NOTES

1. Royal Geographical Society Awards, 1930.
2. KAMET.
3. Gaurisankar-Everest.
4. Secular Movement of Glaciers.
5. Landslide on the Indus below Chilas.
6. Conditions op Travel in Kashmir.

 

 

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AWARDS, 1930.—His Majesty the King-Emperor approved the award of the Founder's Gold Medal of the Society to Mr. F. Kingdon Ward for his explorations in the Eastern Himalaya and North-Eastern Frontier of India. This award has been exceptionally well earned as the result of a number of valuable journeys, the first of which, in 1909-10, was across China, Szechuan, Shensi, Kansu and through the gorges of the Yangtze.

In 1909 Kingdon Ward crossed Yunnan from Burma and entered Szechuan and south-eastern Tibet. Two years later he was in the same regions as far as the Wi Chu, and in 1914 he made a journey on the north-east frontier of Burma, up the 'Nmai Hka, across to Fort Hertz, and down the Mali Hka.

After the war, throughout which he served in a military capacity, Kingdon Ward was again on the Burmese frontier in 1919. Two years later he crossed Yunnan to the little kingdom of Muli in Szechuan, afterwards following the Mekong to Yakalo, and, crossing the headwaters of the Irrawaddy to Fort Hertz, came down to Myitkyina. In 1924 he took the Sikkim-Lhasa road to the Yamdrok lake, thence to Tsetang on the Tsangpo, which he followed to the Gyamda confluence. He carried out explorations round Namcha Barwa—the great mountain of the eastern Himalaya discovered by Morshead and Bailey—traversed the Gyamda valley, northwards towards the Peking-Lhasa road, and explored the Tsangpo gorge to the Po-Tsangpo confluence, afterwards returning through Eastern Bhutan.

In 1926 from Fort Hertz, Kingdon Ward reached the Nam Tamai and the Seinghku valley, crossed the Diphuk La to the Lohit, and came down through the Mishmi hills to Sadiya and xlssam. In 1928, he was again in the Mishmi hills and followed the Delei river almost to its source*. His recent journey in 1929 across to Ann am was briefly referred to in the last volume of the Himalayan Journal . He is once again somewhere on the borders of Burma.

Most of Kingdon Ward's journeys have been undertaken with a view to collecting rare plants and introducing them into England ; but much interesting geographical knowledge has also been accumulated by him. Prior to this award the Royal Geographical Society had on two occasions, in 1916 and 1924, awarded him the Cuthbert Peek Grant. Popular accounts of his plant-hunting and geographical work are contained in the following books written by him:

 

THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY also awarded grants to two other Founder Members of the Himalayan Club, namely COLONEL H. WOOD, late a Director of the Survey of India, and LIEUT.-COLONEL REGINALD C. F. SCHOMBERG.

COLONEL WOOD who received the Murchison Grant, retired from the Survey of India on the 28th October, 1927. Much of his service was spent in elucidating Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan problems. It was in 1903 that Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, decided to settle the controversy concerning the nomenclature of Mount Everest and obtained the consent of the Nepal Durbar to the despatch of a party under Captain Wood in November of that year in order to ascertain whether Everest and Gaurisankar were identical. Wood established the separate identity of the two peaks.

At the conclusion of the Tibet Expedition in 1904, Captain Wood accompanied Captain Ryder's expedition which, north of the Himalayan watershed, explored the Tsangpo to its source. In 1914 he was in charge of the party attached by the Survey of India to Sir Filippo De Filippi's expedition to the Karakoram, during which he explored the headwaters of the Yarkand river. After the war, in which he served with distinction both in France and Macedonia, he was most anxious to secure permission to complete the exploration of the Yarkand river basin and the unknown course of the Shaksgam, river, but to his disappointment sanction was cancelled after his preparations were well advanced.

For his services with the De Filippi Expedition of 1914, Wood received the thanks of the Italian Government and the Order of the Crown of Italy.

COLONEL REGINALD SCHOMBERG, who received the Gill Memorial, has spent most of his leave travelling in the Himalaya or other parts of the world. In 1903, 1905, and 1906 he visited the greater part of Bashahr, Spiti, Lahul and Kangra. In 1907 he was in Central Baluchistan (Kelat, Khozdar, etc.), and two years later he visited the Wardwan valley and Kishtwar. During 1912 and 1913 he made three journeys on foot across the Malay Peninsula:

1. Through upper Perak across the watershed of the peninsula to the source of the Kelantan river, which he followed to its mouth.
2. From Kuala Lipis, Paliang, to Kuantan, Pahang; thence on foot to Kemaman, by boat to Trenganu and up the river of that name.
3. From Sengora, Siam, across to the Kedah frontier, and thence to Alorstar.

