e, the
higher steeple comes at once before your eyes.

So is it with mountains. From a great distance their highest peaks are
those that may be seen, but as you draw nearer, their lower range, or
foot-hills, subtend the angle of vision; and it is only after having
passed through, or over these, that you again behold the more elevated
summits.

Our travellers were now in sight of the snowy summits of the Himalayas,
several of which rose to the stupendous height of five miles above the
level of the sea--one or two even exceeding this elevation.

Of course it was not the design of the plant-hunters to attempt to climb
to the tops of any of these gigantic mountains. That they well knew
would not be possible, as it is almost certain that at such an elevation
a human being could not live. Karl, however, was determined to proceed
as far as vegetation extended; for he believed that many rare and choice
plants might be found even as high as the snow-line; and indeed there
are several species of beautiful rhododendrons, and junipers, and pines,
which grow only in what may be termed the "Arctic zone" of the
Himalayas.

With this idea, then, the travellers kept on--each day getting higher,
and farther into the heart of the great chain.

For two or three days they had been climbing through wild desolate
valleys, quite without inhabitants; yet they were able to find plenty of
food, as in these valleys there were animals of various kinds, and with
their guns they had no difficulty in procuring a supply of meat. They
found the "talin," a species of wild goat, the male of which often
attains to the weight of three hundred pounds, and a fine species of
deer known in the Himalayas as the "serow." They also shot one or two
wild sheep, known by the name of "burrell," and an antelope called
"gooral," which is the "chamois" of the Indian Alps.

It may be as well here to remark, that in the vast extended chain of the
Himalayas, as well as throughout the high mountain steppes of Asia,
there exist wild sheep and wild goats, as well as deer and antelopes, of
a great many species that have never been described by naturalists.
Indeed, but little more is known of them than what has been obtained
from the notes of a few enterprising English sportsmen. It would be
safe to conjecture that there are in Asia a dozen species of wild sheep,
and quite as many belonging to the goat-tribe; and when that continent
shall be thoroughly explored by s