42 



NA TURE 



[November io, 1904 



steps. Finally, the party returnefi safely to the ship, and 

 found that the blaming relief ship had arrived in McMurdo 

 Sound. Mr. Arniitag'e made a journey to the westward with 

 a large party. After one or two failures he found a good 

 route to the main ice cap over the surface of a glacier of 

 great length. He gradually rose in altitude until he arrived 

 on the inland plateau at a height of 8900 feet, and was 

 thus the first to penetrate into the interior of Victoria Land. 



The e.xpedition had hoped to accompany the Morning 

 home, and it was not until the end of February, 1903, that 

 this was seen to be impossible, because of the condition of the 

 ice. They expected the ice in the bay in which they lay 

 to break up, but unfortunately it got so late that there was 

 onlv one thing for the Morning to do, and that was to return. 

 She got home with a good deal of difficulty, but the Dis- 

 covery was forced to remain a second w'inter. 



Captain Scott next made a sledging expedition in 

 a westerly direction, reaching his " furthest west " 

 point on November 30, 1903. The party had reached the 

 top of a mountain range some 7000 feet above the sea-level 

 when a blizzard came on and prevented further movement 

 for six days. The party then set out westward, rising 

 another 1500 feet, and for another week advanced over a 

 huge plain that extended as far as the eye could reach. The 

 temperature was forty degrees below zero, and the lips, 

 nostrils, and cheeks of the party were blistered by the 

 incessant wind from the west. The rarefied air, too, had a 

 great effect in reducing staying power. On this expedition 

 they reached a very interesting spot — that at which the 

 compass pointed south instead of north. They had reached 

 for the first time the line of no variation lying between the 

 South Pole and the south magnetic pole. 



By the middle of December, 1903, all the sledging parties 

 were ordered to be back, in order that an attempt might be 

 made to free the Discovery from the ice by sawing out a 

 channel. The attempt to clear a channel had to be 

 abandoned, but on January 15 the Morning and the Terra 

 Mova were sighted. They brought word that unless the 

 Discovery could be freed it must be abandoned, and to 

 obviate this hard necessity blasting operations were under- 

 taken. But by the end of January the ice began to break 

 up of its own accord, and by the middle of February there 

 was a clear channel for the Discovery, which was then free 

 to start on its return voyage. 



MOUNT EVEREST: THE STORY OF A 

 LONG CONTROVERSY. 

 T^HE highest mountain in the world is situated in a 

 ■'■ country from which Europeans have with few e.xcep- 

 tions been jealously excluded ; and the recent visit to the 

 capital of Nepal of an experienced British surveyor, 

 equipped with instruments and with full permission to use 

 them, is an event of no small interest in the annals of 

 Himalayan geography.' It is clear from Captain Wood's 

 report that this event has been brought about by the personal 

 intervention of Lord Curzon. 



Survevors have penetrated the Himalayas east and w-est 

 of Nepal into Sikkim and Kumaon, and have from these 

 points of view been enabled to observe a few of the Nepalese 

 peaks ; but from flanking stations the ranges of mountains 

 are seen " end on," and the nearer peaks shut out the 

 more distant from view. The knowledge that we possess 

 of the heights and positions of the peaks of the Nepalese 

 Himalayas has consequently been obtained from observ- 

 ations, taken with theodolites at stations situated in the 

 plains of Bengal and Oudh. 



From maps of small areas we are able to estimate that 

 the number of peaks existing in Himalayan regions, in- 

 cluding Kashmir and Bhutan, probably exceeds 40,000, and 

 that of these more than 10,000 are always clothed with 

 snow. Such estimates, rough as they are, suffice to show 

 that the problem which confronted the Indian Survey when 

 it first undertook the determination of the positions and 

 heights of the peaks of the Himalavas was not a simple one. 

 It is difficult now to discover how many of the 10,000 

 snow-peaks were known to the natives of India by name 

 before the British commenced their survey. The number 

 1 Report on the Idetittlication and Nomenclature of Himalayan Peaks. 

 By Capt. H. Wood, R.E.. with a preface by Colonel Gore, C.S.I., R.E., 

 late Surveyor General of India. (Published by Order of Colonel K. B. 

 Longe, R.E , Surveyor General of India, 1004) 



so named was certainly small, and possibly less than fifty. 

