great height when the mountain happens to be in warm latitudes."

8. "Precisely so. In very warm countries, such as those within the tropics, when you see the snow cap upon a mountain, you may infer that it is a very high one at least over two miles in height; and when there is much snow upon it—that is, when the snow reaches far down its sides-it proves the mountain to be still higher-three miles or more above the level of the ocean.

9. "Our mountain, then, must be a high one, since it is in a warm latitude, and snow lies all the year upon it." "It is a high one, comparatively speaking; but you will remember, when we first saw it, there was only a small patch of snow upon its top, and probably in very hot summers that disappears altogether; so that it is not so high as others in South America. Taking our latitude into calculation, and the quantity of snow which lies upon this mountain, I should say it was about 14,000 feet."

10. "Oh! so much as that! It does not seem half so high. I have seen mountains that appeared to me to be quite as high, and yet it was said they did not measure the half of 14,000 feet." "That arises from the fact that you are not viewing this one from the sea level, as you did those. The plain upon which it stands, and from which we view it, is of itself elevated nearly half as much. You must remember that we are upon one of the high tables of the American continent."

11. Here, for a minute or so, the conversation

stopped, and we travelled on in silence, all of us with our eyes fixed on the white and roseate peak that glittered before us, leading our eyes far up into the heavens. Frank again resumed the discourse which had been broken off by our admiration of this beautiful object.

12. "Is it not curious," said he "that the snow should lie so regularly coming down on all sides to the same height and ending just like the cape of a coat, or the hem of a nightcap? It seems to be a straight line all round the mountain."

on

13. "That line," rejoined his mother, "is, as you say, a curious phenomenon, and caused by the laws of heat and cold, which we have just been explaining. It is called the snow line,' and a good deal of speculation has arisen among geographers about the elevation of this line. Of course, mountains within the tropics this line will a great height above the level of the sea. advance northward or southward to the Poles, it will be found lower and lower, until within the frigid zones it may be said to cease altogether-for there, as we have said, snow covers the whole earth, and there can be no 'snow line.'

be at

As you

14. "From this, one would suppose that an exact scale might be formed, giving the elevation of the snow-line for all latitudes. But that could not be done. Observation has shewn that it not only differs on mountains that lie in the same latitude, but that on the same mountain it is often higher on one side than the other-particularly on those of great extent, as the Himalayas of India. This is all

quite natural, and easily accounted for. The position of mountains to one another, and their proximity or great distance from the sea, will give them a colder or warmer atmosphere, independent of latitude.

15. "Moreover, the same mountain may have a warmer climate on one side than the other; and of course the snow-line will be higher on that side which is the warmer, in consequence of the greater melting of the snow. This line, too, varies in summer and winter for a like reason-as we see here upon our own mountain, where it has already descended several feet since the weather became colder. This, you will acknowledge, is all very natural; and you will see, too, that Nature, although apparently capricious in many of her operations, acts most regularly in this one, as perhaps in all others."

16. "But, mamma," inquired Harry, "can we not get to the top of the mountain? I should like to have some snow to make snowballs and pelt Frank with them." It would be a very difficult task, Master Hal; and more than either you or I could get through with. I think Frank will escape being snow-balled this time." "But people have climbed to the top of the Himalaya mountains; and they are far higher than this, I'm sure." "Never," interrupted Frank; "no one has ever climbed the Himalayas. Have they, mamma?"

17. "No mortal has ever been so high as the summits of those great mountains, which are more than five miles above the level of the ocean. Even

could they be climbed, it is not likely that any animal could live at their top. These inaccessible things seem to have been designed by the Creator to afford us objects for sublime contemplationobjects far above the reach of mortal man, and that can never be rendered common by his contact. Do they not seem so?"

de-signed' in'-fer-ence vol-un-teered'

con-tem-pla'-tion

AM lodged in a house that affords me conveniences and comforts which even a king could not command some centuries ago. There are ships crossing the seas in every direction, some propelled by steam and some by the wind, to bring what is useful to me from all parts of the earth.

2. In China men are gathering the tea-leaf for me; in the Southern States of America they are planting cotton for me; in the West India Islands and in Brazil they are raising my sugar and my coffee; in Italy they are feeding silk-worms for