MAP OF SIKKIM 275 



In fact, until the positions of the chief places and heights 

 were worked out so as to construct a map, he had but an 

 imperfect idea of where he had been. 



During the greater part of my journey [he tells his father] 

 I saw not a single known object, and had to observe with 

 the sextant. No map contains the name of a single place 

 which I have visited ! That I was poking in and out over 

 the western base of Kinchin is all I can affirm. 



The line of route for ninety days finally showed the average 

 daily distance covered to be eight miles one mile per hour ! 

 Yet they walked full three miles every hour, so that two- 

 thirds was wasted in the ups and downs and bends. 



This and the similar chart made in eastern Sikkim, whence 

 the passes led to Phari in Tibet, formed the basis of the care- 

 fully drawn map a copy of which appears in the ' Journals ' : 

 a unique map of such value to the British officers of the 

 Sikkim-Tibet Boundary Commission of 1903 that they tele- 

 graphed their congratulations from the front to the maker 

 of it, who at the age of eighty-six was touched to receive this 

 tribute to the work he had accomplished over half a century 

 before. 1 



The first part of the journey was to follow the Tambur 

 river northwards and proceed in turn up its w r est and east 

 forks to the passes at the head of either valley, one thirty 

 the other twenty miles to the west of Kinchinjunga. This 

 great mountain, rising to 28,000 feet and continued in sub- 

 sidiary crests all over 20,000, presented an impassable barrier 

 of snowy peaks about sixty-four miles long, stretching between 

 the western passes at the head of the Tambur, and the eastern 

 passes at the head of the Lachen (Teesta), explored by Hooker 

 in his second expedition. It was already late in the season, 



1 Khambajong, Thibet : ' Major Prain, Colonel Younghusband and officers 

 Thibet Mission desire to send you their felicitations by telegraph from Kham- 

 bajong and express their high admiration of that zeal displayed by you fifty- 

 five years ago, which has enabled them to follow in your steps and has inspired 

 them to emulate your devotion to science and to your country.' (See ii. 457.) 



Major (afterwards Sir David) Prain, C.M.G., C.I.E., of the Indian Medical 

 Service, was then Director of the Calcutta Gardens, and in 1905 succeeded 

 Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer as Director of Kew. 