In 1923 Schomberg visited Ladakh as far as the Changchenmo region, and in 1926 travelled through Gilgit and Hunzatothe Pamirs and Kashgar. The following year he again went to Kashgar with the main object of exploring those regions of the Tien Shan and Great Altai, which are still shown so inadequately on existing maps. A brief account of his journeys in these parts was given in Himalayan Journal, vol. ii, pp. 104-107.

Owing to an accident Colonel Schomberg had to return to England to undergo an operation early last year. He went back however to Central Asia during the year and is again " somewhere in the Tien Shan. "

 

 

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KAMET.—In view of Mr. F. S. Smythe's proposed expedition to Kamet this year, a brief recital of previous attempts has been compiled with the assistance of Dr. LongstafL

Kamet, 25,447 feet, the Central Ibi Gamin of the Schlagintweits, the Kangmen of Ryder, and the Kangmed (= Lower Snows) of the Tibetans, stands to the north of the Great Himalayan axis. It is situated in the extreme north of Garhwal, on the watershed between the upper Alaknanda (Saraswati) and the Dhaoli rivers, one mile south of that section of the Tibetan border between the Mana and Niti passes. Climatically however, it lies almost in southern Tibet; it is subject to incursions of the Indian monsoon, but fine spells are not uncommon during that period, when the hot Tibetan sun blazes down fiercely on the higher altitudes. From the Indian side Kamet is inconspicuous from Almora, but it forms a towering landmark from all the elevated parts of northern Guge and Chumurti.

Kamet is the highest of a group of four peaks, the Western (24,200), the Central (25,447) and the Eastern Ibi Gamin (24,170) of the Schlagintweits, and the Mana peak (23,860). Eichard Strachey in 1848 was the first to determine their positions and heights trigono- metrically 5. The next European travellers to this region were the brothers Adolf and Robert Schlagintweit, who made a record ascent of 22,259 feet on what they believed at the time to be Kamet itself. Coming as they did from the Tibetan side, it is now almost certain that this attempt was made on the northern outlier, Eastern Ibi Gaminf.

There appear to have been no further expeditions of importance into this group until the survey of it under Mr. E. C. Ryall of the Survey of India in 1874-77. In those years Kamet was accurately fixed, both for position and height, but the trigonometrical observations to E. Ibi Gamin were considered doubtful and were rejected, while no observations for height were made to either E. or W. Ibi Gamin. During the topographical survey Mr. I. S. Pocock of the Survey of India set up his plane-table at a height of 22,040 feet, also probably on the slopes of E. Ibi Gamin.

In July 1907, Major the Hon. C. G. Bruce, Mr. A. L. Mumm and Dr. T. G. Longstaff made a preliminary reconnaissance from both the Niti (east) and the Mana (west) sides6. From the Niti side Bruce and Longstaff reached a point 20,180 feet on the south-eastern slopes of Eastern Ibi Gamin, but owing to cloud got no good view of the peak. Longstaff considered that the hanging glaciers above the Kamet glacier made that route dangerous. Morshead in 1920 also drew attention to this danger; but it is now clear that this is the only route available. The 1907 party crossed the range south of the Mana peak by the Bhyundar Khanta passj to Mana, whence they made a first reconnaissance of the Khaim and lower Ghastoli glaciers, which are shown quite wrongly on the old sheet 19 of the 1874-78 survey. But here again, owing to the onset of the monsoon, they never got satisfactory views of Kamet or its approaches.

Unhappily we have no proper record of the remarkable attempts on this mountain by the late Captain A. Morris Slingsby, 56th F. F. R., who was killed at the head of his regiment in Mesopotamia in 1916. He was a most resolute mountaineer and was accompanied only by his own orderlies and by local men from Mana. He approached the mountain from the Mana side in 1911, ascending a steep pass (about 23,000 feet) on the northern ridge of Eastern Ibi Gamin, which was subsequently named after him by Meade. We have no account .of this remarkable climb. During May and early June 1913 Slingsby again attacked Kamet from the western side. He suffered from extremely bad weather, and an unusually severe snowstorm stopped his final assault at over 23,000 feet§.

