March 25, 1886] 



NATURE 



491 



distant pinnacle. These peaks are frequently mistaken 

 for Everest ; thus in the atlas accompanying the " Results 

 of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia" there is 

 a large chroniolithographed plate from a drawing by Her- 

 mann Schlagintweit of a mountain which he believed to 

 be Everest ; but the mountain is undoubtedly iVlakalu, as 

 has recently been pointed out elsewhere.' The best view 

 of Everest from British territory is obtained at Sandakphu, 

 a well-known hill on the boundary between Nepal and 

 Darjeeling ; but even there it is partly shut out from view 

 by Makalu, which being exceedingly bold and picturesque 

 in appearance generally comes in for more attention than 

 its higher neighbour. 



The pillars and posts marking the line of boundary be- 

 tween the Nepalese and the British territories, having in 

 many instances been destroyed by wild animals or carried 

 away by floods, survey operations have been undertaken, at 

 the request of the Nepalese Government, with a view to re- 

 laying the line. This has aftbrded an opportunity of 

 surveying the Sameswar Hills, the water-parting of which 

 constitutes a portion of the boundary. A strip of the 

 Nepalese territory which skirts the boundary has been 

 sketched as far as circumstances would permit, and large 

 errors in the topography of the tract, as laid down hitherto 

 from native information, have been discovered and cor- 

 rected. The Sameswar Hills are said to be very similar 

 to the Siwalik Ranges, which the pala;ontological dis- 

 coveries of Falconer, Cantley, and Baker have made so 

 famous, excepting that the peaks are generally of less 

 altitude, and the Piniis longifolia is almost entirely 

 absent. 



Major Holdich gives an account of the first ascent ever 

 made by Europeans of the famous Takht-i-Suliman, or 

 Throne of Solomon, the highest portion of the range of 

 mountains on the western border of the valley of the 

 Indus, which separates the highlands of South-Eastern 

 Afghanistan from the plains of the Punjab. Viewed from 

 these plains the Takht has the appearance of a ridge some 

 8 miles in length, much elevated above its surroundings, 

 and with two culminating peaks at its northern and 

 southern extremities, — apparently admirable points from 

 whence to make a survey of the tract of country extending 

 westwards almost as far as Candahar and Ghazni, of which 

 very little is known. Lieutenant James Broadfoot, of the 

 Bengal Engineers, travelled across it in 1839, by the route 

 from Ghazni to Deva Ismail Khan viti the Ghwaleri Pass, 

 of which he made a hurried sketch under great difficulties; 

 and the Zhob Valley to the south has been roughly 

 mapped by a native explorer. But much more knowledge 

 of the country was wanted, and this it was expected might 

 be obtained by observations from the two great peaks of 

 the Takht, the ascent of which had for many years been 

 an object of laudable ambition on the part of the Survey 

 officers ; they were greatly gratified when the Government 

 authorised a survey expedition to be sent to the summit 

 of the mountain, with a sufficient escort of troops to over- 

 come any possible opposition. On reaching the summit 

 the Takht was found to consist, not of a single ridge, but 

 of two parallel ridges, with a plateau between, the highest 

 point at the northern extremity (l 1,300 feet) being on the 

 western ridge, while that on the southern extremity 

 (11,070 feet) is on the eastern ridge, and is unfortunately 

 shut out by the other from all view of .'Xfghanistan. Thus 

 the Takht was disappointing as a basis for distant geo- 

 graphical exploration ; but a good deal of valuable topo- 

 graphy was secured of an important but little-known 

 portion of the Sulimanr Range, which constitutes the 

 primary base for the defence of India from western 

 aggression. 



In Biluchistan Lieutenant the Honourable M. G. 

 Talbot, R.E., and Lieutenant Wahab, R.E., made a valu- 

 able reconnaissance to the south-west of the little-known 



■ See "Notes on Mount Evere 

 Geographical Society for P'ebruary : 



the Proceedings of the Royal 



region which lies between Kelat, the capital, and the town 

 of Gwadur, on the Persian Gulf ; they worked over the 

 Raskoh Ranges across the great plain of Kharan to the 

 Lagar Koh and Koh-i-Sabz Ranges, and down to Panjgur. 

 Much of the coimtry traversed was a deseit, and the scope 

 of the operations had to be carefully adjusted to the 

 limited available supplies of both food and water for men 

 and animals. 



The systematic tidal observations with self-registering 

 tide-gauges, which were instituted under the superinten- 

 dence of Major Baird, R.E., F.R.S., by the Government 

 of India, in accordance with the recommendations of the 

 British Association, have been continued at sixteen stations 

 — including the ports of Aden, Kurrachee, Bombay, 

 Madras, Calcutta and Rangoon, and Port Blair — completed 

 at two stations, Kdrwar and Pamban, and commen.ed at 

 three new stations, of which two are on the Island of 

 Ceylon, more under the direct influence of the Indian 

 Ocean than the stations on the coasts of India. Good 

 progress has been made with the lines of spirit-levels 

 which are carried between the tidal stations, both along 

 the coast lines and across the peninsula from coast to 

 coast. So far as yet completed the operations indicate 

 that the mean sea-le\el may be regarded as practically 

 identical at all points on the open coast. 



The Calcutta International Exhibition has necessitated 

 a considerable extension of the operations of the litho- 

 graphic and photographic offices under Colonel Water- 

 house ; the processes of heliogravure and collotype were 

 found very serviceable in reproducing the delicate objects 

 of Indian art-work which were exhibited. In the first of 

 these processes a valuable improvement has been eftected ; 

 originally the engraved copper plate was obtained by 

 developing a positive pigment print, or relief in hardened 

 gelatine, on a silvered copper plate, and then depositing 

 copper upon it so as to form a new copper plate, bearing 

 the design in intaglio, from which prints can be taken in 

 the usual way. In the new process a tiegative pigment 

 print is developed on a copper plate, and the intaglio 

 image is obtained directly on the plate by biting in with a 

 chemical solution, which penetrates the gelatine film com- 

 paratively easily in those parts representing the shadows 

 of a picture or lines of a map, where there is little or no 

 gelatine, biting the copper to a considerable depth ; 

 whereas in the parts representing the light of the picture 

 or the ground of the map, \\-here the gelatine is thicker, 

 it penetrates with more and more difficulty as the thick- 

 ness of the gelatine increases, and in the highest lights 

 should leave the copper untouched. The operation of 

 biting does not take more than five minutes, and the_ 

 engraved images are said to be marvellous in their deli- 

 cacy of gradation and richness of effect. The great 

 advantage of the process is its rapidity, a day or two 

 being sufficient to prepare the etched plate, whereas from 

 three weeks to a month are required to" deposit "a printing 

 plate of sufficient thickness by photo-electrotyping ; on 

 the other hand, it is difficult to get etching of sufficient 

 depth to stand much printing without the loss of the finest 

 tints. 



The Report contains mmy other items of interest which 

 our limits do not allow us to notice. It has evidently been 

 compiled with much care, though there are occasional 

 slips, as at page 3, where the country of Kafiristan is re- 

 ferred to as " an explorer in the service of the Educational 

 Department," and the scale of the survey of that country 

 is said to be " confidential." I. T. W. 



SCIENCE SCHOOLS A T HOME AND ABROAD 



IN this volume Mr. Robins has collected together a 

 series of communications which have appeared at 

 various times in the Journal of the Society of Arts and 



' " P.ipers on Technical Education, Applied Science Buildings, Fittings, 

 and Sanitation." By Edward Cookwortny Robins. (London, 1886.) 



