REVIEWS

1. ON ANCIENT CENTRAL ASIAN TRACKS.
2. PEAKS AND PLAINS OF CENTRAL ASIA.
3. GURKHAS.
4. FIRST OVER EVEREST: The Houston-Mount Everest Expedition, 1933.
5. TOURIST'S GUIDE TO KASHMIR.
   KASHMIRI MAPE EASY.
6. SKI NOTES AND QUERIES.

 

 

ON ANCIENT CENTRAL ASIAN TRACKS. By Sir Aurel Stein, k.g.i.e. London: Macmillan & Co. 7x9! inches; 342 pages; 147 illustrations in half-tone and colour; coloured map. 31s. 6d.

A review of Sir Aurel Stein's magnificent account of his third Central Asian journey appeared in the Himalayan Journal, vol. ii, 1930. This sumptuous publication, Innermost Asia, became out of print as soon as it was published. Almost all, in fact, of Sir Aurel Stein's accounts of his journeys in Central Asia, both personal and scientific, are now difficult to obtain, especially for the general reader. This latest volume, which is based on lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute at Boston, is doubly welcome, firstly because it enables the general reader to obtain a summarized account of Sir Aurel Stein's four Central Asian expeditions and of his researches during the past forty years, and secondly because the author has taken the opportunity to indicate clearly his considered opinion on several points.

The book, though based on lectures, has the thread of continuous exploration throughout, for Sir Aurel Stein makes a complete circuit of the whole Tarim basin, selecting the most important discoveries, dealing with the salient points of each, irrespective of whether he visited the area on his first, second, or third journeys, and illustrating each most lavishly by the most suitable photographs from the large collection already published in one of his earlier works. Such illustrations are placed in the book in close proximity to the text to which they refer, an arrangement which enables the reader to maintain an intense interest throughout.

The book opens with two chapters on the geography and history of the whole region dealt with. These chapters are themselves largely based on the discoveries made and recorded by Sir Aurel Stein, which are pieced together as evidence in support of the old dynastic annals of China and the records of Buddhist pilgrims and early Western travellers. These two admirable chapters form the background for the discoveries described later, and the reader is thus able to appreciate the value of each important piece of evidence as it is set before him.

In a single volume Sir Aurel cannot include a description of all his Central Asian travels, and he first selects the most interesting of his three routes to the Tarim basin, that by Chitral, and only briefly mentions the others. He next records the thrill of his first explorations at a sand-buried site, his subsequent return and later finds, so that the history of the Niya site is not only complete in itself, but also serves as an example of what occurred later at many other places, since lack of space makes it impossible for the author to give more than a passing mention of some.

There is a fascinating account of the exploration of the Lop region and the discovery of the ancient route across the dried-up sea-bed, the first historical route opened from China to the West. The historical chapter has already informed the reader about this route, created by the great Han Emperor, Wu-ti (140-87 b.c.), and the story of how Sir Aurel traced it by means of such slender evidence as a broken copper buckle, an iron snaffle bit, a scattered heap of bronze arrow-heads, and a line of Wu-shu copper coins, dropped from a leaky money-bag from the back of a camel hundreds of years ago, completely absorbs the reader. The discovery of Wu-ti's ancient defensive wall, a continuation westwards of the Great Wall of China, fortified against Hun raids to protect the new route in the Su-lo-ho basin, is next described, together with most interesting details of the finds made at different localities where the garrison was posted. Many of these discoveries were dug from old refuse heaps. Digging in such unsavoury places leads Sir Aurel to comment as follows:

I have had occasion to acquire a rather extensive experience in clearing ancient rubbish-heaps, and know how to diagnose them. But for intensity of sheer dirt and age-persisting smelliness I shall always put the rich 'castes' of Tibetan warriors in the front rank. More than a year later, when clearing the remains of a small ruined fort on the Mazar-tagh hill north of Khotan, more than 500 miles away, I correctly diagnosed its Tibetan occupation by the smell of the refuse even before finding definite antiquarian evidence.

