202 NATURAL BEAUTY 



the productivity, though perennially renewed, is not 

 unbounded. But the Natural Beauty is inex- 

 haustible. And it is not only inexhaustible : it 

 positively increases and multiplies the more we see 

 of it and the more of us see it. So it has good claim 

 to be considered the most valuable characteristic of 

 the Earth. 



And if Beauty should prove to be its most 

 valuable characteristic, it follows that knowledge of 

 it is the knowledge about the Earth which is most 

 worth having. It will certainly be the case that 

 knowledge of other characteristics may be of more 

 value to particular men for a special purpose for the 

 time being. If an engineer has to build a railway, 

 knowledge of the exact height above sea-level of 

 various points and of the general configuration of 

 the ground is of more value than knowledge of its 

 beauty. But for the engineer himself, when he is 

 not thinking of his railway, and for mankind in 

 general, knowledge of the beauty may be the more 

 valuable kind of knowledge. 



For years I was employed in exploring the region 

 where three Empires meet, where the Himalaya, 

 the Hindu Kush, and mountains which form the 

 Roof of the World converge. I had to report on the 

 extent to which it afforded a barrier against the ad- 

 vance of Russia towards India, and wherein it would 

 lie the most appropriate boundary between India 

 and Russia, between India and China, and between 

 Russia and China. What I learned of that region 

 as a barrier against invasion was of more value to 

 the Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief in India and 

 the political and military authorities in England 



