MAP MAKING 327 



think it better to retain it at present, and I will do my best 

 to get one ready for February post, but really these are works 

 of no ordinary labour, and I do dislike doing things in an 

 inferior manner to what I can do them. 



By the 30th, however, 



I had just finished for you an excellent large map of my 

 wanderings, but have thought it proper to give it to Genl. 

 Young, who was all abroad as to how to dispose of the 

 troops now marching into Sikkim. 



July 18. 



My map of Sikkim has been copied at the Surveyor 

 General's office. Thuillier is greatly pleased with it. I have 

 given it to the Govt. as they wished it, but Thuillier sends 

 you overland either the original or a facsimile. Lord D. sent 

 for it and expressed himself most kindly and flatteringly ; 

 it is the first and last of my performances in that line. As 

 a topographical map I hope it will do me credit, it is as 

 full as I could make it with accuracy, and I have the materials 

 for working the elevations of 5 or 600 places over the surface, 

 as also full ones for making it geological, botanical, and 

 meteorological from the plains to 19,000 feet of elevation 

 in one direction, and to 16,000 along the Northern, N.E. and 

 N.W. frontiers. 



After all this was not the last of the Indian map-making ; 

 in November he made a map of the Khasia Hills, which he 

 visited during the autumn, and this 



I finished this morning (Nov. 26, 1850) ; a very poor affair 

 it looks. Thuillier will send it you with a copy, after he 

 has copied it for insertion into the General Atlas of India. 

 That finishes my survey work, I am glad to say. The work 

 has cost me great time and labour, but I do not admit that 

 it was so much time taken from Natural History, for I have 

 had plenty of that too, as much as I could well put up 

 with. 



His experiences, shown graphically in the map, revolution- 

 ised current theories about the geography of the Himalayas, 

 in which the veteran Humboldt was so deeply interested. 



