NOTES TO VOLUME I.
Reading edition
Page 1.
The great chain of the Himalas divides Northern from Southern Asia. Parallel to this chain, on the northern side, runs another considerable range, called the Ice Mountains. These two ranges are connected by a third, which commencing near Hindu-Kush, in the Himalas, proceeds northward, and revives again beyond the Ice Mountains. This third range, after it passes the Ice Mountains, goes under the name of the Hills of Arjun.
Page 23.
The Indian pink indicates the country of its birth. We have scarcely a flower, or a fruit, in Europe, which does not flourish in Asia, as in its native place.
Page 145.
This account of the birth of the infant, afterwards called Nourmahal, is almost strictly historical.
Page 149.
Our travellers in the East have made the phenomena of the “Mirage of the Desert,” familiar to every body. Mr. George Robinson, whose tour in Palestine and Syria (recently published by Mr. Colburn), written in a most unpretending style, gives the best account I have ever read of those highly interesting countries, thus speaks of a moonlight mirage, which he observed on his way from Damascus to Aleppo:—“Soon after quitting the khan (it was still moonlight), I inquired of my guide the name of some water, which I fancied I saw in the plain of the East. The inquiry produced a laugh amongst my hearers. They told me that what I took to be water, was nothing more than the bed of a salt lake, the water of which, evaporating in summer, leaves an incrustation of salt on the earth. It was either this, or a mirage of the moon, which produced the delusion on the sight. On my arrival at Aleppo, I mentioned the circumstance to a gentleman who had frequently performed the journey from thence to Bagdad, and had, therefore, more than once observed the latter phenomenon in the desert. On one occasion, he had actually alighted from his camel, to fill his cup with the water he thought he saw before him, ere he discovered his error.”—Travels in Palestine and Syria, by George Robinson, Esq., vol. ii. p. 236.