Mr. C. F. Meade visited the range in 1910, 1912 and 1913, accompanied by the great guide, Pierre Blanc. No serious work was done on Kamet in 1910. In 1912, during May and June, he attacked it from the Mana (west) side, reaching 23,000 feet on Eastern Ibi Gamin, after ascending ^e Slingsby's pass' but encountering very bad snow conditions. During July, from the Niti (east) side, he thoroughly explored the Eaikane glacier system. In June of the following year, again from the Niti side, despite bad weather, he reached the saddle, 23,500 feet, between Kamet and Eastern Ibi Gamin, and set up a light camp there*.

Until the Everest expeditions this remained the highest altitude at which a party had camped for the night, though Longstaff may have bivouacked higher on Gurla Mandhata in 1905. From this camp it appeared that an easy snow ridge led to the summit, but soft snow and the combined effects of sun and altitude stopped further advance. It therefore seems clear that the credit for discovering the most- promising route belongs to Meade.

The late Dr. A. M. Kellas made a brief reconnaissance from the west in August 1911, apparently under good weather conditions. He returned to Kamet in 1914, but seems to have published no record of this visit. In September 1920, accompanied by Major Morshead and a topographical surveyor, he attacked the mountain from the east. Going up the Raikane and Kamet glaciers they eventually reached Meade's Saddle (23,500 feet). Here, however, their Niti coolies, of whom they speak very highly, broke down. Inadequate cooking arrangements and the excessive cold of the late season partly accounted for this failure. If they could have pitched a tent on Meade's Saddle, they saw nothing to prevent success by this route.§

Thus, leaving aside the Schlagintweit's great climb of 1855 and the early reconnaissances of the Strachey's and the Survey of India, there have been some eight expeditions to Kamet since 1907. In the course of these, four serious attempts have been made on the peak; two from the west by Slingsby and Meade, and two from the east by Meade and Kellas. Meade's eastern route appears the most practicable. In Dr. Longstaff's opinion August is probably the best month for snow conditions, though snow-shoes should be taken as a precaution against powdery snow above 24,000 feet. Judging from what he saw of the mountain from Tibet in 1905, he thinks that fine weather is also more probable in August than in June or July.

 

 

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Gaurisankar-Everest.—It is regrettable that confusion is still caused owing to the use of the name Gaurisankar for Mount Everest, on some continental maps of the Himalaya. The name was first put forward as a " native " name for the peak by Hermann Schlagintweit after his visit to Nepal in 1852. There is no doubt whatever that Schlagintweit was misled in his identification of Everest from Kaulia in Nepal, or was given a wrong name for it, for in 1903 Captain Wood found that Gaurisankar and Everest were separate mountains 36 miles apart, Gaurisankar being the name of a peak previously known in the records of the Survey of India as XX (23,440 feet). During the recent survey of Nepal this view has been confirmed, and it has been found that no Nepalese name exists for the highest summit on earth.

Hermann's identification of the peaks from Phalut, on the Singalila Ridge, seems also to be faulty. In a recent letter to the Editor, Colonel Max Schlagintweit, the youngest brother of Hermann, says that the latter first observed Mount Everest from Phalut in 1850, that two years afterwards he identified the same mountain from Kaulia in Nepal, and that in 1855 he painted his well-known picture of " Gaurisankar-Everest " from Phalut. He claims that the observations from both points gave a height of 29,196 English feet, and that this accordance between the two results and with the observations of the Survey of India prove that Hermann could not have misidentified the mountain.

This view is however unacceptable. Hermann was on Phalut for several days in May 1855, when he was favoured with the finest weather. He was impressed by a towering snow peak in the northwest, about 170 km. distant, " not only because of its angular height, but by the fact that it far out-topped surrounding mountains."

There are two great massifs which, seen from Phalut, appear to culminate in peaks of surpassing altitude : the Kangchenjunga massif and the Everest group. Hermann's beautiful picture has many points of similarity to both, and there are some who know the view from the Singalila ridge who^ affirm that it was Kangchenjunga and not Everest that Hermann painted. The steep south-western elifis of Kangchenjunga, these people argue, seem to be visible over a peak which has every resemblance to Kabru, while west of it appears a mountain with the unmistakable outline of Janu. No such peak would appear in a panorama of the Everest group. Gaurisankar, the peak 36 miles distant from Everest, which is normally visible from Phalut, is omitted from the picture.

It seems to us inconceivable that Hermann Schlagintweit could possibly have painted the Kangchenjunga massif instead of the Everest group. This would mean an error of 65 degrees in bearing. It must be remembered however that in those days probably neither peak was shown on the very rough maps that then existed, nor was any of the country surveyed. We prefer to assume that it was the Everest group that was painted, and to put down the appearance of a Janu " and the omission of a " Gaurisankar" to artist's licence. Yet even if we admit that the picture is of the Everest group, the summit that appears from Phalut to out-top surrounding mountains is Makalu and not Everest, which, though actually behind and to the north-west of Makalu, appears in the picture as an insignificant excrescence on a ridge of Makalu7.

