High altitude

“ The altitude of mountains depends primarily on the resultant of antagonistic agencies. There are the disturbances from below which push the mountains up, for were our earth solid and cold throughout its interior no fresh upheavals could arise. ”

“ When seen from high altitudes, a mountain appears merely as a part of a vast panorama or a single element in a wild, limitless scene of desolate peaks, which raise their bare, bleak summits among the sea of mountains far up into the cold regions of the atmosphere, where they become white with eternal snow, and bound by rigid glaciers. ”

“ If he be at a high altitude, the rainbow will be low; if he be at a low elevation, the rainbow must be high; and if a shower happen in a vale, when the spectator is on a mountain, he will sometimes see the 148 bow in the form of a complete circle below him. ”

“ The base line in any operation being horizontal and always a carefully measured one, the process becomes exceedingly simple. Let the altitude of the Sun be taken on a given day at 12 o’clock at the high-water mark on the sea shore at Brighton, in Sussex ”

“ Therefore the adjustments necessary for rising at the lower level and journeying in the higher level are too large and complex to make flying at high altitudes practicable—leaving out of consideration the bitter cold of the upper regions. ”

“ But, in point of fact, an ascension being made to any stated altitude, the ponderable quantity of air surmounted in any farther ascension, is by no means in proportion to the additional height ascended, (as may be plainly seen from what has been stated before) but in a ratio constantly decreasing. It is therefore evident that, ascend as high as we may, we cannot, literally speaking, arrive at a limit beyond which no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I argued, it may exist in a state of infinite rarefaction. ”

“ By day, at an altitude of 2,500 feet, the whole surface of the earth appears perfectly flat, hills and valleys seeming to be on the same level. Therein lies one of the dangers of aerial navigation. The contour of the earth is quite indistinguishable when one is half a mile high, therefore the altimeter is not of very great use—and more especially so at night. ”

“ Another reason for locating stations at high altitudes is because the cool night air, the smoke and dust of the day, and heavy mists lie close to the ground, filling the depressions and lowlands, while the higher points remain in view. ”

“ The physiological difficulties met with in ascending to high altitudes are doubtless of a very high order, but can to a certain extent be eliminated by ascending gradually, day after day, so as to allow the body to accommodate itself by degrees to the new surroundings. ”

“ Altitude is ever refreshing. The dust-filled, noise-crowded air is far below. From these scenic mountain heights one commands a new world of mountainous cloud-scenery in the sky. Grand, deep, blue gorges lie open in the cloud plateaus and mountains. To the enraptured eye the shifting clouds sometimes become continents and islands, real lands where people live, landscapes upon whose sunny hills and forested mountains shadows of other clouds fall, and across whose expanding plains many winding rivers run. ”

“ The choice of altitude is yours—whether to accept this current or mount higher and go with another. You may mount above the clouds, where one breathes oxygen from tubes, while the earth, in the last glimpse you had of it, seems to spin beneath you, and you lose all bearings; or you may descend and scud along the surface, aided by your guide rope and a dipperful of ballast to leap over trees and houses—giant leaps made without effort. ”

“ No doubt the intensity of the attraction becomes weaker with every increase in the altitude, but that action would still exist to some extent, however lofty might be the elevation which had been attained. ”

“ FLYING ALTITUDE.—It is doubtful whether the disturbed condition of the atmosphere, due to the contour of the earth's surface, reaches higher than 500 feet. Over a level area it is certain that it is much less, but in some sections of the country, where the hill ranges extend for many miles, at altitudes of three and four hundred feet, the upper atmosphere may be affected for a thousand feet above. ”

“ Being at a great altitude—1000 yards—when they smell the carrion, they are, if the wind is strong, more than a mile away from the animal, and as they fly round they gradually work up to windward, until the object is visible ”

“ The sky was charged with large and heavy clouds; and a broad, deep, and as it were stormy, tint of dark purple ... mantled every mountain which we saw--with the exception of our old gigantic friend, of which the summit was buried in the clouds. At a given distance, you form a tolerably good notion of the altitude of mountains; and from this latter view of those in question, I should think that the highest may be about 3000 feet above the level of the lake. ”

“ At this altitude, it requires a sharp eye to discern a man, but at length they are seen scrambling up the ravines and gullies and breasting the sharp pitches, until at last the first man arrives thoroughly used up and a string of fellows of lesser wind come in, in sections, all thoroughly blown. ”

“ Forests, hills, and mountains followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in our passage. ”

“ And then, again, how futile{4} to parade the altitude of our British mountains as evidence of insignificance. They laugh to scorn all such arithmetic, and many times in a single day will wrap themselves in some magic veil, and lift their peaks and shoulders round you, till scale and altitude as expressed in figures become practically a thing of naught. ”

“ The hills of known position near Advent Bay were likewise obscured by cloud, so that my three-legged theodolite had made this ascent to little purpose, but the panorama was clear in the main and the colouring all the richer for the cloud-roof.
We were standing at an altitude of about 3000 feet, [8] surrounded by peaks of similar, or rather greater, elevation. Let no one fancy that because these heights are insignificant there was any corresponding insignificance in the view. The effect produced by mountains depends not upon their altitude, but upon their form, colour, and grouping. ”

“ The altitude will prevent extreme heat, and clouds or rain will be rare. The range of temperature and unsteadiness of the air will be diminished by placing them on hills a few hundred feet above the surrounding country. ”

