An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

;206 TIBET.At the end of the next day's journey, we came tothe source of ariver, which ran towards the north, near which we travelled all the wayto its confluence with the Berhampooter, a little beyond Teshoo Loomboo.The Berhampooter there flows in a very widely extended bed, andpasses on^ shaping its course to the south of Lassa; it afterwards takesa vast circuit through the mountains on the bordersof Tibet, beforeitenters the kingdom of Assam, and finally joins the Ganges, in Bengal.These great rivers, when united, take together the name of Megna,and flow but a short distance, before they divide into innumerablestreams, that intersect the territory, which is called the Sunderbunds,in a most intricate labyrinth, and then finally mix their waters with thesea.The prodigious difl'erence of climate affords, also, strong testimonyto the truth of my assertion, respecting the height of this part ofTibet. Perpetual winter may be said to reign at Phari ; Chumulareeis for ever clothed with snow; and this mountain, from its remarkableform, leaves no room to doubt its being the same, which I haveheard described as occasionally visible from Purnea and Rajemahland wliich I once saw, before 1 set out from Rungpore upon my presentjourney. I had not the means to ascertain its elevation; but some inferencemay, perhaps, be drawn from analogy.We hear, that on MountLebanon in Syria, snow does not remain through the whole year, exceptin the highest cavities. Now it is well known that snow, under thesecircumstances, in that latitude (34° 30' north), requires an elevation of1500 or 160 fathoms above the level of the sea. The loftiest of theAlps, which is Mount Blanc, is estimated at 2,400;the Peak of Ossian,in the Pyrenees, is said to be 1900 fathoms above the level of the sea;