eriest tyro in
geography can tell you that they are the tallest mountains on the
surface of the earth; that their summits--a half-dozen of them at
least--surmount the sea-level by more than five miles of perpendicular
height; that more than thirty of them rise above twenty thousand feet,
and carry upon their tops the eternal snow!

The more skilled geographer, or _geognosist_, could communicate hundreds
of other interesting facts in relation to these majestic mountains; vast
volumes might be filled with most attractive details of them--their
_fauna_, their _sylva_, and their _flora_. But here, my reader, we have
only space to speak of a few of the more salient points, that may enable
you to form some idea of the Titanic grandeur of these mighty masses of
snow-crowned rock, which, towering aloft, frown or smile, as the case
may be, on our grand empire of Ind.

It is the language of writers to call the Himalayas a "chain of
mountains." Spanish geographers would call them a "sierra" (saw)--a
phrase which they have applied to the Andes of America. Either term is
inappropriate, when speaking of the Himalayas: for the vast tract
occupied by these mountains--over 200,000 square miles, or three times
the size of Great Britain--in shape bears no resemblance to a chain.
Its length is only six or seven times greater than its breadth--the
former being about a thousand miles, while the latter in many places
extends through two degrees of the earth's latitude.

Moreover, from the western termination of the Himalayas, in the country
of Cabul, to their eastern declension near the banks of the
Burrampooter, there is no continuity that would entitle them to the
appellation of a "chain of mountains." Between these two points they
are cut transversely--and in many places--by stupendous valleys, that
form the channels of great rivers, which, instead of running east and
west, as the mountains themselves were supposed to trend, have their
courses in the transverse direction--often flowing due north or south.

It is true that, to a traveller approaching the Himalayas from any part
of the great plain of India, these mountains present the appearance of a
single range, stretching continuously along the horizon from east to
west. This, however, is a mere optical illusion; and, instead of one
range, the Himalayas may be regarded as a _congeries_ of mountain
ridges, covering a superficies of 200,000 square miles, and running in
as many diff