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The National Geographic Magazine 



ing the opposition of the Tibetans and 

 the difficulties presented by the highest 

 mountain region in the world, though 

 not by white men. At any time within 

 the last thirty-five years the trans-Hima- 

 layan traveller might have met a cara- 

 van of Tibetan and Indian traders with 

 their pack-laden sheep cHmbing or de- 

 scending some steep mountain-pass, or 

 crossing the Tsangpo on rafts. Walk- 

 ing humbly with the servants and slaves, 

 for to walk is a mark of servitude with 

 those people, there would be an Indian 

 with tea-bowl and prayer-barrel sus- 

 pended at his girdle, counting his rosary 

 as he walked, differing in nothing ap- 

 parently from his companions except in 

 his more intelligent face and the greater 

 interest with which he noted everything 

 about him. But open his prayer-barrel, 

 which he piously twirls when he comes 

 to some particularly dangerous spot, 

 and there will be found in it, instead of 

 the scroll with the Buddhist prayer, 

 " Om mani padmi hom," notes of the 

 journey after the boundary was crossed, 

 observations with sextant and compass, 

 and a simple route-survey showing the 

 length of each day's march, the relative 

 position of the prominent peaks, the 

 course of the streams, and their approxi- 

 mate breadth and depth. Examine 

 closely his rosary, and one would dis- 

 cover to his surprise that, instead of the 

 orthodox one hundred and eight beads, 

 there were only a hundred, and that he 

 dropped one at every hundred steps, 

 which were uniformly two and a half feet 

 long. If he were watched carefully he 

 would be seen to steal from camp at 

 night, when all else were sleeping, if bit- 

 ing wind, freezing cold, and driving 

 snow permit, with his box and tea-bowl. 

 Taking from beneath the false bottom of 

 his box a few instruments, and pouring 

 some quicksilver into his tea-bowl for an 

 artificial horizon, he makes an observa- 

 tion of some star, notes the condition of 

 barometer and thermometer, compares 

 his chronometer with his watch, and 

 then goes back to camp to write up his 



journal, and at length to sleep. Years 

 after, the traveller might see this same 

 man at the Great Trigonometrical Sur- 

 vey in Calcutta reading to an English 

 officer his journal, explaining his obser- 

 vations and route-survey, and narrating 

 his adventures — in one instance these in- 

 cluded a seven years' slavery in Tibet. 

 He asks who he is, and is amazed to 

 learn that he is only a school-master in 

 a little Himalayan village in the district 

 of Kumaon. 



What is his reward for these year-long 

 toils, sufferings, and dangers, this daily 

 risking his life in an attempt to add to 

 the world's knowledge ? A little piece of 

 land, possibly a small pension, and, while 

 he is able to serve — oblivion. But soon 

 the scientific journals will be full of ac- 

 counts of the wonderful journey of the 

 native Indian explorer, the great extent 

 and marvellous accuracy of his survey, 

 his pluck and endurance, his fertility of 

 resource, and, above all, his single- 

 hearted devotion to the cause of science. 

 If his services are publicly recognized by 

 some great Society, with the names of 

 world-renowned explorers, we read 

 merely, " The Pundit employed by Cap- 

 tain T. G. Montgomerie — a gold watch — 

 for his route-survey in Great Tibet." * 



It was in 1861 that the successful op- 

 position of the Tibetans to the explora- 

 tion of the trans-Himalayan region, by 

 Europeans, as well as the fact that Indian 

 traders were permitted to travel freely 

 throughout Tibet, suggested to an officer 

 connected with the Great Trigonometrical 

 Survey of India the expedient of employ- 

 ing native surveyors. 



The village school-master, Nain Singh, 

 who had been in the service of the broth- 

 ers Schlagintweit during their explora- 

 tions in Kashmir, was the first man to re- 



* Royal Geographical Society Year-Book, 

 1899, p. 208. It should be said, however, that 

 in 1877 the patron's medal was bestowed on 

 the Pundit Nain Singh — then incapacitated for 

 further service. Two others are also men- 

 tioned by name in the list of recipients of , 

 awards. 



