The publication of Synoptical Volume XXXV. by the Trigononletricsl

Survey of India will be welcomed by many students of Himalayan problems,

for much information is thereby made conveniently accessible which

formerly could only be gathered piecemeal from scattered annual reports.

This volume, the North-East, Longitudinal Series, covers the Central

Himalaya from longitude 78" to 88'. It also includes those peaks situated

between longitude 88" and 92", which were observed from stations in the

North-East Series, but which properly belong to the Assam Longitudinal

series, as yet unpublished in this form. The long delay, almost inevitable

under the circumstances, which occurs between work in the field and final

publication of the results, probably accounts for the scant recognition by

geographers and travellers of the labours of the Indian Survey in the

Himalayan region. This delay is particularly regrettable in the case of

the important survey operations so successfully carried out in connection

with the recent mission to Tibet.

This volume deals with the Himalayan region from Simla to

Punakha, iilling the gap between Volume VII. of the North-West Series,

which covers Kashmir and the adjacent regions, and Volume XXII. of the

Assam Valley Triangulation, The computation and classification of the

data have been superintended by Mr. J. Eccles, M.A., and during his

absence by Captain H. H. Turner, R.E. The preface is written by Colonel

S. G. Burrard, R.E., F.R.s., and deals with some novel problems of great

interest. Mr. H. G. Shaw's series of observations during the last four

pears are passed under review. They prove conclusively that refraction

is greater in autumn than in spring ; but they also indicate that there must

be some other cause, besides differences in refraction, which produces discrepancies

in the altitudes obtained for the same peak from different

stations. The height of Trisul is discussed by way of indicating the

difficulties of determining the actual height of any high mountain. The value

23,406 feet is found on both the official maps of Kumaon and British

Garhwal (1872-75), and was obtained by the survey officer, Colonel Carter,

from a small secondary series of triangulation which he carried through

Kumaon and Garhwal. The height of the peak is given differently on the

map and in the book, for individual observers have had different ideas

about refraction and other corrections. When once the data have been

handled and published, the preliminary values entered upon the maps are

to be considered as cancelled. The writer has seen no explanation of the

fact that heights on the maps are usually higher than those in the books.

The value 23,360 feet, now officially accepted, was derived from observations

of the peak obtained between 1841 and 1850 from distances of 29 to 84 miles.

They vary from 23,441 to 23,280 feet, and the true height is taken as

between 23,350 and 23,380 feet. Even here we have a further element of

uncertainty, for it has been stated that when in future we come to correct

heights for the disturbances produced by Himalayan attraction in the

levels of theodolites, we shall probably have to add 60 or 70 feet to the

values now accepted. In the present volume Colonel Burrard points out

that gravity also causes the datum-level surface to be heaped up under the

mountains, so that we are in doubt what surface we are measuring the

heights of peaks from, for in trigonometrical operations we assume the

surface of the spheroid to be our datum, and in spirit-levelling we measure

from the surface of the geoid. In the present state of our knowledge it

certainly seems wiser to follow Colonel Burrard and ignore this additional

complexity.

These volumes are indispensable to travellers undertaking any fresh

topographical explorations of these regions, for they give the officially

accepted height and position of the great Himalayan peaks and also full

data from which can be ascertained the precise degrees of accuracy with

which these have been determined. In the " degree charts," published in

a separate volume, all peaks and stations have been plotted by Messrs.

W. M. Kelly and J. H. Nichol, on a scale of 1inch to 4 miles. This is particularly

useful, as some of them are not shown on the topographical sheets

of the Indian Atlas. An excellent innovation is the labelling of all peaks

with a letter and two numbers by which they may be at once referred to

their proper degree-square and identified without possibility of error.

The introduction by Captain H. H. Turner, R.E., deals firstly with the

main triangulation carried through the fever-haunted Tarai between 1841

1851, and then with the topographical survey of Kumaun and Garhwal from

1864 to 1877, and the Sikkim survey of 1878 to 1885. The second portion

contains a few scanty references to various ascents by the indefatigable

officers of the survey, which mountaineers will regret are not given in much

greater detail. Some additional information can, however, be.obtained from

the Annual General Reports of the Survey of India.

