28 COSMOS. 



but may also, when properly considered, indicate the grades 

 of the impressions of which I have spoken, from the miiform- 

 ity of the sea-shore, or the barren steppes of Siberia, to the 

 inexhaustible fertility of the torrid zone. If we were even to 

 picture to ourselves Mount Pilatus placed on the Schreck- 

 horn,* or the Schneekoppe of Silesia on Mont Blanc, we should 



* These comparisons are only approximative. The several eleva- 

 tions above the level of the sea are, in accurate numbers, as follows : 



The Schneekoppe or Riesenkoppe, in Silesia, about 5270 feet, ac- 

 cording to Hallaschka. The Righi, 5902 feet, taking the height of the 

 Lake of Lucerne at 1426 feet, according to Eschman. (See Compte 

 Rendu des Mesures Ti-igonometriques en Suisse, 1840, p. 230.) Mount 

 Athos, 6775 feet, according to Captain Gaultier; Mount Pilatus, 7546 

 feet; Mount ^Etna, 10,871 feet, according to Captain Smyth; or 10,874 

 feet, according to the barometrical measurement made by Sir John 

 Herschel, and communicated to me in writing in 1825, and 10,899 feet, 

 according to angles of altitude taken by Cacciatore at Palermo (calcu- 

 lated by assuming the terrestrial refraction to be 0'076) ; the Schreck 

 horn, 12,383 feet; the Jungfrau, 13,720 feet, according to TraUes ; Mont 

 Blanc, 15,775 feet, according to the diflferent measurements considered 

 by Roger {Bibl. Univ., May, 1828, p. 24-53), 15,733 feet, according to 

 the measurements taken from Mount Columbier by Carlini in 1821, and 

 15,748 feet, as measured by the Austrian engineers from Trelod and 

 the Glacier d'Ambin. 



The actual height of the Swiss mountains fluctuates, according to 

 Eschman's observations, as much as 25 English feet, owing to the vary- 

 ing thickness of the stratum of snow that covers the summits. Chim- 

 borazo is, according to my trigonometrical measurements, 21,421 feet 

 (see Humboldt, Recueil d^Obs. Astr., tome i., p. 73), and Dhawalagiri, 

 28,074 feet. As there is a dilference of 445 feet between the determin- 

 ations of Blake and Webb, the elevation assigned to the Dhawalagiri 

 (or white mountain, from the Sanscrit dhawala, white, and giri, mount- 

 ain) can not be received with the same confidence as that of the Jawa- 

 hir, 25,749 feet, since the latter rests on a complete trigonometrical 

 measurement (see Herbert and Hodgson in the Asiat. Res., vol. xiv., 

 p. 189, and Suppl. to Encycl. Brit., vol. iv., p. 643). I have shown 

 elsewhere {Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, Mars, 1825) that the height of 

 the Dhawalagiri (28,074 feet) depends on several elements that have 

 not been ascertained with certainty, as azimuths and latitudes (Hum- 

 boldt, Asie Centrale, t. iii., p. 282). It has been believed, but without 

 foundation, that in the Tartaric chain, north of Thibet, opposite to the 

 chain of Kuen-lun, there are several snowy summits, whose elevation 

 is about 30,000 English feet (almost twice that of Mont Blanc), or, at 

 any rate, 29,000 feet (see Captain Alexander Gerard's and John Gerard's 

 J(>- '•ney to the Boorendo Pass, 1840, vol. i., p. 143 and 311). Chimbo- 

 ru-^o is spoken of in the text only as one of the highest summits of the 

 chain of the Andes; for in the year 1827, the learned and highly-gifted 

 traveler, Pentland, in his memorable expedition to Upper Peru (Bolivia), 

 measured the elevation of two mountains situated to the east of Lake 

 Titicaca, viz., the Sorata, 25,200 feet, and the Illimani, 24,000 feet, both 

 greatly exceeding th« height of Chimborazo, which is only 21,421 feet, 

 and being nearly equal in elevation to the Jawahir, which is the highest 

 mouutaia in the Himalaya that has as yet been accurately measured. 