The archaeologist, truly, must not allow any of his senses to become rusty!

The conclusions arrived at by Sir Aurel Stein after examining his finds at these old defensive works are interesting. There is no doubt that non-Chinese soldiers were enlisted for this wall, the principle being the same as on many a Roman border line. The garrison seems to have been well organized, with a section head-quarters, a medical service, and an ordnance and supply depot. Sir Aurel writes (p. 182):

But of special interest was a perfectly preserved wooden cover, provided with a seal socket and string grooves so familiar to me from the oblong envelopes of the Niya sita. As a small rim sunk on the under-surface of the cover proved, it had served as a lid to a small box which the Chinese inscription in fine big characters declared to have been ⁴the medicine case belonging to the Hsien-ming company'.

The Hsien-ming Company formed the garrison of the Jade Gate, from which the silk-caravans used to start for the West and to which the jade-caravans from the Khotan district entered the comparative security of China. They were armed with the cross-bow, the bronze arrow-heads for which were issued and accounted for by the local ordnance depot in much the same way as modern ammunition is accounted for to-day. To quote again from Sir Aurel's account:

Equally curious it was to find here also a neatly tied-up little packet containing a bronze arrow-head with the broken pieces of its feathered shaft. It was obviously, to use the proper official language as applied to the identical practice of modern military routine, a case of 'one arrow (broken) returned into store in support of indent for a new one'.

About five miles to the east of the Jade Gate was found the large supply depot for the troops stationed or moving along the wall and for officials and political missions travelling by the desert route. The records found among the refuse in a corner of an inner enclosure record deliveries of grain, brought from the Tunhuang oasis, of suits of clothing stored, and so on. All these things are told in a way that holds the reader fascinated:

As I sat there amidst the debris of the small watch-room usually provided to shelter the men on guard, and let my eyes wander over this great expanse of equally desolate marsh and gravel, it was easy to recall the dreary lives once passed here. No life of the present was there to distract my thoughts of the past.

Undisturbed by man or beast for so many centuries, there lay at my feet the debris of the quarters which men exiled to this forbidding border had occupied.... The thinnest layer of gravel sufficed to preserve here in absolute freshness the most perishable objects. Often a mere scraping of the slope with my boot-heel or the end of my hunting-crop sufficed to disclose where the detachments holding the posts had been accustomed to throw their refuse, including their 'waste-paper', or rather wood. Thus I grew accustomed to picking up records of the time of Christ or before within a few inches from the surface.

Never did I realize more deeply how little two thousand years mean where human activity is suspended, and even that of Nature benumbed, than when on my long reconnoitring rides the evenings found me alone at some commanding watch-station. Struck by the rays of the setting sun, tower after tower, up to ten miles' distance or more, could be seen glittering as if the plaster coating which their walls had once carried were still intact. This plaster was meant, of course, to make the towers more visible from a distance. . . . How easy it was then to imagine that towers and wall were still guarded and that watchful eyes were scanning the deceptive depressions northward for that fleet and artful enemy, the Huns!

Unconsciously my eye sought the scrubby ground flanking the salt marshes where Hun raiders might collect before making their rush in the dusk. . . . Not only the notion of time but also the sense of distance seemed in danger of being effaced when I thought how these same Huns were destined some centuries later to shake the empires both of Rome and Constantinople.

The old Chinese engineers appear to have had a very good eye for country. Sir Aurel Stein shows how they made use of both marsh and eminence for the siting of the watch-towers, and where the line of the towers crossed the dangerous approach by the Etsingol from the north, the forts were of greater size and of exceptional strength.

