The inhabitants of these several states are of mixed races, and very different from the people of Hindostan.

Towards the east--in Bhotan and Sikhim--they are chiefly of the Mongolian stock, in customs and manners resembling the people of Thibet, and, like them, practising the religion of the Lamas.

In the western Himalayas there is an admixture of Ghoorka mountaineers, Hindoos from the south, Sikhs from Lahore, and Mahometans from the old empire of the Moguls; and here, also, are to be found, in full profession, the three great representative religions of Asia--Mahometan, Buddhist, and Brahmin.
The population, however, is exceedingly small compared with the surface over which it is distributed; and there are many tracts in the Himalayan hills, thousands of square miles in extent, where no human being dwells--where no chimney sends up its smoke.

Indeed, there are vast tracts, especially among the high snow-covered summits, that have either never been explored, or only very rarely, by the adventurous hunter.
Others there are quite inaccessible; and it is needless to say, that the highest peaks--such as Chumulari, Kinchinjunga, Donkia, Dawalghisi, and the like--are far beyond the reach of even the most daring climber.
Perhaps no one has ever ascended to the height of five miles above the level of the sea; and it is a question whether at that elevation a human being could exist.

At such a height it is probable that animal life would become extinct, by reason either of the extreme cold or the rarity of the atmosphere.
Though the Himalaya mountains have been known from the earliest historic times--for they are the _Imaus_ and _Emodus_ of the ancient writers--it is only within the present century that we in Europe have obtained any definite knowledge of them.