DISTANT VIEWS OF MOUNTAINS. 395 



western coast of South America, for instance, magni- 

 ficent views of the Cordilleras are almost constantly 

 visible ; the outlines of these sublime heights standing 

 out with marvellous distinctness in the serene and 

 often cloudless atmosphere ; yet as a rule they cannot 

 be less than from 100 to 120 miles distant, and at times 

 considerably more than this. The same thing has been 

 noticed by travellers in approaching the Himalayas 

 from the plains of Northern India, for we are assured 

 on competent authority that the snowy peaks of this 

 gigantic mountain range "are, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, visible from the plains, at a distance of 

 about 200 miles. " * 



On the other hand it will be easily understood that 

 when there is mirage, or haze upon the horizon, far 

 off objects, such as distant mountains, may be entirely 

 shut out from view. A man, for instance, may some- 

 times reside at Dover or Folkestone, for weeks, without 

 seeing the coast of France, which is plainly visible on 

 favourable days. In the same way Mr. Stanley in his 

 late work upon the " Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, " 

 when alluding to this subject says : 



" It requires a peculiar condition of the atmosphere to see 

 mountains from a distance of 70 miles: in such a humid 

 region as this is, on a bright day, such a quantity of vapour 

 is exhaled from the heated earth that at 30 miles it would 

 be intensified into a haze no eye could penetrate. But at 

 certain times, wind currents clear the haze and expose to 

 view objects which we wonder we have not seen before. 

 Returning to Fort Bodo, I took compass bearings of a lofty 

 mountain and I noted it down, but I have never seen it 

 since, though I have been twice over the ground. " f 



* Encyclop. Brit., gth Edit., Vol xi., p. 324. 



f In Darkest Africa, by H. M. Stanley, 1890, Vol i., p. 407. 