The story of the discovery of manuscripts and paintings on silk in the walled-up chapel among the Cave Shrines of the Thousand Buddhas make another compact section of this absorbing volume. Ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit, Central Asian Brahmi, Sogdian, Manichaean-Turkish, Runic Turkish, Uigur, Tibetan, and other forgotten languages were found. Some were on palm-leaves, some on rolls of paper, others in book-form. Paper was invented in China in a.d. 105: Sir Aurel Stein records the discovery of the earliest paper known among the ruins of Wu-ti's wall. It was prepared from hemp textiles reduced to pulp. Among the treasures found in the walled- up chapel is a block-printed roll dated a.d. 868, the oldest specimen of a printed book so far known; the perfect technique displayed by the text and the frontispiece shows, however, a long preceding development of the printer's craft. At Kharo-khoto, among the extensive refuse-heaps of the town, besides miscellaneous records on paper in a variety of scripts, Chinese, Tangut, Uigur or Turkish, was found the first evidence of currency inflation, a printed bank-note of the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan, the patron of Marco Polo, dating from the year a.d. 1260.

The chapters dealing with the Cave Shrines of the Thousand Buddhas are beautifully illustrated. Particularly fine are the coloured reproductions of the delicate silk fabrics, painted banners and tapestries, and the half-tone photographs of original texts in various scripts. Sir Aurel Stein's account of the exploration of the Nan-shan ranges is treated more briefly, and lack of space causes him to pass over his important discoveries in the Turfan region without entering into great detail. The last three chapters deal with his visit to the western Pamirs and the uppermost Oxus. It would be interesting to know whether the great lake, formed on the Sarez Pamir by the barrage thrown across the Bartang valley by the collapse of the mountain-side in the earthquake of February 1911, is still in existence. In 1913 the imprisoned waters had formed a lake seventeen miles long and Sir Aurel Stein records that in 1916 the top of the gigantic dam was still some 1,200 feet above the level of the lake. Have the waters found an outlet elsewhere? or is the barrage so consolidated that there is no danger of a catastrophe?

Much has been written by various travellers on the desiccation of Asia; much of what has been written has been nonsense; this nonsense has been used as a basis of wild theorizing. Sir Aurel stresses his views on this point, and it is as well that he does so, for he has often been misquoted to support views that he does not hold. He writes:

Everything in the orchards and arbours dead for sixteen centuries but still recognizable (Figs. 6, 45, 49); in the fences; in the materials used for buildings, &c., distinctly point to conditions of cultivation and local climate having been essentially the same as those now observed in oases of the Tarim basin similarly situated and still occupied.

Just as in the present terminal oases of the Tarim basin, so cultivation at those sites must have been entirely dependent on irrigation. Had not conditions of extreme aridity already prevailed in ancient times, it would be impossible to account for the survival in almost perfect preservation of a multitude of objects, very perishable by nature, in places so exposed as mere refuse heaps outside houses. . . . The climatic conditions of the periods immediately preceding abandonment must have been practically as arid as they have been since and are now.

Sir Aurel attributes the diminished volume of water carried by the rivers of the K'un-lun to the most likely cause, namely that the glaciers which supply those rivers have been undergoing slow but more or less continuous reduction in volume. In a later section of the book he refers to the abandonment of the Dandan-oilik site as follows: Everything at the site pointed to its abandonment having been a gradual one, and in no way connected with any sudden physical catastrophe such as popular legends current about so-called 'sand-buried cities' of the Takla- makan have induced some European travellers to assume. The Sodom and Gomorrah stories related all over the Tarim basin about 'old towns' suddenly overwhelmed by sand dunes are more ancient than the ruins of Dandan-oilik. Hsiian-tsang had already heard them more or less in the same form in which they are now current.

Sir Aurel Stein also shows how in times of internal disorder, e.g. the epoch of the 'Three Kingdoms', effective Chinese control over the whole of the Tarim basin was loosened, yet those territories still continued to be open to trade and cultural influences from both East and West. The reader will be tempted to make comparisons between the conditions at the end of the Han dynasty and those of the present. China can only make her influence felt beyond the Wall when she is strong internally. One interesting point which Sir Aurel emphasizes is that the gradual abandonment of the old silk-route was caused by the opening-up of the sea-route to China, and not by any physical difficulties of the route itself, all of which were overcome time after time, nor to any physical degeneration in the stamina of the traders, who were, and are, among the hardiest in the world.

