the rate Of
one foot a day. Cherrapunji is accus-
toned to this form Of hydraulic min
ing. which Is wearing down the Caro-
and KhasI hills, but with rs feet of
rain in twelve months, 1851 was
known, even among those to whom
rain is no novelty, as the year Of the
big rain.
Throughout the entire plain which
TANKS the great Indian highway the
mean annual temperature is between
rs and IS degrees. In May the mean
isotherm Of all India runs so directly
over the Grand Trunk road that one
would think that by stepping into the
fields on either side he would run of
it's S8.7 degrees to SS.8 on the right
toward the hot heart Of the continental
Iand-mass and 1876 on the left as he
turned aside toward the hill stations
and breweries which line the lower
slopes Of the Himalayas from Murree
TO Darieeling.