1S8 M O U N 
tains of which thefe chains are compofed are fingly aggre¬ 
gated in rows: they are moltly mountain-groups of an 
intermediate height and extent. In the conical groups 
the individual mountains are for the moft part fingly 
aggregated like the preceding, but only joined together 
at their foot, or not higher up than the declivity, by 
which the conical form is produced, which principally 
characterizes the mountains of the fletz-trap formation. 
The alpine mountain-group does not confift, like the 
common group, of Ample rows of mountains, the fum- 
mits of which are fingly projecting, but as it were of 
pyramidally-aggregated clutters ; and is therefore to be 
coniidered as a double aggregation. Thefe alpine moun¬ 
tain-groups are the molt extenfive, and their highelt 
ridges and fummits generally confilt of granite. 
With regard to the different parts oi' Jingle mountains, 
we diltinguifh the foot, the acclivity, and the fummit. 
The foot is generally very fiat, and more or lefs extenfive; 
the acclivity, or the fpace between the foot and the fum¬ 
mit, is the molt confiderable and ufually the fteepelt part 
of the mountain, fometimes even forming perpendicular 
precipices: the more gentle and gradual the afcent of a 
mountain, the richer it generally proves in ores. The 
fummit varies both with regard to its fteepnefs and fiiape, 
which latter is for the mod; part indicative of the nature 
of the rock of which it is compofed ; gneifs and tranlition 
rocks forming flat or round-backed ; clay-flate conical; 
and bafalt, &c. fiiort and obtufe conical fummits; while 
granite and lime-ftone mountains are often characterized 
by fliarp-pointed fummits or peaks. If feveral of the 
mountains in a group are flattened, fuch a ridge is called 
a plait for me. Very deep and lofty fummits are called 
peaks, needles, or horns. Sometimes the fummit is marked 
by a depreflion ; fometimes it is interfeCIed by ravines, 
and the inequalities thus formed are called caps. 
Though mountains have been emphatically called “ la 
eharpente et l’oflature du globe terreftre,” yet even the 
moll elevated of them mult appear as flight rugofities 
only, when their proportion to the diameter of the earth 
is confidered: for the highell mountain of Europe, the 
Mont Blanc, is, on the furface of our planet, what the por- 
tuberance of a line would be on the furface of a globe of 
about twenty-one feet in diameter. It is not a long time 
fince we havB obtained correCt notions of the heights of 
mountains ; before the barometer was applied to the 
meafurement of altitudes, their elevation was generally 
greatly exaggerated by travellers, fo much fo, that the 
learned jefuit Riccioli, who floiirilhed towards the mid¬ 
dle of the feventeenth century, gives it as his opinion 
that mountains like the Caucafus may have a per¬ 
pendicular elevation of fifty Italian miles; and Ilb rand 
Ides, in his embafly to China, having travelled l'ome 
mountains of Siberia, Hates their height to be about 
5000 toifes. For the mode of computing the height of 
mountains by means of the Barometer, fee that article, 
vol. ii. and Mechanics, vol. xiv. where the heights of 
the principal mountains are given. Since that article 
was printed, the Afiatic Society have publilhed an ac¬ 
count, in their twelfth volume, of the height of the 
Himalaya Mountains, hitherto inacceflible to Europeans. 
Thefe mountains have, however, been long believed, in 
India, to furpafs in height all other mountains on the 
earth. The Himalaya chain is vilible from Patna, on the 
foutliern banks of the Ganges, as a continued well-defined 
line of white cliffs, extending through more than two 
points of the compafs, at a diftance of about lixty leagues, 
while, at an equal diftance, Chimborago, the higheft of 
the Andes, is feen as a Angle point, the reft of the Cor¬ 
dillera being invifible. It appears, from Capt. Turner’s 
account, that the Peak of Chamalafi, near which he palled, 
after crofting the frontier of Thibet, is the fame moun¬ 
tain which is feen from various ftations in Bengal, the 
moll remote of which is not lefs than 23,2 Englilh miles 
diftant. This, in the mean Hate of the atmofphere, re¬ 
quires an elevation of 28,090 feet. The prefldent himfelf 
TAIN. 