It has only been possible here to indicate some of the outstanding points of interest in this brilliant period of Central Asian exploration, which the world owes to the devoted labours and scholarship of Sir Aurel Stein. It only remains to congratulate the author, the publishers, and Messrs. Henry Stone & Son of Banbury, who were responsible for the coloured illustrations, on the excellence of this volume. It is worth more than every penny of its price.

Kenneth Mason.

 

 

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PEAKS AND PLAINS OF CENTRAL ASIA. By Colonel Reginald C. F. Schomberg. London: Martin Hopkinson, 1933. 9X5 ½ inches; 287 pages', with eight colour photographs by Captain George Sherriff. i 5^S.

'Tien Shan'—'Altai'! What names to conjure with! One used to gaze with admiration, envy, and despair at those magnificent heads of ovis poli, ibex and ammon in the Guides' Mess at Mardan. For these ranges are the Mecca of Indian sportsmen; and like the summit of Mount Everest, they seem to beckon one, with a mocking yet kindly finger! But Colonel Schomberg's book is not a record of big game shooting in those regions, nor yet an archaeological survey. It is an extremely interesting and valuable up-to-date account of four years' hard trekking in Sinkiang—that huge Chinese possession in Central Asia which ranges from the Gobi Desert on the east to Asiatic Russia in the west, from Tibet and Afghanistan in the south to Siberia in the north. The author obviously possesses sympathy with and an understanding of the various races and tribes he met on his wanderings, as well as keen powers of observation. These qualities, coupled with an unfailing sense of humour, give a touch to this book which is entirely human, and prevent it from ever becoming of the dry-as-dust category of many travel books.

Vivid is the author's description of the flora and smaller fauna of Central Asia. While the topographical information will be of value, we would have liked a few more details as regards heights (especially of the Tien Shan passes) and distances. The book is in two parts, the first dealing with the journey of 1927-9, and the second with that of 1930-1.

Colonel Schomberg's first objective was Urumchi, about 800 miles north-east of Kashgar; between these two places, incidentally, there is no skilled medical aid to be had; as the author says: 'Nowhere in the whole of the immense province of Sinkiang is there any modern equipment even of the most modest kind, without which no small hospital in Europe could exist.'

On the trail to Urumchi, Schomberg passed through Turfan, that astonishing oasis and vast depression, a thousand feet below sea-level. There he noticed many new karez, the underground type of water- channel introduced from Persia; and he remarks that if a good water-supply could be introduced, the possibilities of the Turfan oasis would be enormously increased. Urumchi, the capital of Sin- kiang, is described as 'a modern creation, full of rumours'. From all over Asia, people come to Urumchi; political conditions in Russia, in Mongolia, and in Persia, have turned a drab and remote Chinese provincial town into a political centre of some importance; but the dirt and stench were indescribable: even the Kashmiris, with recollections of their own middens and muck-heaps, were struck dumb with horror!

After visiting Hami, on the edge of the Gobi desert, Schomberg returned to Urumchi, and after a stay there struck northwards to Outer Mongolia, arriving at Sharasume on the 18th May 1928. This town is the capital of the Altai, and the Chinese authorities, influenced by the presence of a Soviet consul, were somewhat frigid. Farther north Schomberg reached his destination, the Kanas lake; this, with its wooded grassy shore and grey rocks, looked more like a Scottish loch than a Central Asian lake. In this region, some days, and many meals, were spent in the tents of the Kirei, a friendly nomadic race, of whom the author speaks very highly.

Turning south again and crossing the Irtish river, which, by the way, is the only river of Central Asia to reach the Arctic Ocean, he passed the Ebi Nor and Shiram Nor, two inland lakes. Near the latter and in the Hi district, that rather rare animal, Ovis Saiarensis_> or Littledale's sheep, is sometimes found. Schomberg says that the various wild sheep and wapiti are gradually being shot out, the importation of rifles from Russia being a contributory cause. This is sad news. Will the Chinese, before it is too late, form a Central Asian Game Reserve? At present there seems no ground for optimism!

