310 On the influence of Mountain- Attraction [No. 4. 



On the influence of Mountain- Attraction on the determination of the 

 relative heights of Mount Everest, near Darjeeliny, and the lofty 

 peak lately discovered near Kashmir. 



Head at the Monthly Meeting of the Asiatic Society , Sept. 1859. 



In the communication read at the July meeting of the Asiatic 

 Society by Major Thuillier, the interesting fact was stated that a 

 mountain has been found in the neighbourhood of Kashmir (about 

 36° North latitude and 76f° East longitude), of which the height 

 does not fall far short of Mount Everest (Lat. 28°, Long. 87°), the 

 highest known mountain in the world, and which towers up to 

 29,002 feet or 5|- miles above the level of the sea. The newly 

 discovered peak is only 724 feet lower than this, and is 122 feet 

 higher than Kunchinjinga, the highest known before the discovery 

 of Mount Everest. And hopes are held out that before the survey 

 of the hills in the neighbourhood is completed, some other moun- 

 tain may yet be found in that western extremity of the range to 

 rear its head as high even as the monarch of the east. 



2. In the coming contest, then, for the sovereignty between the 

 East and West of this stupendous range of mountains even a small 

 circumstance may give the palm to one or the other. It is with 

 this feeling that I lay the following statement before the Society. 



In itself the precise determination of the height of a mountain 

 is a matter of little importance. It is not to be compared, in a 

 scientific point of view, with the importance of obtaining correct 

 horizontal measures and the correct curvature of the arcs measured. 

 But where mountains are contending for the pre-eminence of being 

 the highest in the whole world, the question assumes special interest. 



3. I take it for granted, that, as the effect of Mountain-Attrac- 

 tion on the levelling of the instruments of observation has not been 

 taken account of in the Survey of the Plains, the same course has 

 been followed in the Survey of the Mountains. It is to the effect 

 which this disturbing cause must have upon the measurement of 

 the heights in question, that I wish to call attention. My results 

 will be only approximations : but I believe they are sufficient to 

 show the tendency of things, and to add one more illustration to 



