MOUNTAINS. 



on the globe, is 281 78 feet; but the tableland of Thibet, on which 

 it stands, has an altitude of about 11000 feet, so that the height of 

 the peak above the level of the surrounding plain is only 

 17000 feet. 



In like manner, the height of Mont Blanc is 15739 feet, but 

 the height of the Lake of Geneva being 1450 feet, and the base 

 of Mont Blanc being several hundred feet more, it follows that 

 the summit of Mont Blanc cannot be much more than 13000 feet 

 above the level of its base. 



From the two examples here given, it will be apparent how 

 little relation the tabulated heights of mountains sometimes have, 

 to the appearance which they would present to an observer. The 

 highest peak of the Himalayas, measured from the level of the 

 sea, is nearly double that of Mont Blanc, and is sometimes there- 

 fore described as being a mountain, such as would be produced 

 by piling two like Mont Blanc one upon the other. Such an 

 illustration, nevertheless, is most inappropriate, as appears from 

 what has been just stated, since an observer of Kunchinjunga 

 must necessarily view it from a station about 11000 feet above 

 the level of the sea, while an observer of Mont Blanc can view it 

 from a station less than 2000 feet above that level. Mont Blanc 

 would, therefore, under these circumstances, have nearly as great 

 an apparent height as Kunchinjunga. 



193. Effect of the contemplation of mountain scenery. 

 The more the imagination and understanding are impressed with 

 the lofty and massive mountain ranges as evidences of great ter- 

 restrial revolutions which the globe has undergone at distant epochs 

 of its history as the limits of varying climates as the lines of 

 separation forming the watersheds of opposite regions and in 

 fine, as the theatres of peculiar vegetation the more necessary is 

 it to obtain a correct numerical estimate of their actual volume, 

 so as to demonstrate the comparative minuteness of their mass 

 beside that of the extensive platforms on which they stand. 



194. The Pyrenees Take, for example, the chain of the 

 Pyrenees, the area of whose base and whose mean elevation have 

 been determined with great precision. Let us suppose that this 

 entire mountain mass were spread equally over the whole surface 

 of France, and let it be required to determine what would be the 

 thickness of the stratum which it would then form. Nothing can 

 be more simple than such an arithmetical problem, and the result 

 of its solution is, that the whole surface of France would be raised 

 only 115 feet. 



195. The Alps. In like manner, if the chain of the Alps were 

 levelled, and the material composing it uniformly spread over the 

 whole surface of Europe, it would form a stratum only 2 1 feet thick. 



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