NATURE 
[OcToBER 5, 1916 
THE SURVEY LINK CONNECTING THE 
TRIANGULATIONS OF INDIA AND 
RUSSIA.+ 
T the meeting of the International Geodetic 
+ Association held in London in 1909 the 
way was cleared for the completion of a connect- 
ing Jink between Indian and Russian triangula- 
tions which would carry scientific measurement 
from Cape Comorin to Petrograd. This necessi- 
tated the extension of a geodetic series across some 
of the highest and most unapproachable of the 
snow-capped ranges in the northern Himalayan 
system. Between Gilgit and Salisbury Peak on 
the Nicolas (Russian spelling) range of the Pamirs 
there intervene about roo miles of inconceivably 
wild and rugged mountain country distinguished 
Fic, 1.—On the Russian East Station of Sarblock, 17,284 ft. 
“ Records of the Survey of India." 
From 
by groups of peaks running to altitudes of more 
than 20,000 ft. and seamed with a most amazing 
series of waterways containing the biggest glaciers 
in the world. Salisbury Peak, near the western 
end of the Pamir boundary between Russia and 
Afghanistan, looks southwards across the valley 
of the river Ab-i-Panja (flowing westward to the 
Oxus and skirting the southern foot of the Nicolas 
range) on to the great ridge of the Hindu Kush. 
From the Hindu Kush southward to the Gilgit 
river flow three great mountain streams, which 
afford the only possible approaches northward, i.e. 
the Yasin, the Ashkuman, and the Hunza. 
1 “ Records of 
R of Indi Vol. vi., “Completion of the Link 
connecting the Tri ons of India and Russia, 1913.” Prepared under 
the direction of Sir S. G. Burrard Del Dun, 1914.) Price 4 rupees 
or 6s ; 
NO. 2449, VOL. -98| 
Setting aside, for the present at any rate, any 
consideration of making this geodetic connection 
through Afghanistan or Persia (which, for political 
reasons chiefly, is out of the question), the choice 
of an approach to the Russian boundary in the 
Pamirs lay between these three most difficult 
routes. The line of the Hunza was eventually 
selected as leading more directly to a point on the 
Russian border close to the Chinese frontier, and 
involving no question of crossing the valley of the 
Ab-i-Panja, which, lying low between the Nicolas 
range and the Hindu Kush, is a‘narrow strip of 
Afghan ‘territory. Between 1909 and 1911 a 
series of principal triangulation had been carried 
Fic, 2.—A log bridge over the Chapursan. 
Survey of India.” 
From ‘‘ Records of the 
from Rawal Pindi to Gilgit, thus furnishing a first- 
| class base from which to take off for this northern 
extension. At the other end of the line two 
trigonometrical stations had been fixed by the 
Russian surveyors at the eastern end of the Little 
Pamir, not far from the Beyik Pass, which offered 
the necessary points for final connection. 
The report under review deals with the efforts 
| of the Indian Survey officers to bridge this gap 
and reach commanding observation points in the 
barren and rugged entourage of the Hunza 
Valley, by means of which a geodetic series could 
be carried successfully to the Hindu Kush. Prob- 
ably no scientific surveyors in the world have ever 