Colonel Schomberg then returned to Urumchi, cut through the Tien Shan, and visited Kucha, Aksu, Yarkand, and Khotan. Then again to the north and back through the Tien Shan to Urumchi and to the Bogda Ola, again through the Tien Shan from north to south. Surely few men have trekked through the Tien Shan as often as Schomberg, or have looped so many loops in this great range.

The passes are well and usefully described. The Muz-art, the main artery, easy, except when a head-on collision occurs; when two Turki caravans meet no one thinks of giving an inch to the other fellow, for the Turki and the Afghan Sarwan are adepts at push-and-go! The Tengri Dawan, easy on the north, but awkward on the south, more like the wall of a house than the side of a mountain. The Narat (spelt Marat on the map) is easy* The Kangal Kara Dawan, the Tilamad, and the Kotyl, all are described, and there are valuable notes regarding the seasons and climate in the Tien Shan.

On his second journey, in 1930-1, Colonel Schomberg succeeded in his plan of visiting the Lop Nor region, having drawn a blank, thanks to Chinese officialdom, on his first journey. On this occasion he made a grand circle round the whole Taklamakan desert, the dead heart of Sinkiang. On the eastern edge of the Taklamakan he was in the region traversed by Sir Aurel Stein. It is interesting to observe that Schomberg believes that southern Turkistan, at present the ugly duckling of Sinkiang, will, when its population increases, become a fertile and flourishing area.

To the ordinary mortal, Central Asia conveys not much more than the Gobi desert and dinosaur's eggs. After reading this book, one realizes that there exist in Central Asia rich blue pastures, spruce forests, yellow berberis, and gorse, flowers of all descriptions, birds and butterflies of many kinds. The races and tribes are dealt with fully, their characteristics and ways of living are simply and convincingly described—Kirghiz, Sarts, Kalmucks, Tungans. The author gives us the peculiarities of each. Queer fellows those Tungans; Schomberg speaks well of them, but admits that no one else does.

The coloured photographs, by Captain George Sherriff, recently Consul-General at Kashgar,.add greatly to the book; we only wish that there were more landscapes. The map at the end is clear and easy to follow, but might have been twice the size, to allow the different mountain ranges to be more clearly marked. As we put the book down, the following question looks us straight in the face: Now that science is gradually, but surely, rubbing time and space off the map, what is to become of Sinkiang? and especially what of southern Turkistan, that orphan child south-east of the Taklamakan, waiting to be adopted? The book is packed full of interest for any one; and for those intending to visit Central Asia, be they naturalists, archaeologists, sportsmen, or globe-trotters, it is indispensable.

O. L. Ruck.

 

 

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GURKHAS. By Captain C. J. Morris. (Handbooks for the Indian Army. Compiled under the orders of the Government of India.) Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1933. 6x9 ½ inches; 169 pages. Rs. 5 as.8, or 8^S. 9d.

It must be remembered that this book is primarily written for a special purpose—that is, to be a guide for the instruction of officers belonging to Gurkha regiments in the regular army or military police —though no doubt also for those who are interested in the inhabitants of Nepal for less professional reasons. As Captain Morris states, it follows on Colonel Eden Vansittart's original work as revised by Colonel Nicolay in 1915, but has been completely re-written. This, of course, has not prevented Captain Morris from using certain excerpts from old writers, such as Brian Hodgson and other original authorities on Nepal, many of whom were quoted in the old work, but he has reconstructed and re-written the history and brought it concisely up to date, omitting all that is unnecessary.

It is certainly a most excellent compilation in every way. Captain Morris, although a great authority on Nepalese history, has not allowed himself to be carried away too far by his special interests. The geography of the country is described somewhat baldly, but is adequate for the purpose; personally I always regret that in such a very matter-of-fact publication as a Government Handbook more justice cannot be done to the sentimental side, for instance, to the marvellous beauty of the country.

