26o HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



suddenly into view, as, for example, at some opening 

 in the forests or some bend in a ravine ; then the 

 higher peaks seem to pierce the very firmament. 



The mountains, however, convey this impression of 

 extreme elevation only in the day-time. When seen 

 at night, even at the distance of a few miles, they 

 appear to rise but very little above the horizon, so little 

 that when encamped on the further side of the Doon I 

 have had, even in the brightest moonlight night, great 

 difficulty in distinguishing them at all. 



This contrast between the apparent elevation of the 

 mountains when seen by day and by night is very 

 singular. I think that it may be thus explained : the 

 mountains, although so lofty, do not in reality rise 

 more than a very few degrees above the horizon ; they 

 consequently conceal only a narrow strip of the lower 

 zone of the sky, but it is to this lower zone that during 

 the day-time our eyes are almost entirely directed, for 

 in the day-time we seldom gaze except on the surface 

 of the ground and on objects that rise but slightly 

 above it. Seeing, therefore, that the mountains do 

 conceal a very appreciable amount of this lower zone 

 of sky on which we gaze, we forget how narrow, as 

 compared with the entire firmament, this lower zone 

 really is, and hence we form an exaggerated concep- 

 tion of the altitude of the mountains. 



But at night these conditions are reversed. Our 

 gaze is then chiefly directed towards the zenith ; we 

 look almost entirely on the moon or stars. In order 

 to observe the mountains, we have to direct our eyes 

 downwards, and, in doing so, to traverse with our gaze 



