Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-05-08

49, highest of the Himalaya noun
tains, their silvery crowns shining like dia-
monds under the tropical sun At the west
] can look for miles over bare granite sum-
mits against a ragged wall OF perpetual
snow. 1t is the same at the north. The
I mountains rise over this wall Here they
kiss the sky, there they pierce the opales-
cent clouds. and farther on stand out
ragged shafts of silver against the blue
That mighty mass at the north is Kunchin 3.
Janga. over five miles in height, and this
morning / stood on Tiger Hill and saw the
sun gild the summit of Mount Everest,
which is nearly six miles above the level
of the sea- From Tiger Hill 1 could count
a half dozen peaks. any one of which is
higher than the topmost point of the North
American continent, and several of which
reach above the height of any other part
of the globe Mount Everest measures 90 200
feet, Kunchinjanga 2s,176, Janu 253O4 and
Gabru 2,0l5 And then there are three
mountains in sight of over $4,000 feet. They
are higher than any peak of the Andes,
and in the same vicinity are a half dozen
others of 1900 and more
Among the Mighty HimaIayas.
II is impossible to comprehend the i'm
mensity OF the Himalaya mountains. They
oio ~ SiSat Niul SOu COulu sNdNltI llt
other mountains of the world through them
and hardly affect the size of the chain.
You could drop the Alps into their valleys,
and few miles away you could not
notice the addition. Mount Everest is of
all land, the nearest point toward heaven.
1t is more than double the height of
Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan.
You could put another Pixies Peak on the
top of our big mountain near Denver and
II would not reach as high, and the SHOWS
browning Mount Blanc are at least 1O,0 600
feet lower. II you should ascend Mount
Blanc and by flying machine go straight
upward for moro than two miles you would
not yet reach the altitude of Kunchin-
Janga. 1t is more than a mile and half
higher than Mount Mckinley, the giant
of Alaska, and Mount Everest, 1000 feet
above 1t, caps the world.
have seen all of the greatest noun
tains of the globe. AS boy 1 walked
across the Alps from Italy to Switzerland
and climbed the glaciers OF Mount Blanc.
Later I visited almost every part of our
Rocky mountain plateau. and during trips
20 Asia saw the mighty hills of Hawaii
and the Philippines. AS a newspaper cor
respondent, I Travelled through the Andes
from Panama to Patagonia. and 1t was
only year or ago that was writing
letters for you on the highlands of Africa
under the shadows of Mount Kenia and
Mount Kilimanjaro.
OF all the great heights, find the Him
Alayas the most difficult to describe. Their
grandeur is oppressive and their immensely
beyond human conception. And STILL they
are not the most beautiful. The finest of
the worlds mountains in point of form
and symmetry are FuJlyama, in eastern
japan; Mount Cook. In northern New Zea-
land; Mount Moyon, the chief volcano OF
southern Luzon, aud our own Mount Ia
coma, on the shores OF Puget Sound. As
20 glaciers. those of the Himalayas are
greater than the ice rivers of the Alps
They surpass in size the glaciers OF New
Zealand, and, doubt not. those in Alaska
as well. There are glaciers here which are
from thirty to sixty miles long. and one In
particular, which is thirty-three miles in
length and thanked on either side by giant
peaks, each more than five miles in height
These glaciers are mountains OF ice, often
as ragged and rugged as the snow-eapped
peaks hanging over them.