“ The exhilaration of the air must not lead people to forget that an altitude of from five to eight thousand feet above the sea-level is an unusual condition, producing results, not yet ascertained, upon the nervous system, the brain, and the heart. Its coolness can never remove the fact that we are upon the Equator. Although the skies look so familiar and kindly with their white fleecy clouds and passing showers, the direct ray of the sun—almost vertical at all seasons of the year—strikes down on man and beast alike, and woe to the white man whom he finds 59 uncovered! ”

“ And when they came again, one set forth this: "If it seem difficult to look at life in the big, close-at-hand, because the detail mountains seem to obstruct the view; then we must get altitude, so that these mountains, no matter how near, may dwindle to mole-hills at our feet, and our horizon stretch beyond the ends of the earth." ”

“ If the convergence is measured, the exact distance from either station can be calculated, and if the angle between the cloud-point and the horizon beneath it is noted, it is a simple matter to deduce the actual altitude of the cloud. ”

“ The mountains rose in confused masses to a great altitude, while the most distant peak at the extremity of the reach resembled a cut sapphire, its snow lines sparkling in the sun like the gleams of light on the facets of a gem. ”

“ Sometimes the foremost mountains are covered with dense masses of clouds, and the hinder ones appear majestically above them at an altitude, such as one can scarce believe possible for any thing firm to exist ”

“ Who on the face of the earth would think that at an altitude of four thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and in latitude nearly forty-one, and near the southern limit of the isothermal line, such nicely-flavored, delicate fruit could be raised! ”

“ Be that as it may, it is certainly the itching for altitude that is the inherent part of the pleasure of climbing knotted ropes and poles and slippery mountain-sides, of drifting in balloons like clouds, or whirring madly about like monstrous mechanical partridges with motors in their bellies. For myriads of ages, our noble ancestors looked down upon things in general from the trees, and the taste revives in us readily, and soon feels as natural as winking. ”

“ At an altitude of 6,193 feet, or more than a mile and one-fifth above sea-level, the line of vision bounds a circle nearly a thousand miles in circumference; and within that circle are lakes, rivers, mountains, valleys, dark forests, smiling villages, and in fact a variety of scenery, ever changing as the gaze is [88]
[89] directed to the different points of the compass. In a clear day, the distant glimmer of the Atlantic may be seen, away to the southeast. ”

“ If, when you and the sun are between the equinoctial and the antarctic pole, the shadow falls towards the north, you will add the altitude you have taken to the sun's declination that day, and act according to the second rule. 5. When you have an altitude of 90 deg., you will be so many degrees distant from the equator as there are degrees of the sun's declination, and if the sun has no declination you will be under the equator. ”

“ On all sides mountains rise to an altitude of from 11,000 to 15,000 feet, their skirts shaggy with pitch-pine forests, and scarred by deep canyons, wooded and boulder-strewn, opening upon the mountain pasture previously mentioned. ”

“ In the temperate zone, the purest and at the same time most respirable air is found at an elevation of about four thousand feet above the level of the sea, an altitude corresponding to the midway terraces of the European Alps and the average summit-regions of our Southern Alleghanies. ”

“ All the engineers who had made a minute survey of the great mountain chain seem to have agreed that the particular peak which afforded the most favourable opportunity for ascent is one which is situated at about three thousand miles from the pole. It should be remembered that the level of the cloud-screen crosses these peaks at an altitude of about twenty miles, or, in round numbers, one hundred and five thousand feet. ”

“ Mine is of altitude, like that which you brought only yesterday. Altitude is a pretty good thing. If there are clouds, don't stay under them; they may be misty to pass through; but the light upon them from above is wonderful. ”

“ But climate is here only a question of altitude. Out of these semi-tropical valleys you may climb in a few hours to the limit of vegetable life, and eat your supper, if you feel so disposed, on the slow-moving ice of a glacier. ”

“ Since the navigator knows, from the time of his observation, the point on the earth's surface over which is the heavenly body in question, it is clear that around this point circles on the surface of the earth may be described. From any point in any one circle the heavenly body will appear to have the same altitude or elevation above the horizon. A single observation of the altitude of any one heavenly body shows, therefore, only that the observer may be at any point on such a circle of equal altitude—otherwise known as a Sumner circle. ”

“ Because it is found, by experiment and observation, that the air becomes less dense in proportion to its altitude from the earth's surface. The gradual decrease of atmospheric density observed in ascending a mountain, or in a balloon, supplies sufficient data to enable us to calculate the height at which the atmosphere would probably altogether cease. ”

“ The first stages of our journey will conduct us up the slopes of those mountains, from a plain which does not much exceed the sea-level, across a ridge of which the pass has an altitude of about 7000 feet, to plains which range between a height of 7000 and not less than 3000 feet above the sea. ”

“ This deficit increases as the gauges are higher above the ground in proportion approximately to the square root of the altitude, provided that they are fully exposed to the increase of wind that prevails at those altitudes. It is evident that even for altitudes of 5 or 10 ft. ”

“ The lowest altitude of the primitive plateau is marked by the ideal plane which would pass through the mountain-tops, and its superior elevation on the east would account for the flow of the waters, the gradual scooping out and the sloping of the valleys in the direction they now have. ”

“ Through this dense body of vapour, which may be said to have commenced at an altitude of about 1000 feet, we were borne upwards to perhaps an equal distance, when the increasing light warned us of our approach to its superior limits, and shortly after, the sun and we rising together, a scene of splendour and magnificence suddenly burst upon our view, which it would be vain to expect to render intelligible by any mode of description within our power. ”

“ Still you climb and climb and you see ragged edges of mountains above you which you know you will surmount. You come to a dead stop against the face of a mountain thousands of feet high. You back away up its side, and little by little, twisting and turning you lift yourself above another cloud layer.
The air gets cold, a dash of rain comes as you pass through the clouds. ”