Summary: its self, and not bound together with iron bands or some stronger material, it would be crushed, and the weight of the air above it, being no longer sustained, would come down upon it with a force of fifteen pounds to the square inch. Observers tell us that mercury is depressed nearly thirty inches in the glass tube in the open air, which shows that at that time the weight of the air is equal to the weight of a column of mercury thirty inches high, that equals the pressure of fifteen pounds on the square inch ; and this gives us the reason why mortals die in an instant on the tops of high mountains. As we ascend, there is, of course, less air on account of its increased lightness, and the vegetation is there coarse in comparison with what it is below. As we descend to the sea level, we find an increase of animal and vegetable life, caused by a greater density of air, and the amount of carbonic acid present in the atmosphere. The highest trees are about four hundred feet high, though the natives give twenty feet more than this as their utmost altitude, and I, therefore, assert that the assertion of the Buddhists, on the subject of the Jambu and Nuga trees is preposterous, and that the legends relating to them are based on ignorance or fraud.