In North America, there are two chains of mountains; one the Alleghany, about 200 miles from the Atlantic, and running parallel with it; the other (the western) running in a line with the Pacific, at a distance of 600 miles. The former is about 3,000 feet in height; the other 9,000. In South America, however, the mountains are of much superior height. At sea they appear blue, towering as it were into the very skies: the Chotopaxi being 18,875, and Chimborazo 21,470 above the level of the Pacific. Most other mountains are parents to great rivers; but the Andes of Chili and Peru give birth only to streams; and these always shallow, and frequently dry at certain seasons of the year. But the valleys, formed in their bosoms, present pictures, almost worthy of Paradise1. For while some scenes present themselves, where Nature seems to sink into the mysterious rudeness of original chaos, others there are to be paralleled only in Asia. These are fertile in useful trees, in medicinal gums and herbs, and in birds, insects, and fishes2.

In Lapland the level of perpetual snow is 400 feet; in Savoy and Switzerland, it is 8,000; on the Pyrenees, 8,100: Teneriffe is not covered with snow all the year; on the Cordilleras it is 15,747 feet; and on the north side of the Himalaya Range 17,000 feet. At the height of 15,000 feet there are fertile pastures, in which graze myriads of animals throughout the year.

' Vide Bouguer, Figure de la Terre, p. 31. Present State of Peru, 1805, p. 25, 4to.

2 Vide Tena. Mision. lib. i. p. 100, &c.

3

Humboldt.

4

Captain Webb.

XVI.

In the provinces of Venezuela, Humboldt recognized three distinct zones; and with those zones he associated the three different states of society. Among the forests of the Orionoco he saw the hunting state; in the Savannahs he traced the pastoral; and in the valleys, bordering on the coast, he beheld agriculture yielding abundance, and with that abundance denoting the condition of human nature, methodized into civilization and comfort. The climate may be accurately imagined from the circumstance of the pit of the theatre, at Caraccas, being entirely exposed;—so that a spectator may sympathize with the poet's passions at one moment, and gaze upon the stars at another.

The Himalaya mountains have been known in all ages. They formed part of the Caucasian chain; and shared the general name of Imaüs'. By this appellation they were known to the Greeks. But it is only within a few years, that their relative heights have been accurately ascertained: and even now the learned feel embarrassed in believing that they equal, if not exceed, the boasted summits of the Andes. They are covered with eternal snows. Separating the southern and the northern nations of Asia, they are seen at a vast distance. To climb these summits, Browne, after opening to the knowledge of Europe the African country of Darfûr, was impelled to

' Burnet (Theory of the Earth, i. p. 194, ed. 1726) calls these mountains "cruciform." Himmalaya, in Sanscrit, means "the abode of snow." In Nepaul they are called Nagrakût; Mûs-Tâg; and various other names,

leave his peaceful retreat: but, as he travelled through Persia, he was robbed of all his property and assassinated. Sir William Jones saw this range at Bangalore, a distance of 244 miles! The first European, that ever ascended them, was Captain Webb, of the Bengal establishment. They were seen by an Assistant-Surveyor in the vicinity of Col-gong, on the banks of the Ganges, in 1788; and in the same year at Mongheir and Patria. In 1794 the same observer saw them, in the vicinity of Anusphir, in the province of Oude. He expressed an opinion, too, that they can be seen from some of the buildings in Delhi. Several of these mountains are stated to be above 23,000 feet1. Colebroke even allows some of them the astonishing height of 24,740;-25,500;-and 26,862! above the level of Calcutta.

In this awful range, fields of barley are seen at the height of 11,500 feet; and at 11,630 feet Captain Webb entered a forest, rich in pines, oak, and rhododendra. It afforded a luxuriant vegetation; and strawberries3 were in full flower. At the height of 12,642 feet there was still no snow; but dandelions, buttercups, and a great profusion of other flowers. Plants of spikenard were observed at 12,900 feet; and at 18,500 there was a limit of vegetation.

Separating Tartary from India, and constituting the boundary of the Nepaul Empire, these mountains seem, as if they were destined, as a balance in the East for the

1 Moorcroft's Journey to Lake Manasanawara.

Asiatic Researches, vols. xi. xii.

3 June 21, 1817.

Andes in the West. They form two buttresses, as it were, for the Table Land of Thibetian Tartary. Rising abruptly from the south, towards the north they gradually decline. A country more delightful for a botanist, or a geologist, it were impossible to select, than the southern terraces; for every valley is unknown to science; and they are said to exhibit whatever has been seen of beauty, or grandeur, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Masses of native gold, too, are said to be found amongst them.

On the northern plains, vegetation is confined to low bushes of furze, tufts of silky grass, a woolly plant, and a peculiar species of moss, growing among patches of snow and pools of snow water. In a certain season of the year, however, large flocks of sheep are seen, wild horses, and goats: all of which have warm clothing to secure them from the piercing cold. There, also, are seen yaks, hares, marmots, and wild asses. The sheep have horns, weighing from fifty to sixty pounds; and the goats are clothed with wool, of which Cashmerian shawls are made. No insects or reptiles, however, are seen, except a few butterflies, and a few small lizards. Birds, too, are unfrequent: though linnets, larks, partridges, ravens, and eagles, are beheld occasionally: and a few goldfinches were seen sitting upon the only two poplars, that shaded the vast range of prospect, seen by Mr. Moorcroft.

Some of the granite hills contain veins of quartz, from which gold is washed. They abound in minerals; and the rocks contain frequent springs of hot water, impregnated with saline and mineral particles. In one ca

vern, it is thought, if fuel were in abundance, that many hundred tons of sulphur might be obtained. The inhabitants have little occupation, besides that of tending their flocks1.

It is curious to observe the effect of the air in respect to sounds. On the top of Etna, the report of a gun appears less than that of a pistol; Humboldt, when descending the savannah of the Silla, heard distinctly, at a considerable distance, the shrill tones of guitars, sounded in the city of Caraccas; and on the top of the Sugar-loaf may be clearly distinguished the voices of the inhabitants at the Cape of Good Hope. In mountainous regions, too, distance seems to be comparatively annihilated. And here we may take occasion to remark, that ice multiplies sound in a very curious manner. In Greenland the voice of a boatman is reverberated from the floating masses, that appear on all sides; and if the ice chance to be porous, it snaps into masses, which have occasionally been known to sink the boat of him, whose voice had caused the vibration.

Mountains have another singular property; that of attraction. By a series of observations, made upon the Schehalieu, in Scotland, Dr. Masqueline, acting upon a hint thrown out by Newton, (that a hemispherical mountain, three miles high, and six broad at the base, would cause a plummet to deviate two minutes out of the perpendicular,) found that mountains, 3000 feet in height, (that

Vid. Asiat. Researches, vol. XII.-Moorcroft's Journey to Lake Manasanawara; Asiatic Journal and Madras Gazette.