Mr. Fraser on the Himalay Mountains. 61 
The whole belt of hills which thus separates Hindostan from 
Thibet, is perfectly connected and unbroken, running in irregular 
ridges undivided by any valley of consequence from the one plain to 
the other. The line of commencement on the side of Hindostan is 
very distinctly marked; the hills rising from a level, which is even 
lower than the rest of the country, and perfectly free from rock or 
stone, at once into sharp ridgy and wild hills which are soon lost in 
the mountains from which they diverge. The other, or north-eastern 
side of this great belt, if we may trust to the best information that has 
been obtained, is less sharply defined; the hills fall more gradually 
into grassy and green heights and undulations, and end in a plain 
that slopes gently from their summits. If this is the case, it is 
consistent with the law which was found to hold good in the indivi- 
dual ridges, the more broken and precipitous faces of which always 
pointed to the south-west and north-west. 
Of this mountainous tract, the great Himalay mountains form the 
central ridge, each succession of hills, however irregular may be the 
direction of their ranges, rising gradually as they approach this great 
backbone from which their origin can always be traced; but the 
loftiest of the mountains not included in the Himalay, so far from 
nearly reaching their height, appear but as their roots; while the 
latter highly predominating over all, rear their sharp rocky crests, 
Covered only with eternal snows, to a height almost incredible, in 
unapproachable, desolate grandeur. 
The best observations have fixed the heights of some Peaks of 
the Himalay at about 26,000 feet above the level of the plains, and 
these may rise above the sea 500 feet more. Mr. Colebrooke, late 
President of the Asiatic Society, in a paper to be found in the 
twelfth vol. of the Asiatic Researches, from a number of observations 
and various data, lays down the chief peaks of the Himalay moun- 
