80 THE HIMALAYA RANGE. 



which, however, is not really the case, for their spurs 

 run ill all directions; some seven or eight chains appear, 

 one overtopping the other, each getting fainter, until 

 at last haze and distance hide the rest. Their 

 apparent height is much diminished by the great space 

 intervening, even between the nearest objects ; and 

 the comparative lowness on the horizon of the whole 

 stupendous mass is partly owing to the same cause, 

 as also to there being no dazzling single peak towering 

 in the air, — at least in this western branch of the 

 Himalaya, — the entire range and group consisting, so to 

 say, of a succession of peaks clad in perennial snow. 

 Still it is a sight of unrivalled grandeur, and I was 

 fortunate indeed in having such a clear day to view it 

 all. The scenery may not be so picturesque, but 

 immeasurably more impressive, nay, more awful, than 

 any in Switzerland or the Tyrol. There are neither 

 lakes nor cascades here, which in beauty can be com- 

 pared with those of the Bernese Oberland, or the 

 valley of the Traun; indeed, except in Cashmere, there 

 are no great river basins on the Indian side of the 

 western Himalaya, the Indus, the Sutlej, and the 

 Sanpo or Brahmaputra, having their source in the 

 Tibetan or northern region of the chain intersecting its 

 axis in their solitary course. The entire breadth of 

 these formidable mountain masses varies from nearly a 



