MOUNTAINS, stupendous elevations of earth and other substances, in some cases coeval with creation, and in others the produce of subterraneous motion, caused by fire and confined vapours.
The methods used to ascertain the heights of mountains, are necessarily im perfect, as their pyramidal outline uni prevents the dropping of a plum met, the only certain mode of accurate measurement. Before the invention of the instruments now employed for this purpose, which undoubtedly approach vesy nearly to certainty in their result, re course was bad to conjecture, and the er roneous practice of measuring their sha dows. Strabo, judging from the means possessed in his time, declared the high est mountain in the world to be equal to 21,830 English feet. Kircher, deciding from the length of their shadows, pro nounced /Etna 25,600 The Peak of Teneriffe - - - 64,000 Mount Athos 128,000 And Larissa in Egypt - - 179,200 M. Bourrit, who explored the Alps, gives the following table of the various elevations of places and mountains above the level of the sea.
!sleigh yards.
The Lake of Geneva, at the lower passage of the Rhone - - - 398 The Lake of Neufchatel - - - 456 Highest point of the needle of Se leve 1488 Summit of Canigou 3088 Summit of Dole, the highest moan • tain ()flora 1800 Summit of Mole 2014 Valley of Chamouni 1151 Ridge of Breven 2949 Valley of Montanvert - - - 1865 Abbey of Sixt 797 Granges des Communes - - - 1769 Highest Grange of Fonds - - 1458 Summit of Grenier 2782 Summit of Grenairon - - - 2958 Plain de Lechaud 2295 Summit of Buet 3315 Mont Blanc 5081 Mount /Etna 4000 Summit of the Table at the Cape of Good Hope 1153 Summit of Snowdon in Wales - - 1224 Pike Rucco in the island of Madeira 1689 Pike of Teneriffe - . - - - - 4399 The same, according to Dr. Heber den 5132 Summit of Cotopaxi according to Ulloa 6643 Some Philosophers have estimated the Peak of Teneriffe to be 19,200 feet in height; Feuille reduces it to 13,248; and others assert that the Peak and /Etna are the most elevated objects on the earth. But this supposition has been combatted by Sir George Shuckburgh, who mea. sured /Etna from an observation by M.
de Saussure, and found it to be 10,954 feet above the level of the sea. The lat ter gentleman had obtained the height of Vesuvius, and Sir George measured Mont Blanc : from which it appears that the height of Vesuvius added to that of /Etna is 14,854 feet, and that of Mont Blanc alone amounts to 15,662 feet; whence he infers, that Mont Blanc far eclipses all other mountains in Europe, Asia, and Africa; those of America, according to Condamine, are of vast height, and in some instances the elevation amounts to 19,200 feet.
Upon comparing the calculations of dif ferent persons in their attempts to mea sure these enormous masses, it will be found that they vary greatly ; it is there. fore obvious, that the methods at present in use are subject to impediments, which are attributable to many causes : some of those mayhereafter be removed, but there are others so completely connected with local circumstances of heat, cold, Mois ture, and the reverse, that it is impossible they should ever be overcome ; neither is it quite correct to infer that the chain of the Caucasus, the Taurus, and the African mountains, are inferior to Mont Blanc, un less the same opportunities were afforded for measuring their heights which exist in Europe. Mr. Coxe says, " conjectures are now banished from natural philoso. phy ; and until it shall be proved from un doubted calculations that the highest part of the Caucasus rises more than 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, Mont Blanc may be fairly considered as more ele vated." This position rests on very slen der grounds indeed, and, resembling the conjectures said to be banished from na tural philosophy, it should be rejected without hesitation. In truth, this point will most probably never be satisfactorily adjusted, and we must rest satisfied with the knowledge we have already acquir ed, till reason or philosophy shall have taught, or extended civilization through out the globe, and future naturalists have made measurements of hitherto unex plored mountains, with instruments simi lar to those used by Saussure and Shuck burgh.