This evident mis-identification by Hermann in 1855 is confirmed by an annotated photograph of his picture sent us by Colonel Max Schlagintweit, in which ^{4 4}Gaurisankar-Everest " is shown as the highest apparent point and Makalu as a lower peak which does not break the sky-line. The real Everest has escaped notice. From this it appears almost certain that Hermann observed the point he believed to be Everest, which is undoubtedly Makalu.

Apparently the continental claim to adhere to the name Gaurisankar (or Gaurisankar-Everest) is based on the supposition that Hermann was the first to observe it trigonometrically and that he first discovered it to be the highest mountain in the world. Actually it was first observed trigonometrically by officers of the Survey of India in 1849 from the stations Jirol, Mirzapur, Janjpati, Ladnia and Harpur, and in 1850 from Minai, Using a coefficient of refraction varying from 0.07 to 0.08, Colonel Waugh deduced the following heights :

 

The distances of the stations of observation from Everest varied from 108 to 118 miles. We know of no publication by Schlagintweit prior to the working out of these results, in which he claimed that he had discovered the highest mountain in the world or observed its height.

If Mount Everest has a name in any of the languages spoken in the countries bordering it, that name certainly is not Gaurisankar and only confusion is caused by giving it this name on maps8.

 

 

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Secular Movement of Glaciers.—The following communication has been received from Sir Edwin H. Pascoe, late Director, Geological Survey of India.

I should like to call the attention of members of the Himalayan Club to a paper by our esteemed Honorary Editor, Major Kenneth Mason, recently published in the Records of the Geological Survey of India, vol. lxiii, p. 214, on the " Glaciers of the Karakoram and Neighbourhood," and also to some earlier papers dealing with the secular movement of Himalayan glaciers, which have appeared in these Records. The first paper of the series, by various officers of the Geological Survey of India, was published in volume xxxv, page 123. The enquiries, of which these papers are the result, comply amongst other things with a suggestion made in 1905 by Mr. Douglas Freshfield on behalf of the Commission Internationale des Glaciers. This suggestion was that, whenever possible, data should be recorded for determining whether the Himalayan glaciers are retreating or advancing, ignoring of course mere seasonal or catastrophic variations. The question is very lucidly elaborated by Major Mason in the introduction to his paper but, for the benefit of those who are not in a position to consult the latter and for ready reference, I may perhaps be permitted to recapitulate the crucial points in the hope that members may be constrained to make further inquiries.

The relationship of a glacier to the climate which is responsible for it is shown, with more precision than would on first thoughts appear, by the position of the glacier snout or " point where the melting caused by the increased temperature of lower altitudes balances the supply of ice from above. " If the climate becomes warmer this melting will take place at an earlier stage in the glacier's path ; in other words, the snout with its ice cave will move to a spot higher up the glacier valley. To recognize and record any change of this sort, the position of the snout has to be determined from time to time with reference to some fixed point, such as a mark on some bare rigid rock in the immediate vicinity. Frequently there is no permanently bare rock in contiguity with the snout, in which case the position of the latter has to be determined by compass bearings, plane-table or theodolite readings, from the nearest available and suitable fixed rock, the points of observation being marked in an indelible manner on the rock for future reference. Photographs of the snout from fixed and marked points afford excellent confirmatory evidence. Observations of this kind, taken, say, every ten or twelve years, would ultimately decide the interesting question as to whether the climate of the Himalaya generally is becoming warmer or colder, whether there is any local departure from this change and, to some extent, the degree of this departure.

Observations have already been recorded regarding the following glaciers :

(References are to volumes of the Records, Geological Survey of India.)

For convenience no reference has been made to the results of Mr. Ph. C. Yisser's extensive work of 1922 and 1925 in the Karakoram published in Zeitschrift fur GletscherJcunde, xvi, pts. 3-4, 1928. These will be found in Major Mason's valuable paper. Members of the Himalayan Club are cordially invited to co-operate in this particular inquiry by continuing observations on any of the above glaciers, or by initiating observations on any additional glaciers they may consider to be suitable for the purpose.

Reprints of Major Mason's paper may be obtained on application to the Honorary Editor.

