480 Lieut. -Col. Sir Francis Younghusband [Feb. 3. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, February 3, 1922. 



Sir Ernest Moon, K.C.B. K.C. LL.B., Manager and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Lieut.-Col. Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I. K.C.I.E. 

 The Mount Everest Expedition. 



[Abstract.] 



The expedition is being sent to climb Mount Everest because it is 

 the highest mountain in the world, and we consider that there is no 

 part of the earth's surface, and most certainly not the highest point, 

 to which we should not at least try to penetrate. 



But are we certain that Mount Everest is the highest mountain ? 

 We may be quite certain. The whole length of the Himalaya, both 

 on the Indian and the Tibetan side, has now been explored with 

 sufficient accuracy to ensure that no higher peak exists. And 

 certainly in no other range than the Himalaya is there any peak 

 at all approaching 29,000 feet in altitude. 



And the height of Mount Everest we are accustomed to see put 

 at 29,002 feet above sea-level. It is a curiously exact figure, and 

 people are often puzzled to know why that figure 2 is insisted on. 

 The reply is that 29,002 represents the mean of many observations 

 which were made with instruments of extreme accuracy to determine 

 its height. These observations were taken in the year 1S49 from 

 six stations in the plains of India, of which the nearest was 108 miles 

 distant from the mountain, and the farthest was 118 miles distant. 

 The lowest altitude computed from these observations was 28,990 feet 

 and the highest was 29,026 feet. The peak was therefore over 

 rather than under 29,000 feet above sea-level. 



But a number of corrections have to be applied, and the result of 

 no observations can be taken as absolutely correct. The instrument 

 used for the observations was a theodolite, but no instrument is 

 absolutely perfect. The graduations of the scale may not have been 

 perfectly accurate, and the theodolite may not have been levelled with 

 perfect accuracy. Nor may the observer himself have quite accurately 

 observed. The height of the observing station may not have been 

 accurately determined. The amount of snow on the summit may 

 vary. And most fruitful source of error is the refraction of the 



