INTRODUCTION. xi 
to 45° of latitude, and over 73° of longitude. But the recent journey of Lieut. Burnes 
and Dr. Gerard across the Hindoo-kho, between Caubul and Balkh, has shown, that in 
their rounded nature and secondary formations they resemble rather the mountains ‘to 
the northward of Kunawur, than the primary-structured Indian Himalaya. 
The Himalaya, Himmaleh, Himachal, or Snowy Mountains, remarkable for their 
extent, are not less so for their elevation, seen from Kurnaul near N. lat. 30°, or from 
Patna 5° more to the southward, and from both at a distance of about 150 miles, these 
stupendous mountains present over 153° of longitude a long line of snow-white pin- 
nacles, which, on a nearer approach, are seen towering above the dark line of lower, 
but still lofty mountains. Those which are seen at the greatest distance, being situated 
within the Chinese boundaries, and only approachable through the territories of Nepal, 
still remain unexamined, as the Goorkhas have adopted the Chinese policy of excluding 
all strangers from their kingdoms. Dhawalagiri, or the White Mountain, supposed to 
be situated near the sources of the Ghunduc river, in its early course called Salagrami, 
from many of the stones containing remains of Ammonites, is stated by Mr. Colebrooke, 
on a mean of the two nearest observations, to be elevated (allowing 4 for refraction) 
26,462 above Gorukhpore, or 26,862 above the level of the sea; but (allowing at 
for refraction) 27,551, and from the mean of three observations, and with middle refrac- 
tion, the whole height is more than 28,000 feet above the level of the sea. Chamalari, 
near which, after traversing Bootan, and crossing the frontier of Tibet, Captain Turner 
and Mr. Saunders passed on their journey to Teshoo Loomboo, is the same mountain, 
in their opinion, which is seen from Purnea, Rajmahl, and other places in Bengal, the 
most remote of which is distant not less than 232 English miles. This, as Mr. Cole- 
brooke states, requires an elevation exceeding 28,000 feet to be barely discernible at 
so great a distance in the mean state of the atmosphere, though much less elevation 
may suffice, under circumstances of extraordinary refraction. Mr. Moorcroft was of 
opinion, that some of the peaks which he saw on his journey to Lake Manasarowur 
were elevated at least 30,000 feet: one of the surveyors in Kunawur, from the angles 
of altitude which he obtained from the crest of a pass elevated 15,000 feet, thought 
some of the peaks he saw to the northward could not be less than 29,000 feet, and 
more recently Dr. Gerard, from some observations at great barometrically-ascertained 
heights, inferred that some snowy peaks which he also saw to the northward could 
not be less than 30,000 feet above the level of the ocean. These latter are only 
mentioned in conjunction with the former, as indicating the probability of the highest 
pinnacles being still to be ascertained in the Kailas portion of the great Himalayan 
range. | 7 : 
Fortunately we do not depend upon these approximations only for a true estimate of 
the height of the Himalayan peaks. These mountains have been so carefully and 
scientifically surveyed from the Sutlej to the Gogra by Captains Hodgson, Webb, and 
Herbert, and with a bias apparently to take the lowest rather than the highest results 
which their observations gave them, that it would not perhaps be advancing too much 
to 
