November io, 1904] 



NA TURE 



43 



innumerable peaks, many snow-clad, many bare, always 

 seemingly changing their places and forms. 



It is a mistaken idea that particular peaks can be 

 identified from different points of view by their characteristic 

 shapes. Such a course may sometimes be possible from 

 near stations, but at distances greater than forty miles the 

 form of a peak is its cross-section in outline against the 

 sky, and this changes as one moves round it. The same 

 peak is often found noted in the field records of the survey 

 by a different letter or number at each station from which 

 it was observed. Colonel Sir Andrew Waugh, of the 

 Bengal Engineers, who was Surveyor-General of India 

 from 1843 to 1S61, realised from the outset the difficulties 

 of identification. His orders were that every visible peak, 

 great and small, was to be observed from every observing 

 station, but that the identification of peaks, with the ex- 

 ception of the unmistakable few possessing native names, 

 must be left to computers. In accordance with these orders 

 the true direction of every visible peak and the angular 

 ^elevation of every summit above the horizon were deter- 

 mined from every observing station. 



The identification of the peaks as observed from different 

 stations was then effected as follows : — 



is( Step. — The stations of observation were carefully pro- 

 jected on a map, and from each were drawn lines represent- 

 ing the directions of all peaks observed from it. 



2ni. Step. — When direction-lines from three or more 

 stations met in one point, it was tentatively assumed that 

 the same peak had been observed on the three or more 

 occasions. 



3rd Step. — By trigonometrical formulae the distance of 

 this assumed peak from each of the observing stations was 

 then calculated, and from these distances independent values 

 of the latitude and longitude of the peak were obtained ; if 

 •the several values were accordant the identification was 

 proceeded with. 



.^th Step. — From the observed angle of elevation and from 

 »he calculated distance of the peak from each station the 

 height of the peak was deduced ; a separate value for the 

 height of the peak was thus obtained from each observing 

 station. If the several values of height were accordant the 

 identification was finally accepted. 



Numerous peaks were found to have been observed only 

 •once or twice, and could not be identified ;. many others 

 failed to satisfy all the tests, and had to be rejected. 



About 1852 the chief computer of the office at Calcutta 

 informed Sir Andrew Waugh that a peak designated XV 

 had been found to be higher than any other hitherto 

 measured in the world. This peak was discovered by the 

 -computers to have been observed from six different stations ; 

 on no occasion had the observer suspected that he was view- 

 ing through his telescope the highest point of the earth. 



The following table shows the several values of height 

 'that were obtained for Mount Everest : — 



The Observed Height of Mount Everest. 



Extracted from the Records of the Great Trigonometrical 



Survey of India. 



NO. 1828, VOL. 7 l] 



Sir Andrew Waugh had always adhered to the rule of 

 assigning to every geographical object its true local or 

 native name ; but here was a mountain, the highest in the 

 world, without any local or native name that he was able 

 to discover. He determined, therefore, to name the great 

 snow-peak after Sir George Everest, his former chief, the 

 celebrated Indian geodesist. The name of " Mount 

 Everest " has since become a household word, and no 

 objection to it has ever been raised by natives of the country. 



The Devadhunga Controversy. — When Sir Andrew 

 Waugh announced that the peak was to be named Everest, 

 Mr. Hodgson, who had been political officer in Nepal for 

 many years, intimated to the Royal Geographical and 

 Royal Asiatic Societies that Sir Andrew Waugh had been 

 mistaken, and that the mountain had a local name, viz. 

 Devadhunga. Sir Roderick Murchison, the president of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, approved Waugh 's action, 

 but the Royal Asiatic Society supported Hodgson and re- 

 pudiated the name of Everest. Seeing that the Survey 

 officers had been debarred from entering Nepal, Mr. Hodg- 

 son was amply justified in raising the question he did ; 

 but he had made no scientific measurements, and it is 

 known now beyond dispute that he was mistaken in his 

 identification of Everest. He apparently assumed that the 

 great peak, which he saw standing in the direction of 

 Everest, and which was so conspicuous from Katmandu, 

 where he resided, was the highest peak in Nepal ; ' but 

 Nepal covers a large area, and Mount Everest is more than 

 a hundred miles from Katmandu. Either Mr. Hodgson was 

 unaware of the real distance of Mount Everest, or he failed 

 to realise that even the highest mountain on earth will look 

 small at so great a distance. It is probable that Mr. 

 Hodgson never even saw Mount Everest ; it is certain that 

 if he did so he was unaware that he was looking at it. 



All subsequent information goes to show that there is 

 no peak in Nepal called Devadhunga. Mr. Hodgson's 

 sincerity has never been doubted, and it is believed now 

 that the name Devadhunga is a mythological term for the 

 whole snowy range. 



The Gaurisankar Controversy. — In 1854 three brothers, 

 Hermann, Adolphe, and Robert de Schlagintweit, undertook 

 a scientific mission to India and Central Asia at the instance 

 of the King of Prussia, and with the concurrence of Lord 

 Dalhousie and the court of directors. Their labours lasted 

 until 1857, by which date they had succeeded in taking 

 numerous astronomical, hypsometric, magnetic, and meteor- 

 ological observations ; they had also made geological, 

 botanical, and zoological collections for the India House 

 A-Iuseum ; and they had explored the high mountains of India 

 and Tibet, and had constructed many panoramic drawings 

 of the snow-peaks of the Himalayas. Their mission un- 

 fortunately ended in the death of the second brother, 

 Adolphe, who was killed at Kashgar. 



In 1855 Hermann de Schlagintweit visited a hill in Nepal 

 named Kaulia, near Katmandu, and from it took observ- 

 ations to the snow-peaks. He saw the mountain called 

 Devadhunga by Hodgson, and he identified it as Mount 

 Everest;^ he, however, repudiated Hodgson's name of 

 Devadhunga, and certified that the local native name for 

 the peak was Gaurisankar. 



Continental geographers, accepting Schlagintweit's views, 

 have continued to this day to call the highest mountain in 

 the world Gaurisankar ; the Indian Survey, however, were 

 unable to reconcile Schlagintweit's results with their own, 

 and have declined to follow him. 



The diagram in Fig. i illustrates the tour of Hermann 

 de Schlagintweit, who visited the two stations of Kaulia 

 and Falut, which are 175 miles apart. From Kaulia he 

 saw a high peak to the north-east which the natives called 

 Gaurisankar, and which he identified as Everest. From 

 Falut he saw a high peak to the north-west, which he also 

 identified as Everest. 



There is no doubt now that Schlagintweit was misled in 

 his identification of Mount Everest. It is the common mis- 

 fortune of all pioneers that posterity chiefly concerns itself 

 with their mistakes. Indian geography owes much to 

 Hermann de Schlagintweit, but she is more mindful now 

 of his errors than of her debts. The mistakes of Schlagint- 



1 See Proceedings R.G.S., vol. viii., 1886, pp. 8g and 179. 



2 Schlagintweit's " India and High Asia," vol. iii. p. 193. 



