TRANSACTIONS OF SKCTION E. 



795 



rpftciied next spring. From tlii.s ])oiiit tlic cxpt'dition will oniloavour first to explore 

 Xnrtlicni Tibet, which i.s his main object, in the direction of Lhasa and Jjake 

 T-r.;rri-ii<ii'> ""d then returninj; northward, cross the Tibet plalcau liy new routes 

 to Lake Lob-nor. After the re-asscnibly of the expedition at this jioint, it wil! 

 innbably regain Russian territory at Issyk-kul. Colonel Prejevalsky is accompanied 

 »)v two officers, an interpreter, and an escort of twenty (-'ossaeks. 



1:.'. As you are aware, we have been ciiiefly indebted to natives of India for 

 i,..vral years past for our knowledge of the regions beyond tlie ISritisli boundiii-y. 

 Mr. Mi'S'iiir, of the Indian Survey Department, wlio received I hf .Murchison premium 

 iftlusyear, is the first Europraii who has ever penetrated so far as (!liil;al, whieh is 

 ni:l_v :'00 miles from I'eshawur. In various disguises, however, iiiiti ves, carefully 

 iii^tiucted. have penetrated tlie neighbouring but unneighbourly regions of Afghan- 

 i^t;!!!. Kashmir, 1'urkistan, Nepaul, Tild't — in almost every <iu'ecLioii — and these 

 ;ic: i>'veiiients weri'icrowned by out; of them, l;nown as A.K., nsiehiiig Saitu or 

 -arl.ii, ill Mongolia, in 1.SS2, and theiiee returning in safety to India, after an 

 -lueiiee of four years. His route took him to Darchendo or Taehialo (hit. 31'^), 

 t!i? most we.sterly point reached by the late Captain .1. Gill, K.M., in 1^77, and 

 thus CO! meets the explorations of that accomplished and lamented traveller with 

 IViitral Asia. A-k has brought fresli evidence that the Sanpoo and tlie P>rah- 

 iimpootra are one; the quite modern opinion that the former flows into the 

 Irniwaddy being shown to be groundless. After draining the northern .'•lopes of 

 til.' Iliinalaj'as, the Brahniajiootra makes a loop round their eastern flanks, wliei'e 

 It has been called the Dehang, and thence, as evervbodv knows, flows westerly to 

 jiiiu the Ganges: tlie maps have been sliown in tliis instance to be right. The 

 travels of these native exjilorers, their .stratagems and their <lisguises, their hazards 

 and .Niitlerings, their frei^ueiit hair-ljreadth escapes, are teeming with excitement. 

 One of tliem describes a portion of his track at the back of .Mount Everest, as 

 ■;ir:ie(l for the third (jf a mile along the face of a precipice at the height of 

 l/jCOI't, above the Bhotia-kosi ri\er, upon iron pegs let into the face of the rock, 

 t;ie patli being formed by bars of iron and slabs of ."toni stretching from peg to 

 )VL', iti no place more than 18 inches, and often not mm-e than !> inches wide. 

 Xivertlieless this jiath is constantly used by men carrying burdens. 



One of the fine.-t feats of mountaineering on record was performed last year \)y 

 Mr. W. W. Graham, who reached an elevation of i'3,500 ft. in the Himalayas, about 

 ■-','.'00 ft. above the summit of ( 'himborazo, whose ascent by Mr. Whymjier in 1880 

 mi^.ikedan epoch in these exploits. Mr. (Jraham was acconqianied l)y an olhcer of 

 'he Swiss army, an experienced raountainei'r, and by a professional Swiss guide. 

 il'V ascended Kabru, a mountain visible from Darjeeling, lying to the west of 

 Ka!'.cliiiijunga, whose summit still defies the strength of man. 



!3. And here I may refer to that great work, the Trigonometrical Survey of 

 India. The ]n'imary triangulation, commenced in the year J80(), is praeticall}' 

 •ii'.pleted, although a little work remains to extend it to Ceylon on one side and to 

 >m\ un the other. Much .sccondaiy triangulation remains to be executed, but 

 chifily outside the limits of India i)ioper. Tiie I'isgah views, Ijy wbieli some of 

 ilie loftiest mountains in the world have been fixed in position, sometimes from 

 p'iiits in the nearest Himalayas, liiO mih'S distant, only serve to arouse a warmer 

 'i'-ire for unrestrained access. The lielief long entertained that a summit loftier 

 than Mount Everest exists in Tiliet is by no means extinct, but it is po.ssihks that 

 the snowy peak intended may jirove eventually to be tlie .Mount Everest itself of 

 the original survey. Still, however, science, in spite of fanatical obstruction, makes 

 siirg advances. The extraordinary learning and research by which Sir Ii. ISawlin- 

 -":' was enabled a few years since to expo.se a series of mystifications or falsifications 

 ''''siting to the Upper Oxus, which had lieen received on high geographical authority, 

 can never be forgotten. That river has now been traced from its sources in tlie 

 I'aiijah, chiefly l)y native explorers, and to them we may be said to be indebted for 

 all we know of Nepaul, from which I'lirope.ans are as jealously excluded as they 

 ill''" from the wildest Central Asian Klianate, although Ni-paul is not so far from 

 ''akutta as King-ston is from Quebec. 



Currying their instruments to the most remote and inaccessible places, and 



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