July 29, 1922] 



NA TURE 



141 



so well done. The oxygen apparatus had much better 

 have been left out, and experiments made on some 

 more accessible peak. Never yet used under natural 

 conditions at any elevation, it is complicated, and as 

 four bottles weigh 32 lbs., impossible to work, for it 

 seems to me the surveyor or climber carrying it would 

 be unable to use his eyes or observe anything at the 

 most critical time and under the most critical conditions. 



I conclude with some remarks on the nomenclature 

 of peaks. In the pages of the book and on Map 2, a 

 large-scale one of Mt. Everest, constructed at the Royal 

 Geographical Society, are the names Pumori, Ri-Ring, 

 etc. In the May number of the Alpine Journal these, 

 eleven in number, are explained (p. 228) in a contribu- 

 tion by Mr. Arthur R. Hinks, secretary of the R.G.S. 

 They are all fictitious, and after all that has been 

 written on the subject of nomenclatures I cannot too 

 strongly condemn their creation, although they have 

 had the criticism of Sir Charles Bell. Henceforward 

 it will be no longer possible to distinguish between a 

 bona fide Tibetan name and these inventions, unless 

 as is adopted in natural history, the name of a 

 species is followed by the name of its describer. The 

 English names of Conway, Bullock Workman, and Dr. 

 de Filippi, such as " Ogre Peak," " Mitre Peak," " The 

 Bride," etc., are of a higher inoffensive order, and I 

 for one see no reason why they should not be accepted. 

 Will these new-coined names please the Tibetans, lay 

 or sacerdotal ? They may possibly give offence. 

 Should we as a nation be pleased to see some foreign 

 power mapping this country and giving names to our 

 hills and valleys ? I now come to the last name assigned 

 to Mount Everest, " Chomo Lungma." It is not a happy 

 one for a peak though quite correct in the passport issued 

 by the Dalai Lama's Prime Minister, and very appli- 

 cable to the country, a series of valleys round the great 

 peak, which the Expedition was to work in. Lungma 

 and Lungpa is a common name for a valley from Scardo 

 eastward, and on Sheet 29.4, N.E. of part of Baltistan 

 and Little Tibet will be found a similar name, " Chogo 

 Loongma," for the great glacier valley which ends at 

 Arundo. Substitute " Chomo," feminine prefix (god- 

 dess) for " chogo " (large), there is a close resemblance, 

 but neither is applicable to the summit of a mountain. 



I am glad the Survey of India did not rush at the 

 discovery of this name and adopt it. Mallory thus 

 records on p. 225 : " In the Sahib's tent that night 

 there took place a long and fragmentary conversation 

 with the headman, our sirdar acting as interpreter. 

 We gained one piece of information : there were two 

 chomolungmas," that is, valleys. Every valley has 

 its name in Tibet, where the}' go with their flocks and 

 herds, but peaks are not so universally noticed and 

 distinguished. While the R.G.S. is publishing on maps 

 NO. 2752 VOL. I 10] 



new names for Himalayan peaks, I notice comparison 

 with Peak K2 occurs on p. 309. This, the second 

 highest peak in the Himalaya, received the name of 

 Godwin-Austen. At a meeting of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, when Lieut. Younghusband read 

 his paper, " From China through Tibet to Kashmir," 

 I was present, and pointed out, on a large-scale plan 

 I had prepared, the great size of the Baltoro Glacier 

 and the position of the great peak near the source. 

 Then followed the proposal of General J. T. Walker, 

 R.E., the late Surveyor-General of India, under whom 

 I had served, seconded by Sir Henry Rawlinson, 

 president, in the chair, put to the meeting and carried 

 unanimously. It was a great honour, an unexpected 

 recognition of my survey work, and was deemed worthy 

 of notice, appearing in a short time in the " Times 

 Atlas " and in a German one. By degrees the R.G.S. 

 has discarded my name ; this book does the same ; 

 geographical record is wiped out, and leaves me to 

 regret I was present that evening. The Indian Survey, 

 carrying out rules of their own, correctly recognise 

 no other name than Mount Everest ; for the rest they 

 must be of true native origin. H. H. G..-A. 



The Early Metal Ages in South America. 



The Copper and Brome Ages of South America. By 

 Erland Nordenskiold. (Comparative Ethnographical 

 Studies, 4.) Pp. viii+197. (London: Oxford 

 University Press, 192 1.) 185. 6d. net. 



THERE has long been felt the want of a general 

 summary of information relative to the employ- 

 ment of copper and bronze in South America, and Dr. 

 Erland Nordenskiold's volume will be welcomed as, 

 to a great extent, filling the gap. In about 200 pages 

 he has brought together a considerable mass of detailed 

 information derived from the historical record, from 

 representations of metal objects on textiles, pottery, 

 etc., and from the actual implements and ornaments 

 of copper and bronze. He discusses the problem from 

 a variety of points of view, each chapter dealing with 

 a particular line of inquiry. 



The chronological horizons of S. American antiquities 

 are as yet, unfortunately, insufficiently defined, and 

 much spade-work will be required before the sequence 

 of cultures and their relationship to one another can 

 satisfactorily be established. The author, in dealing 

 with this aspect of the inquiry, has made use of such 

 evidence as is to hand and offers deductions which 

 are often very suggestive, especially when the chrono- 

 logical evidence is correlated with the data derived 

 from the study of geographical distribution of types, 

 to which Dr. Nordenskiold has devoted special 

 attention. 



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