THE INTERNATIONAL GLACIER COMMISSION. The Glacier Commission is now part of the Hydrology Association of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. It met in Stockholm in August 1930, during the Congress of the Union, under the presidency of Professor Axel Hamberg, of Djursholm, near Stockholm. Major Kenneth Mason attended the Congress under the orders of the Government of India, and gave to the Glacier Commission a brief summary of the conclusions arrived at as the result of a study of Karakoram glaciers.

Most countries which contain glaciers are now represented on the Commission. A carefully compiled Report of the movements of glaciers in the Alps and Scandinavia was presented and it is hoped that reports on the glaciers of other parts of the world will be submitted to the Glacier Commission in future. Owing to the inaccessibility of the glaciers 01 the Himalaya and Karakoram it is not possible to maintain regular official observatories, and in this country we must be dependent on the careful records of travellers. The Director, Geological Survey of India, was elected at Stockholm the official reporter on Himalayan Glaciers, and it is to be hoped that travellers will send in their observations to him. The Honorary Editor will also be glad to give any advice as to the nature of the observations required.

The next meeting of the Commission will be at Lisbon in October 1933.

VARIATION OF THE SIACHEN GLACIER SNOUT. Colonel Ruck, extracts from whose diary of a journey to the Siachen glacier in May 1909 appears in this volume, has shown the Editor a most interesting little topographical sketch which he made of the snout in that year. They compared this with the detailed survey of Khan Sahib Afraz Gul, made in 1929, and concluded that the snout had retreated about three-quarters of a mile during the interval. The 1929 map also shows the plan of the snout more rounded than the sketch of 1909, which fact may indicate that retreat is still taking place, for summer ablation is not yet in full operation by mid-June, the month of the Khan Sahib's survey.

It is not easy to compare the topography as shown roughly on the old " Atlas Map " (from sketches by Mr. E. C. Eyall in 1862), but it would appear that the 1909 position was approximately one and a quarter miles in advance of the 1862 position, for the small glacier on the west side of the valley below the snout on Kyall's map joined the main trunk of the Siachen glacier both in 1909 and 1929.

Colonel Ruck considered that the snout was retreating in 1909.

 

 

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LANDSLIDE ON THE INDUS BELOW CHILAS.—On the 9th April a considerable landslide occurred in unadministered territory on the right bank of the Indus below Chilas. The river here is about two hundred yards wide. A large mass of boulders, stones and shingle, apparently loosened by rain, was precipitated into the river, forming a dam approximately five hundred feet wide in the middle. The Indus was held up for a few days at this point and some excitement and apprehension were caused for many miles below, the fall of the river being noticed at Attock. On reaching the level of the top of the obstruction, however, the Indus cut for itself a channel approximately 125 feet wide and 31 feet deep through the dam, and a good deal of water was released. The sub-overseer of Chilas, who visited the scene of the block under the orders of the authorities at Gilgit, reported that early in May there was still an obstruction which caused rapids, the difference of level between the up-stream and down-stream sides of which was about 70 feet. The obstruction was being gradually worn away and there was no reason for anxiety unless a further slip occurred. A second slip seems to have taken place but appears not to have reached the river. Slack water extended for about eight miles above the obstruction.

 

 

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CONDITIONS OP TRAVEL IN KASHMIR.—The following extract is taken from a letter written by a traveller who has had many years' experience in Kashmir :

I was ten days in Srinagar straggling to get the Kashmiri tradesmen to produce the stuS I had ordered. The materials they now burden the traveller with are markedly inferior to what they used to be. There is not even a good khud stick to be had and waterbottles, chairs, clothes, etc., which used to be rough but quite serviceable, are now kacha indeed. As to roads: Well, I write this in Baltal bungalow. The winter after you were here (3 years ago), an avalanche demolished all the outbuildings, including the chowkidar's hut. None have been rebuilt or repaired, though the kitchen could well be made more serviceable. On the road itself, when a bridge falls down, it just remains there and a diversion is made. You remember that the road from Kangan used to cross the Sind river in places. Now it does not do so, because the bridges were washed away last year. The most absurd diversions have been made. The state of the bungalows is usually deplorable ; both basins in this one have holes. And so the rot goes on : and so it will. Practically nothing except patchwork has been done on the Jhelum Valley Road-always a tender and fragile track, but now a truly delicate invalid........I noticed coming up this year........that even the little culverts are flimsily patched with a few planks, and any heavy shower closes the road ! Much is now done to make things disagreeable for the visitor, by petty restrictions, taxation and annoyances. Kashmir is rapidly becoming very dear.......Comparatively few visitors this year.

We have received other letters written in much the same strain. It seems a pity that one of the most advanced of the Indian States should apparently be reverting to the condition it was in a hundred years ago, through sheer neglect.

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