48 On the Height of the Himalaya Mountains. [Jan. 



of the Asiatic Researches will give us important information on 

 the subject." The Editors lose no time in presenting to their 

 scientific readers the following paper : 



On the Height of the Himalaya Mountains: abstracted from a 

 Paper by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. inserted in the Asiatic 

 Transactions, Vol. XII. 



The chain of the Himalaya mountains, constantly covered 

 with snow, is visible from Patna, on the Ganges, and from 

 other places in the plains of Bengal, at the distance of at least 

 150 geogr. miles, forming a continued chain bearing to the E. of 

 N., and extending through more than two points of the compass, 

 and in clear weather appearing like white cliffs with a very dis- 

 tinctly defined outline. 



The continuation of the same chain of mountains divides 

 Butan from Tibet, and is distinctly visible from the plains of 

 Bengal, a distance, calculated from the observations made by 

 Captain Turner on his journey to Tisholumbo, of from 165 to 

 200 geogr. miles. Now it requires an elevation exceeding 28,000 

 feet for an object to be barely discernible in a mean state of 

 atmospherical refraction at so great a distance as that last men- 

 tioned. 



The late Lieut. Col. Colebrooke, while in Rohilkhand, com- 

 pleted two observations : one taken at Pilibhit, where the eleva- 

 tion of a peak distant 114 English miles (according to bearings 

 from two stations, the distance between which was measured) 

 was found to be 1° 27' : the other at Jethpur, where the eleva- 

 tion of the same peak, distant 90 English miles, was observed 

 to be 2° 8'. From these elements, allowing ± of the intercepted 

 arc for terrestrial refraction, the peak observed by Lieut. Col. 

 Colebrooke must have an elevation equal to about 22,000 feet 

 above the level of the plains of Rohilkhand. This allowance of 

 ■J. of the intercepted arc is deduced from Major Lambton's obser- 

 vations in the peninsula of India, according to which the refrac- 

 tion was found to vary from ^ to -^. 



Colonel Crawford, during a long sojourn at Cat'hmandu in 

 1802, took the angles of several selected points, of which he 

 determined the distances by trigonometrical measurement, having 

 taken the bearings from various stations in the valley of Nepal, 

 the relative situations of which were ascertained by a trigono- 

 metrical survey proceeding from a base of 852f feet, carefully 

 measured four times, and verified by another base of 1582 feet, 

 measured twice. The positions of the same mountains were 

 also settled by observations of them made in the plains of Bahar 

 in the progress of the great survey. 



The angles of elevation of the mountains above the stations of 

 Sambhu and the Queen's Garden, near Cat'hmandu, were taken 

 with an astronomical sextant and an artificial horizon. Among 

 the most remarkable is an observation of a mountain pointed out 