Captain Morris deals also with the history of the 'Valley' of Nepal. It is strange to think that the Gurkha, as such, only entered into the history of this country as late as 1768. Even now, when any subject of the kingdom speaks of Nepal, he alludes solely to the Nepal valley; yet the 'Kingdom of Nepal' comprises the whole tract of country under the Nepal Government. The 'Valley of Nepal', of course, has been the centre of civilization for many centuries, and the Newars, who inhabit it, are even to this day the only people responsible for the arts, crafts, and commerce of the country. Their history is exceedingly interesting.

One point which is often forgotten is brought out clearly by Captain Morris: the term 'Gurkha' does not apply to a race, but simply to those who have been allowed to call themselves followers of the King of Gurkha. Those innumerable little hill-states and hill- chieftains who were brought under the sway of Prithwi Narayan Sah were, when conquered, given the name of Gurkhali. This name was extended to the Mongolian tribes who inhabit the east of Nepal and who are quite different from the western tribes by race. On the other hand, the name was not applied to the far more distinguished, cultivated, and civilized inhabitants of Nepal, the Newars, owing to the tremendous resistance they put up to the conquest of Prithwi Narayan. There is, however, one curious exception to this rule that I see Captain Morris has not mentioned. It is a small point, but an interesting one. Those Newar traders, who w^rere actually subjects of the state of Gurkha when Prithwi Narayan invaded Nepal, were allowed to call themselves Gurkhalis—followers of the King of Gurkha.

Captain Morris has introduced the term 'kindred' for the sub-clans (gotra) of the different clans (thar). I think this is a most admirable term. It clears up the position immensely and gives one a real idea of how the various clans of the different tribes are divided, and it is in every way preferable to the previous nomenclature, though this intense subdivision of the clans is, perhaps, mainly of interest to the recruiting officer. In particular, the description of the ruling clans of Nepal, showing as far as possible the descent of the most important and ruling classes such as Thakurs and Chetris, is most excellently and concisely compiled, as is the description of the Mongolian military classes, both of the east and of the west—a section of the book well worth study.

Now I am going to register one small protest. Captain Morris has been far too hard on the line-boy. I regret to a great extent his strictures. Those who understand Gurkhas will know that the outcome of mixed marriages is not altogether satisfactory, but the many line-boys of true Gurkha descent who have done first-class service in the Indian Army and who are now so well educated will regret certain strictures made by Captain Morris with regard to themselves. I am sorry for this, for I consider that he has done very scant justice to the wonderful service rendered by great numbers of these men and to their usefulness in nearly every battalion of Gurkhas.

The very complete chapters on recruiting and all that touches on that subject have been most excellently done and should be of the greatest value to all who may be so employed. Now for the Appendices, which are both interesting and important. The one which struck me most was that showing the chain of family relationships. Among all students of Nepali there is nothing so confusing as the very involved names for different relations, and I am perfectly certain that never before has a graph been made clearing up this difficult question. This graph should be of the greatest use. The map requires to be studied with understanding, and frankly I find it a little confusing. It should be remembered that the coloured portions defining the habitat of the tribes can only show to a large extent the original habitat. Nowadays the overlapping is enormous and the mixture of population great. One point that emerges is the small area in Nepal which provides us with soldiers, compared with the whole area of the kingdom.

I finish this review with a great feeling of appreciation for the immense service rendered to the Empire, and particularly for the very wonderful effort made during the Great War, by the family of the Maharaja and hereditary Prime Minister of Nepal. Truly the nephews of the great Jang Bahadur have shown themselves loyal friends of the British Empire!

C. G. Bruce.

 

 

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FIRST OVER EVEREST: The Houston-Mount Everest Expedition, 1933. By Air-Commodore P. F. M. Fellowes, d.s.o., L. V. Stewart Blacker, o.b.e. , and other members of the Expedition. London: John Lane, 1933. 9 ½ X 6 ½ inches; 279pages', 57 illustrations. 12s. 6D.

