Idaho semi-weekly world. (Idaho City, Boise County, Idaho Territory) 1867-1868, 1867-05-11
HEIGHTS OF MOUNTAINS AND CITIES.

A writer in the San Francisco Bulletin OF
late date, furnishes the following information
upon this interesting subject:
A paragraph about the height of mountains
and cities, quoted in your paper of the 9th
instant, is pleasant illustration of how many
errors can be crowded into twenty-five lines.
Allow me to correct portion of these mis-
statements, especially as the real facts are OF
general interest and worth preserving.
] take up the statements in the order OF the
paragraph in question. First, Mount Mitchell,
6,576 feet, not 6, 476, is not the highest noun
tain east of the Rocky Mountains Black
Mountain (6,7Ol) is. Mount st. Elias is not
1900 feet high, nor 1900, as usually stated,
but IA $40, as measured by the English hydrOg-
raphers. Aconcagua (given at 1884 feet) is
not the highest peak in South America; the de-
Examinations of it's altitude are somewhat at
variance with each other, but %, 1000, the meas
urement of the officers of the Beagle, ION the
memorable expedition of which Darwin formed
o part } is the most probable. There are sew
eral peaks in the Bolivian Andes higher than
this; of these, Illampu is the most elevated,
its height being "a ,6l2 feet, as determined by
the recent Government Survey of Bolivia. The
highest summit of Europe is Mont Blanc, (and
here we meet the first correct statement in the
paragraph in question: its height, however, is
not Il, $50 feet, but ,8O96 metres (15,779 feet)
las determined from the mean of seven of the
most elaborate and reliable ge0detic measure
ments, which cost twenty years of labor"
The highest point of Asia is not Kunchinjun-
ga" (spelled correctly Kanchinjinga,) not 49,
l76, but 28, l56 feet, according to the Govern
ment Survey; it is Gaurisankar, or Mt Ever
est, 29,O02 feet as fixed by the accurate de-
%o,,, oe Gua Cplv
vey Of India. Salt Lake City is not the high
est city in the United States Virginia City is
probably the highest town with sufficient pop
ulatiOH TO be entitled to the name of CITY,"
1t is about $500 feet above the sea as it is
built on the steeply inclined side of q noun
tain, different parts of it differ several humid
red feet from each other in elevation. If, how
ever, Austin, Nevada, may be called q city, it
has the precedence over Virginia City, as its
elevation is about $500 feet; while Aurora is
nearly 1000 feet higher than Austin, or Z ,446
feet. Whether the statement that Mexico is
the highest city on the continent should be al
lowed to pass unchallenged, depends on the
construction of the word city" All that fol-
lows in the paragraph in question is incorrect,
except the heights assigned CuZco and La PaZ.
will state the facts as cOncisely as possible in
regard to the highest inhabited places in Amer
lea and in the world. The highest permanently
inhabited place in the world is Buddhist
Monastery, in Western Thibet, Hanle, I5,117
feet; the highest summer village is Norbu, 49,
046 feet; POtosi, therefore, is not the highest
inhabited place in the world, neither is it the
highest city, as Cerro de Pasco 4,O98 feet) in
the Andes is higher, and Mugab, in Western
Thibet, (I3,s47 feet.) Finally, the highest
point ever attained by man was not upon
Chimborazo. by Boussingault and Hall, (19.-
099 feet j much greater heights have been
reached in balloons, and also on terra firma,
by the Schlagintwett brothers; their highest
point, reached August 10, 1856, on the TANKS
Of Ibi Gamin, was % 259 feet.