March ig, 1896] 



NATURE 



469 



The most regrettable fep.turein the book is the author's 

 hatit of using native or local names for animals with- 

 out giving the zoological name. Comparatively few of 

 his -eaders are likely to recognise the hyrax or coney in 

 the ' dassie," especially as this term is not mentioned as 

 a syionym in the notes on the fauna in the last chapter. 

 The author's interesting remarks on some snakes lose 

 mucl of their value, owing to the uncertainty of knowing 

 whici species he is describing. 



Th* author's account of life on the game-fields shows 

 that hese are not Edens. His realistic account of a 

 fight letween a lion and a sable antelope, which resulted 

 in the death of both combatants, and of a zebra which 

 he she, only to find that it had been so wounded by 

 lions, tiat much of its flesh was putrid, and that it was 

 full of naggots, help one to realise the tragedy of the 

 struggle for existence. The author blames the Boer 

 Governnent for allowing the destruction of the game ; 

 but the cise of .South America shows how a fauna, much 

 richer tWn that of Africa, has become extinct in com- 

 parativel J recent times, and without human intervention. 

 The extemination of some species in regions of Africa 

 where the game has not been seriously hunted, shows 

 that nature, agencies help in that destruction of the game, 

 for which i\an generally bears the whole of the blame. 



J. W. G. 



GENERA, J. T. WALKER, R.E., C.B., F.R.S. 

 T> Y the deatlof General James T. Walker, on February 

 -L^ 16, the Indian Army, all scientific bodies, and 

 geographical scieties, at home and abroad, have to de- 

 plore the loss d a gallant and accomplished officer. It 

 is a loss whiclwill be felt most by past and present 

 members of theVndian Survey Department who survive 

 him, who are beler cognisant of and can appreciate the 

 many years of seyice he rendered that Department from 

 first to last, and fee talents he devoted to its accurate 

 execution. 



F"ollowing in thefootsteps of previous Superintendents 

 of the Trigonomerical Survey, Colonel Lambton, Sir 

 George Everest, an. Sir Andrew Waugh, his principal 

 aim, in guiding thetftgonometrical work they had per- 

 formed, was to carry f to a successful issue, and with the 

 greatest accuracy, mce modern instruments, and all that 

 mathematical and god.etical knowledge could achieve. 

 These operations couknot have fallen into more zealous, 

 able hands, for it may b said, for the information of those 

 who hear and read little^f such work (often insufficiently 

 rewarded), that as a suyey of a very large area of the 

 earth's surface, no othe.'area has been so laboriously 

 measured, the observed ngles so rigorously computed, 

 and dealt with, and with o little resultant error. Many 

 accomplished brave offices, assistants, and men have 

 also fallen victims to the Cmate in which the operations 

 were carried on, ranging s it did from the plains of 

 India to the often deadly '^rai up to the highest peaks 

 of the Himalayas. In achiving this result, to General 

 Walker, and the officers he iirected, is due the greatest 

 measure of praise for its perf^tness. All that it entailed 

 from the vei-y commencemen in 1800, is to be found in 

 the " Account of the Operattns of the Great Trigono- 

 metrical Survey of India," twety volumes, the first nine 

 of which were compiled by Gneral Walker. My first 

 knowledge of his name and wo* vvas as far back as 1855, 

 when serving with my regiment aPeshawur I drew for the 

 Quarter-Master General's Deparhent, under the direction 

 of Dr. P. Lumsden, the first mafof the Kooram Valley, 

 on which were laid down the piks on the Sufaidkoh 

 Range, of which Walker had be^ the first to fix the 

 position. Lieut. Walker's name -as well known then 

 in the Panjab, for up to 1853 he hasbeen working single- 

 handed with his usual zeal at the Hlitary survey of the 



NO. 1377, VOL. 53] 



Trans-Indus territory. This was dangerous service in 

 those days on that disturbed wild frontier of the north- 

 west of India, which the East India Company had very 

 lately acquired, where the tribesmen might be seen fol- 

 lowing their bullocks at the Ytloxi^h, jczatl slung on back. 

 On this survey it may be said Walker carried his life in 

 his hand, he and his party often being the target for 

 these same jezails. The ascent of Turturrah Peak in 

 the Khyber Hills is only one instance of a very hazardous 

 piece of work, but the dash and rapidity with which his 

 plans were made and the distance done, surmounted the 

 difficulties, and brought him safe out of the expedition 

 with the coveted angles secured. Similar risky ex- 

 ploration was effected by him on the borders of Eusofzai 

 and along the base of the hills, near where our troops 

 have been lately employed at the Malakand Pass, and m 

 the neighbourhood of Umbeyla. In fact, all we knew of 

 that border topography for many years, and up to very 

 recently, was the outcome of the young engineer's 

 reconnaissance. Very little was said about this work at 

 the time. In those cays it was not the fashion to write 

 up, and make so much of such travel, as is now the case. 

 It took place far off in time and distance from home and 

 headquarters, and only those in the district— his imme- 

 diate superiors and his brother officers— knew the value 

 of it, and the pluck and endurance it demanded. More- 

 over, by his tact with some of the chiefs, he managed 

 to penetrate even beyond the frontier ; but on return- 

 ing to Peshawur, and reporting his success in this way, 

 and making certain of praise, he received a severe repri- 

 mand. It was perhaps feared that in risking his own 

 life, and the men of his party, he also risked embroiling 

 his Government. It was not until 1865, when I had been 

 in the Survey Department some years, and knew more 

 of his work, that I became personally associated with 

 him and under his immediate orders. He vvas then 

 engaged on the compilation of his first map of Central 

 Asia. I shall never forget the great pleasure of meeting 

 him daily, and how much I learned from hun, discussing 

 portions of that country, looking up books of travel, and 

 the latest work of the Russian Survey, and getting that 

 map completed with the Himalayan Range as far east as 

 longitude 81°. It was the first large map turned out in 

 India by the process of photozincography, then but lately 

 introduced into the office at Deyrah Dhoon, and it went 

 through many subsequent editions. It was when en- 

 gaged on such researches that Walker's knowledge and 

 his intense love for geographical study showed itself. 

 There was at that period much new topography coming 

 in. The work of the Kashmir Survey, under Captain 

 T. G. Montgomerie, R.E., had filled up: an immense 

 blank in the northern frontier of India, from the confines 

 of Gilgit and Hunza Nagar to the Chang Chingmo. 

 Mr. W. H. Johnson had just returned from his trip over 

 the Karakoram range to Ilchi in Khotan ; his route 

 survey and observations had to be brought into place, 

 and affected the position of other places in that part of 

 Asia. 



It vvas never my good fortune to serve under General 

 Walker in the field ; but I can look back on a short spell 

 of camp life with him, on the mountains north of Mussoorie, 

 with those feelings of desire that the time might come 

 over again. Walker had been working hard for months 

 at his computations, and was overworked ; I suggested 

 his joining me in a collecting trip I had planned into the 

 hills, and he fell in with the idea. How he enjoyed the 

 complete rest, and entered with zest into my pursuits ; 

 how much there vvas to talk over that was interesting to 

 both ; how we revelled in the lovely scenery of the oak- 

 crowned ranges, with the snows of Jumnutri in the dis- 

 tance, and enjoyed the splendid air of October in the 

 Himalayas, which sent him back to duty again quite set- 

 up. In those few days, however, I got to know Walker, 

 and all the good traits in his character, better than per- 



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