First over Everest is the official account of the air expedition to Mount Everest, written with all the enthusiasm of those who shared in the great adventure. After a Foreword by John Buchan, who calls particular attention to the fact that the true purpose of the flight was 'austerely scientific', to the difficulties of organization, and to the results achieved, the first four chapters are devoted to the inception of the undertaking, to the details of the plan and equipment, and to the problems of air-photographic survey from high altitude planes. Elsewhere in this Journal, Mr. Blacker has described these problems in considerable detail; the more detailed description, in this book, of the complicated controls of the machines, oxygen regulators, warming devices, and other apparatus is essential to give the reader a complete understanding of the foresight required for such an undertaking and of the hazards of the flight. There is only one comment to make regarding this admirable description. The reader gets the impression that, as a result of experiment and research, the whole equipment and planning had reached perfection before the planes left for India. I do not believe this is the author's intention, and some of the lessons of the photographic work were, I understand, the result of the flight, and could not be foreseen beforehand.

Chapters V and VI sketch the general history of the exploration and survey of the Mount Everest region and close with the objectives of the flight. The authors have been generous in correcting the error made by a section of the London Press prior to the flight, by giving some details of the mapping of Nepal by the Survey of India from November 1924 to March 1927; there is, however, some evidence of hurried compilation in the details of early Survey of India history. This is partly due to 'rush publication' and partly to some ambiguity in the wording of certain passages quoted from the Survey of India records, for which the authors are not responsible. Colonel Valentine Blacker is correctly designated Surveyor-General from 1823 ^to 1826, and he was the first to be head of the amalgamated topographical surveys of the three presidencies; but the Great Trigonometrical Survey, of which Sir George Everest, as a young man, became Superintendent in 1823, ^was then entirely separate from the Topographical surveys, and Everest was the disciple and successor of Lambton, the triangulator, not of Valentine Blacker, the map- maker. Eventually Everest directed both departments, separately at first, before they were amalgamated to form a single department in 1829.

There is also some confusion regarding the journeys of the Indian 'Pandit', Hari Ram. This intrepid explorer, M. H., or ‘No. 9', as he is variously called in the Survey of India records, made altogether five expeditions into Nepal and Tibet between 1873 and 1893, the second and fourth of which alone are referred to in Chapter V, though with due appreciation.¹ On his second expedition, however, M. H. did not pass from north to south along the course of the Arun, as stated (p. 91), but over the Thong La to Nyenam, more than sixty miles west of Mount Everest. These places are easily identifiable on the modern quarter-inch map of Nepal, as is the Indrawati, which is the main western head-stream of the Kosi,² flowing some sixteen miles east of Khatmandu. The authors state: 'It is not easy to identify this on the present-day maps, possibly because of the change of name of the little stream.'

The chapter on the flight to India is well written and of considerable interest, but Chapters VIII (Nepal) and IX (Life at Purnea) become more than tedious and might easily have been omitted. Much is irrelevant, and by this time the reader will not require to be told that 'along the north-eastern confines of India lies the mightiest range of mountains in the world'.

It is not till p. 181 that we reach the account of the first flight to Mount Everest, followed by that to Kangchenjunga and the second one to Everest. The thirty-three pages describing the flights are enthralling: there is and can be nothing superfluous in the accurate recording of three such achievements. The reader, primed by the maze of controls described in the early chapters, can now appreciate the amazing efficiency of the engines, the courage of the airmen, and the extraordinary difficulties of navigation. The multiplicity of essential duties made the tasks of identifying known points for certain and of keeping to a planned course almost impossible; and it was these difficulties that were responsible for the mistakes made in the identification of the mountains in the photographs when they were first published. One should, perhaps, forgive the eagerness of the press to 'scoop' and publish at once news and photographs of outstanding interest; but no material delay would have occurred had the photographs been first submitted to the experts who offered their collaboration, and errors would have been avoided. Mount Everest has played many tricks on surveyors in the past. Hermann de Schlagintweit mistook Makalu for Mount Everest from Sikkim and Gauri Sankar for the same summit from Nepal. The controversy which came from those errors of 1855 was not finally laid to rest for fifty years.