During the previous operations in Kashmir and the adjacent districts,

the officers of the Survey showed repeatedly that the physical obstacles

of such a country were powerless to defeat them in the execution of their

duty. They set up their theodolites on 10 stations of over 20,000 feet ; they

visited 20 other stations of over 20,000 feet and 5 of over 21,000 feet. By

far the greater number of these ascents were in Ladak, and none of them

presented such difficulties as the Nela peak, 19,069 feet, in Bashahr which

was successfully ascended on June 22, 1854, by W. H. Johnson with a

12-inch theodolite. This peak had baffled the surveyors for two seasons

and had defeated three previous parties. But the officers of the Survey

of India lay no emphasis in their reports on achievements so remarkable,

achievements each one of which would be enough to send many a modern

traveller headlong to his publishers. As an instance of this, I may mention

the case of the peak Shilla 23,050 feet, shown as a station on p. 259 of

Volume VII. This peak is shown on Atlas Sheet 46 as " Parangla No. 2

Station 23,064 feet." On reference to headquarters at Dehra Dun I was

furnished with the following particulars: It was observed from two

stations, each of which was above 20,000 feet. When it was being observed

the observer intended to visit it and to observe from it. But he never

carried out this intention. It was visited by native Khalassis, who erected

n staff. The name was changed to Shilla in the office at Dehra Dun.

When in the present volume we meet again with the names of such

officers as Carter, Thuillier (now Sir Henry R. Thuillier, K.c.I.E.), and

foremost of all Montgomerie, supported by such tried mountain surveyors as

W. H. Johnson, W. G. Beverley, E, C. Ryall, and others, we may expect

to find some reference to mountaineering achievements comparable to those

already accomplished in Kashmir. It should be remembered, however,

that General MTalker had, in the present instance, instructed the Topographical

officers not to attempt accurate surveys above 16,000 feet, the

department not being in a position to afford the cost in time and money.

Hence areas of perpetual snow were occasionally mapped from sketches

made from considerable distances, and much less climbing of high peaks

was attempted. Many stations, however, were established at over 17,000

feet in Kumaon and Garhwal, and a few at over 18,000 feet, while along

the borders of Hundes three peaks of over 19,000 feet were utilized. In

1874 in the Upper Mana valley the agerage height of Nr. I. S. Pococli's

plane-table stations was 19,500 feet and his maximum height visited was

22,040 feet, this being so far the highest authenticated plane-table station

in the Indian Survey.

Ryall's successful survey of a large part of Hundes is merely referred

to. His own brief account was published in the General Report for 1877-78.

Ryall and Kinney's map is, for much of the country, still the best which

has ever been produced of this most interesting corner of Tibet. The

Introduction includes a brief account of Captain H. J. Harman's survey

of Sikkim in 1879. His feet were badly frostbitten on the Donkia pass

(18,100 feet), and although he continued his work for three and a half

months and in 1881 made an attempt to reach the neighbourhood of

Kinchinjunga, he was obliged to take leave in November, 1882, and died

early in the following year, having never completely recovered.

In the course of these several operations the surveyors, in addition to

the privations inseparable from such work, suffered much from fever, to

which several of them actually succumbed. Captain Basevi died at his

post in 1871 dn the exposed plains of Lanak. Dr. Stoliczka, of the Geological

Survey, died on his way back to Leh in 1874, while in 1878 of the

members of this branch 34 per cent. died or were incapacitated ! The great

Montgomerie died at the early age of forty-eight, his death being generally

attributed to his long and severe service in the Himalaya.

It is to the arduous, conscientious, and unadvertised labours of these

surveyors that both mountain climbers and explorers of these regions owe,

and must continue to owe, a great debt of gratitude. The delineation in

the Indian Atlas of topographical details in the regions of ice and snow is

admittedly imperfect. The accuracy of maps is merely a question of

degree, for no ordinary scale map can possibly be free from error ; but it

should be remembered that there is no other mountain region of the world

at all comparable in extent to the northern frontiers of India, the physical

features of which have been laid down with any approach to such a degree

of accuracy.