ACCURATE OBSERVATION 283 
the way out : I always carried my note-book and pencil 
tied to my jacket pocket, and generally walked with them in 
my hand. It is impossible to begin observing too soon, or 
to observe too much : if the excursion is long, little is ever 
done on the way home ; the bodily powers being mechani- 
cally exerted, the mind seeks repose, and being fevered 
through over-exertion, it can endure no train of thought, or 
be brought to bear on a subject. (H. J., i. 247.) 
As to overhasty generalisation : 
The plants gathered near the top of Wallanchoon pass 
were species of Comfo sitae, grass, and Arenaria ; the most 
curious was Saussurea gossyjpina, which forms great clubs 
of the softest white wool, six inches to a foot high, its flowers 
and leaves seeming uniformly clothed with the warmest 
fur that nature can devise. Generally speaking, the alpine 
• plants of the Himalaya are quite unprovided with any special 
protection of this kind ; it is the prevalence and conspicuous 
nature of the exceptions that mislead, and induce the care- 
less observer to generahse hastily from soHtary instances ; 
for the prevailing alpine genera of the Himalaya, Arenarias, 
primroses, saxifrages, fumitories, Banunculi, gentians, grasses, 
sedges, &c., have almost uniformly naked foliage. (H. J., i. 
225.) 
As in other matters, so he sought for accuracy in drawing 
mountain scenery, with a deliberate endeavour 
to overcome that tendency to exaggerate heights and in- 
crease the angle of slopes, which is, I believe, the besetting 
sin, not of amateurs only, but of our most accomphshed 
artists. 
Confessing that, as he did not use instruments to project the 
outlines, he could not pretend to have wholly avoided this 
snare (while the lithographer, alas, was not always content 
to abide by his plain copy), he is often careful to mention the 
angle subtended by lofty peaks in the distance, and the true 
slope on their sides. For, as he remarks (H. J., i, 347), 
the vagueness with which all terms are usually appHed to the 
apparent altitude and steepness of mountains and precipices, 