 

The photographs taken on the two flights form a remarkable series and are beautifully reproduced; there is an interesting anaglyph to suggest the value of stereoscopy to Vertical' air photographic survey. The photographs have now all been very carefully examined by experts, the various Aountains identified, and the Vertical camera' strips plotted, as far as possible, to form a map of an area approximately forty square miles in extent. There is every reason to hope that on to this map, fitted to and improving the existing map, it will be possible to add additional topographical details from the oblique photographs. But it i^{s a} laborious and costly process. Nepal covers some 55,000 square miles, and the inhabited regions are accurately surveyed for the scale on which it was intended to publish the maps of Nepal. These maps were subsequently published on a larger scale and can be very materially improved, particularly in the inaccessible regions, by air photography, or better still by ground stereo- photogrammetry, combined with air photography. Considerations of expense must, however, prevent for some time to come any considerable development of intensive air-survey of the inaccessible Himalaya, and we are still some way from the fulfilment of the author's dream, in which they 'foresee air-survey being carried out at upwards of 30,000 feet, with thirty-six square miles mapped at each exposure of the camera, and ten times that amount with multi-lens cameras'.

Kenneth Mason.

 

 

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1. TOURIST'S GUIDE TO KASHMIR. By Major Arthur
   Neve. 15th Edition, revised by E. F. Neve, f.r.g.s. Lahore: Civil & Military Gazette. 1933. 7X5 inches. 233 pages. Rs. 3/8 as.
2. KASHMIRI MAPE EASY. By E. F. Neve, f.r.g.s.
   Lahore: Civil & Military Gazette- 1934. 7 ½ X5 inches. 46 pages. No price stated.

All who have visited the delectable valley which is the base for so many mountain expeditions will be familiar with the Guide compiled by the late Dr. Arthur Neve and issued for some time past in revised form by his brother, I?r. E. F. Neve, who has now been working for 50 years at the Mission hospital at Srinagar, which their devotion has made famous. It is, indeed, an indispensable companion to the visitor, telling him briefly just the things he will require to know about routes, camping places, supplies, as well as history, human and topographical. A few passages might be omitted in subsequent editions; for example? on the journey up, a landau would not, it is to be feared, prove a 'comfortable' form of transport for these days, nor an ekka for servants practical.

In his Manual of Lessons in the Kashmiri Language, Dr. Neve essays to guide the beginner simply to a colloquial knowledge of this rather difficult tongue and the student will probably find his method as easy as it can be made. Roman type is used and the phonetic rules are clear, but, as the author rightly says, ^'the key to success is in conversation'. To this end, 500 useful sentences have been included. These are not without their humour; the 'usefulness' of the steals, I will beat him', will appeal to all who have travelled in Kashmir! The Manual should meet a need.

The printing of both books is lacking in accuracy; the Civil & Military Press can surely turn out better work than this.

S. G. Dunn.

 

 

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SKI NOTES AND QUERIES. Edited by Gerald Seligman. Published by the Ski Club of Great Britain. Each part (about 50 pages) 2s. 6d.

The attention of our readers is called to this most practical and concise pamphlet on ski-ing, which appears three times a year, in October, December, and May. Not only can one acquire useful information regarding equipment, ski-ing centres, new turns, &c., but there is a complete list of winners of championship and other races held throughout Switzerland. The photographs are beautiful and instructive, and I can strongly recommend this little pamphlet to those in India who wish to learn more about the great sport of ski-ing, and who perhaps cannot afford the more expensive but excellent British Ski Year Book which appears annually. Ski Notes and Queries would be more complete if a brief note on ski-ing in India, which is becoming more popular every year at Gulmarg, were to be included. The editor is to be congratulated on this admirable publication, in which he packs so much information into so small a space. Every page is well worth reading.

O. U. Hamilton.

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