310 AN ESSAY ON THE 



called ^Szveta, or the white mountains : the cOun- 

 try between these two is called Ramyaca: the 

 third and last range is called ^Sri/iga-van : and the 

 counrry between the two last, is Hirar/ijamaya^ or 

 Hirarimaya. These six ranges extend from sea to 

 sea, and are of ditterent lenoth, according to the 

 latitudes they are in. The length of the two in- 

 nermost ranges, and o^ course of the longest, is 

 equal to the breadth of Jambu-dwipa, or 100,000 

 Ynjanas; the length of the two middle ranges, 

 ^Sweta and Hema-cut'a, is 90,000 Vujanas: the two 

 outermdst, Sringa-vdn and Himdchala, are 80,000 

 Yojanas in length, ihese mountains are 2000 Vo- 

 janaa broad, and as many high, or about 10,000 

 miles : we are informed, in the Cdlicd-purdn'a, that 

 ir was so formerly; but that since, the mountains 

 have gradually snbsided, and that the highest is 

 not above one Yujana in height, or less than five 

 miles. 



According to the Trai-locya-darpan'a, these 

 ranges do not extend from sea to sea, and occupy 

 little more than the fourth part of the breadth of 

 the old continent, which is, in that treatise, said 

 to be equal to 60,000 Y(>jamis. The length of the 

 two outermost ranges is declared to be 4S202 Yor- 

 janas ; the two middle ones 8416, and the two in- 

 nermost 16,832. This is the niore reasonable, as 

 these three ranges, very plain and obvious in the 

 Korth of India, are soon confused together, and 

 disappear at some distance from it; and as 150,000 

 Yojanas, in the Trai locya-darpana, are considered 

 as equal to 180 degrees of longitude, the first range 

 will extend East and VVest, about two and twenty 

 degrees of longitude, which is the utmost breadth 

 of India. The difierence between the two other 

 ranges, and the first, is disproportionate and inad^ 

 missible ; and the proportion given in the Furdn'as- 



