Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
We cannot dwell longer on this subject, but the little that we have
said will be enough to show the reader the importance to history,
ethnography, and philology, of the study of Sanskrit. For further
details we refer him to the special works of Orientalists and to the
excellent historical manuals of Robiou, Lenormant, and Maspero. All the
scientific results of whatever kind obtained up to 1820 are also
skilfully and impartially summed up in Walter Hamilton's large work, "A
Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindustan, and
the neighbouring Countries." This is a book which, by recording the
various stages of scientific progress, marks with accuracy the point
reached at any given epoch.
After this brief review of the labours of scholars in reference to the
intellectual and social life of the Hindus, we must turn to those
studies whose aim was a knowledge of the physical character of the
country.
One of the most surprising results obtained by the travels of Webb and
Moorcroft was the extraordinary height attributed by them to the
Himalaya mountains. According to them their elevation exceeded that of
the loftiest summits of the Andes. Colonel Colebrook had estimated the
average height of the chain at 22,000 feet, and even this would appear
to be less than the reality. Webb measured Yamunavatri, one of the most
remarkable peaks of the chain, and estimated its height above the level
of the plateau from which it rises as 20,000 feet, whilst the plateau
in its turn is 5000 feet above the plain. Not satisfied, however, with
what he looked upon as too perfunctory an estimate, he measured, with
all possible mathematical accuracy, the Dewalagiri or White Mountain,
and ascertained its height to be no less than 27,500 feet.
The most remarkable feature of the Himalaya chain is the succession of
these mountains, the ranges of heights rising one above the other. This
gives a far more vivid impression of their loftiness than would one
isolated peak rising from a plain and with its head lost among the
clouds.
The calculations of Webb and Colebrook, were soon verified by the
mathematical observations of Colonel Crawford, who measured eight of
the highest peaks of the Himalayas. According to him the loftiest of
all was Chumulari, situated near the frontiers of Bhoutan and Thibet,
which attains to a height of 30,000 feet above the sea-level.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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