fade from it so fast as to be gazed upon day after day,
with undiminished admiration and pleasure, long after
the mountains themselves have lost their sublimity
and apparent height.
The actual extent of the snowy range seen from Mr.
Hodgson’s windows is comprised within an arc of 80°
(from north 30° west to north 50° east), or nearly a
quarter of the horizon, along which the perpetual snow
forms an unbroken girdle or crest of frosted silver;
and in winter, when the mountains are covered down
to 8000 feet, this white ridge stretches uninterruptedly
for more than 160°. No known view is comparable
with this in extent, when the proximity and height of
the mountains are considered ; for within the 80° above
mentioned more than twelve peaks rise above SO,000
feet, and there are none below 15,000 feet, while
Kinchin is 28,178, and seven others above 22,000. The
nearest perpetual snow is on Nursing, a beautiful sharp
conical peak 19,139 feet high, and thirty-two miles
distant; the most remote mountain seen is Donkia,
23,176 feet high, and seventy-three miles distant;
whilst Kinchin, which forms the principal mass both
for height and bulk, is forty-five miles distant.
On first viewing this glorious panorama, the
impression produced on the imagination by their
prodigious elevation is, that the peaks tower in the
air and pierce the clouds, and such are the terms
generally used in descriptions of similar alpine
scenery; but the observer, if he look again, will find
that even the most stupendous occupy a very low
position on the horizon, the top of Kinchin itself
measuring only 4° 3T above his own level! Donkia
again, which is about 15,700 feet above Mr. Hodgson’s,
rises only 1° 55' above the horizon; an angle which
is quite inappreciable to the eye, when unaided by
instruments.
This view may be extended a little by ascending
Sinchul, which rises a thousand feet above the elevation
of Mr. Hodgson’s house, and lies a few miles to the
south-east of Dorjiling: from its summit Chumulari
(23,929 feet) is seen to the north-east, at eighty-four
miles distance, rearing its head as a great rounded
mass over the snowy Chola range, out of which it
appears to rise, although in reality lying forty miles
beyond;—so deceptive is the perspective of snowy
mountains. To the north-west again, at upwards of
100 miles distance, a beautiful group of snowy mountains
rises above the black Singalelah range, the chief being,
perhaps, as high as Kinchinjunga, from which it is
fully eighty miles distant to the westward; and
between them no mountain of considerable altitude
intervenes; the Nepalese Himalaya in that direction
sinking remarkably towards the Arun river, which
there enters Nepal from Tibet.
The top of Sinchul is a favourite excursion from
Dorjiling, being very easy of access, and the path
abounding in rare and beautiful plants, and passing
through magnificent forests of oak, magnolia, and
rhododendron; while the summit, besides embracing
this splendid view of the snowy range over the
Dorjiling spur, commands also the plains of India,
with the courses of the Teesta, Mahanuddee, Balasun