Sept. 1849. TIBETAN LANDSCAPE. 127 



Lachoong to the mountains of the Chola range, which 

 appear so lofty from Porjiling, but from here are sunk far 

 below the horizon : on comparing these with the northern 

 landscape, the wonderful difference between their respective 

 snow-levels, amounting to fully 5000 feet, was very apparent, 

 South-east the stupendous snowy amphitheatre formed by 

 the flank of Donkia was a magnificent spectacle. 



This wonderful view forcibly impressed me with the fact, 

 that all eye-estimates in mountainous countries are utterly 

 fallacious, if not corrected by study and experience. I had 

 been led to believe that from Donkia pass the whole 

 country of Tibet sloped away in descending steppes to the 

 Tsampu, and was more or less of a plain; and could I have 

 trusted my eyes only, I should have confirmed this assertion 

 so far as the slope was concerned. When, however, the 

 levelled theodolite was directed to the distance, the reverse 

 was found to be the case. Unsnowed and apparently low 

 mountains touched the horizon line of the telescope; which 

 proves that, if only 37 miles off, they must, from the dip of 

 the horizon, be at least 1000 feet higher than the observer's 

 position. The same infallible guide cuts off mountain-tops 

 and deeply snowed ridges, which to the unaided eye appear 

 far lower than the point from which they are viewed ; but 

 which, from the quantity of snow on them, must be many 

 thousand feet higher, and, from the angle they subtend in 

 the instrument, must be at an immense distance. The want 

 of refraction to lift the horizon, the astonishing precision of 

 the outlines, and the brilliancy of the images of mountains 

 reduced by distance to mere specks, are all circumstances 

 tending to depress them to appearance. The absence of 

 trees, houses, and familiar objects to assist the eye in the 

 appreciation of distance, throws back the whole landscape ; 

 which, seen through the rarified atmosphere of 18,500 feet, 