obferved the ufual altitude of a peak of the Himalaya to 
be i° 1', as viewed from a ftation in Bengal, diftant not 
lefs than 150 Englilh miles, which, after a due allowance 
for terreftria! refraction, would give a height of not lefs 
than 26,000 feet. According to the mean of feveral ob- 
fervations of a peak, taken by Lieut.-col. Coiebrooke, its 
height, above the level of the plains of Rohilklrund, is 
22,291 feet, or about 22,800 feet above the level of the 
fea. According to the obfervations communicated to the 
prefldent, Mount Dhaibun is 20,140 above Cathmandu, 
which is itfelf more than 4500 above the level of the fea; 
and another exceeds the elevation of the lame ftation 
by 17,819 feet, another by 20,025 feet, another by 18,662 
feet. All thefe are vilible from Patna, the neareft being 
nearly. 170 Englilh miles diftant, and the fartheft about 
226 miles. The Dhawalagiri, or White Mountain, fup- 
pofed to be fituated near the fource of the Glandac River, 
was found, by obfervations of bearings, taken by Mr. 
Webb, from four points, and of altitudes from three, to 
be (allowing £ for reflation) 26,784 feet ; and, allowing 
Jj-, 27,551.. Suppofing the errors ariling from reflation, 
and thole from obfervation, to be the higheft poflibie, and 
both in excels, the prefldent calculates that its height, 
above the plains of Gorakhpur, cannot fall Ihort of 26,462 
feet, or 26,862 above the level of the fea. The following 
meafurements are given by the writer as near approaches 
to the truth: 
Eng. Ft. 
Dhawalagiri, or Dholagir—on a mean of three 
obfervations .... 27,677 
Yamunavatari, or Jamautri, above the fea - 25,500 
A mountain, fuppoled to be Dhaibun, above the 
fea - - - - - 24,740 
A mountain not named, obferved from Pilibhit 
and Jethpur, above the fea - - 25,669 
A mountain not named, above the valley of Nepaul, 
which is 4600 feet higher than the fea - - 20,025 
Above the fea - - - - 24,625 
Another near it, above the valley of Nepaul 18,662 
Above the lea A . - - - . 23,262 
A third in its vicinity, above the valley of Nepaul 18,452 
Above the fea - - - - 23,052 
Mr. Webb lucceeded in accurately determining the alti¬ 
tudes of twenty-leven peaks of the Snowy Mountains 
in the province of Kumaoii in Nepaul, which, together 
with that gentleman’s lurvey of the province, has been 
tranfmitted to the marquis of Mailings, the governor- 
general of India. By a reference to the Aliatic Refearches, 
vol. xii. it will be feen, that, out of thefe twenty-leven 
peaks, the verylowelt (No. 10) furpafies Mont Blanc, the 
higheft point of the European continent, by m feet; 
that 19 out of the 27 exceed Chimborazo, hitherto con¬ 
iidered the moll elevated point of the globe ; and that 
the higheft of thefe Afiatic peaks (No. 14) towers to the 
prodigious elevation of 6074 feet above that giant of 
the Andes! 
Attraction of Mountains .—This is a late difeovery, and 
a very confiderable confirmation of fir Ifaac Newton’s 
theory of univerfal gravity. (See, however, this doCtrine 
impugned under the article Motion, p. 108.) Accord¬ 
ing to the Newtonian fyllem, an attractive power is not 
only exerted between thole large mafies of matter which 
conllitute the fun and planets, but likewife between all 
comparatively fmaller bodies, and even between the 
fmalleft particles of which they are compofed. Agreeably 
to this liypothefis, a heavy body, which ought to gravi¬ 
tate or tend toward the centre of the earth, in a direction 
perpendicular to its fprface, fuppofing the laid furface to 
be perfectly even and fpherical, ought likewife, though 
in a lefs degree, to be attraCled and tend towards a moun¬ 
tain placed on the earth’s furface; fo that a plumb-line, 
for inltance, of a quadrant, hanging in the neighbour¬ 
hood of fuch a mountain, ought to be drawn from a per¬ 
pendicular fituation, in conlequence of the attractive 
power of the quantity of matter of which it is compofed 
a ailing 