 Not only were the two highest mountains of all without 

 a name but many of the most conspicuous peaks through- 

 out the whole length of the Himalayas were nameless. 

 The few peaks that serve as landmarks to travellers on 

 frequented thoroughfares have probably always had names, 

 and the few that mark the sources of sacred rivers and 

 indicate to weary pilgrims on distant plains the positions 

 of the shrines that are their goals have for ages been 

 recognised by names. 



It is questionable whether some of the Hindu names now 

 attaching to peaks were not given in the first instance by 

 British surveyors ; in the earlier days of the survey names 

 were accepted from villagers more readily, perhaps, than 

 would now be done. Even the celebrated name of 

 Dhawlagiri, as attaching to a particular peak, is nut 

 altogether free from suspicion. The story of the con- 

 troversy over Mount Everest shows how easy it is to find 

 native names that have no existence in fact, and how hard 

 it is to identify the precise peak even when a native name 

 is current. 



When 10,000 snow-peaks have to be fixed, and when but 

 50 of these have names, some system of classification has 

 to be devised. The case is analogous to that of the stars ; 

 a few of the brighter stars have names of their own, 

 the remainder are classified by constellations, and 

 are designated by letters or numbers. The snow-peaks 

 of the Himalayas are classified by areas, and are designated 

 by Roman numerals or by letters with numbers attached ; 

 thus the highest mountain in the world is known in the 

 official records as Peak XV, and the second highest is 

 recorded as Peak K.,, both having been nameless at the 

 time of their discovery. 



The height of Peak X\', now- better known as Mount 

 Everest, is 29,002 feet, and that of K, is 28,250 feet. 

 Sixty years ago Dhawlagiri, in Nepal, was considered the 

 highest mountain in the world ; Dhawlagiri is 26,795 f^^t 

 high, and has since been found to be surpassed in height 

 by six Himalayan peaks; of these K, is in Kashmir, and 

 the other five, Everest (29,002), Kangchenjunga I (28,146), 

 Kangchenjunga 11 (27,803), Makalu (27,790), and Peak 

 T.,, (27,000) are in or near Nepal. 



The Discovery of Mount Everest.' — In 1S48 trigono- 

 rnetrical surveyors commenced to build a line of survey 

 stations along the plains of Oudh and Bengal from west to 

 east, and to determine the positions of these stations in 

 latitude and longitude by means of triangles observed with 

 large theodolites. Sir George Everest had intended 

 originally to carry the series along the mountains, but 

 abandoned his design in consequence of the refusal of the 

 Nepalese Government to allow the operations to enter their 

 territories. Consequently, after crossing the hills of 

 Kumaon, the stations were brought down into the plains 

 near Bareilly, from which point they were carried for 80a 

 miles through the deadly tracts which fringe the Himalayas. 

 .\t almost every station the snowy range of Nepal was 

 visible, and the northern horizon appeared broken by 

 numbers of peaks. Just as some stars appear brighter to 

 the eye than others, so do some snow-peaks against the 

 sky-line appear loftier than others. The superior magni- 

 tude of certain stars may be due either to their greater 

 diameter or their lesser distance, and the superior elevation: 

 of certain peaks may be due either to their greater height 

 or their lesser distance. The most refined observation^ 

 with the most perfect of ■ instruments, if taken from a 

 single station only, w'ill furnish no clue as to whether a 

 mountain-peak is conspicuous on account of its magnitude 

 or on account of its nearness. 



As the surveyors moved across Bengal from west to 

 east they witnessed changes in the apparent positions of 

 the peaks ; the analogy of the stars no longer serves us, as 

 owing to the great distances of the latter they appear to 

 preserve their relative positions in the sky : but the case of 

 mountain-peaks may be compared to what a traveller 

 witnesses when he journeys by rail through a forest of 

 pines — the nearer tree-trunks continually appear to pass 

 between his eye and the more distant ones. .\s the surveyor 

 moves across the plains parallel to the mountains he sees 



1 In order 10 appreciate the di>tance from which Mount Everest is visible, 

 we have only to consider that if it stood in Snowdon's place, it would be.' 

 seen from Land's End to Edinburgh and from Kent to Connaught. 



NO. 1828, VOL. 71] 



