hese awful solitudes is most perilous,
owing to the narrow paths, tremendous ravines, icy barriers, precipices,
etc. In many places every step has to be cut in the ice, the party being
tied to each other by ropes, so that if one slips he may be held up by
the rest, and silence is enforced, lest the noise of talking should
dislodge the avalanches of the Aiguille du Midi. The view from the
mountain is inexpressibly grand. On the Alps the limit of the vine is an
elevation of 1,600 feet; below 1,000 feet, figs, oranges and olives are
produced. The limit of the oak is 3,800 feet, of the [Transcriber's Note:
The original text reads 'chesnut'] chestnut 2,800 feet,of the pine 6,500
feet, of heaths and furze to 8,700 and 9,700 feet; and perpetual snow
exists at an elevation of 8,200 feet.

On the Andes, in lat. 2 degrees, the limit of perpetual snow is 14,760
feet; in Mexico, lat. 19 degrees, the limit is 13,800 feet; on the
peak of Teneriffe, 11,454 feet; on Mount Etna, 9,000 feet; on the
Caucasus, 9,900 feet; in the Pyrenees, 8,400 feet; in Lapland,
3,100 feet; in Iceland, 2,890 feet. The walnut ceases to grow at an
elevation of 3,600 feet; the yellow pine at 6,200 feet; the ash at
4,800 feet, and the fir at 6,700 feet. The loftiest inhabited spot
on the globe is the Port House of Ancomarca, on the Andes, in
Peru, 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. The 14th peak of the
Himalayas, in Asia, 25,659 feet high, is the loftiest mountain in the
world.

Lauterbrunnen is a deep part of an Alpine pass, where the sun hardly
shines in winter. It abounds with falls, the most remarkable of which
is the Staubbach, which falls over the Balm precipice in a drizzling
spray from a height of 925 feet; best viewed in the morning sun or by
moonlight. In general, it is like a gauze veil, with rainbows dancing
up and down it, and when clouds hide the top of the mountain, it seems
as poured out of the sky.

In Canada, the falls of Montmorenci are 250 feet high, the falls of
Niagara (the Horse Shoe Falls) are 158 feet high and 2,000 feet wide,
the American Falls arc 164 feet high and 900 feet wide. The Yosemite
Valley Falls are 2,600 feet high, and the Ribbon Falls of the Yosemite
are 3,300 feet high. The waterfall of the Arve, in Bavaria, is 2,000
feet.

THE PERIODS OF GESTATION are the same in the horse and ass or eleven
months each, camel 12 months, elephant 2 years, lion 5 months, buffalo
12 months, in the human female 9 months, cow 9 mon