May 22, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



289 



The lowest glacier Col. Tanner has seen in the Himalayas is one 

 that reaches the foot of the range near Chaprot Fort in latitude 

 Zoi°, in Gilgit. It is formed of beautiful clear ice, and has no 

 dirt. In Kulu and Labaul (latitude 32°) glaciers do not come 

 down below 13,000 or 13,000 feet, and all are very dirty, and in 

 Sikkim (latitude 38° or 39°), without having visited the glacier 

 region himself, Col. Tanner would say that the lowest hmit 

 reached by the Kinchinjanga group must be considerably higher, 

 perhaps by 2,000 feet or even more. The smallest mountain he 

 lias ever met with, capable of giving rise to a glacier, is one on 

 the GUgit-Dareyl range, whose height is 17,000 feet; and in this 

 case the mass of ice formed is of very inconsiderable size. Of the 

 glaciers round Mount Everest and its great neighbors, we know 

 next to nothing ; and the little we have learned is derived from 

 the itineraries of native explorers, who, of all classes of travellers, 

 seem the least capable of furnishing trustworthy information re- 

 garding any subject lying at all outside their actual angular and 

 distance measurements. But with his telescope, when employed 

 on the survey of the Nipal boundary, Col. Tanner has gazed long 

 and earnestly at the icy regions at the foot of Everest, and Peak 

 No. XIII. , where the glaciers extend over a very large area. 



With regard to otir actual knowledge of the Himalayas, Cul. 

 Tanner thinks that perhaps our botanical knowledge is far ahead 

 of other branches of science. Many eminent botanists have been 

 at work for a long time past, and of late Dr. Duthie has been al- 

 lowed to travel on duty into tracts not before visited by any one 

 possessing the requisite knowledge. It is likely that Dr. Duthie's 

 museum at Saharunpur will, within a moderately short time, be- 

 come an almost complete depository of the chief vegetable prod- 

 ucts of the Himalayas. The geologists, Messrs. Blandford, Edwin 

 Austen, Richard Strachey, Stolitzka, and Lydekker, have been 

 pretty well over those tracts open to Europeans, and are now well 

 acquainted with all the leading features of their branch of science 

 presented by the mountains of Kashmir, Kumaon, Kangra, and 

 Sikkim. Ornithology has found many votaries, and the birds of 

 these mountains are now probably all or nearly all known, though 

 the late Capt. Harman, only a few years back, discovered a new 

 and handsome pheasant in the extreme eastern end, either of 

 Bhutan or Thibet. The mammals, Col. Tanner supposes, are all 

 known, though one, at least, the Shao, or great stag of Thibet, 

 has not even been seen by any European, and the famous Ovis 

 poH has been shot by not more than two or three sportsmen. 



With regard to the work of the survey, Col. Tanner stated that 

 the maps of Kashmir and Gilgit, without being free from error, 

 are of the greatest use to a large class of officials. Incomplete 

 though they may be, they were not brought up to their present 

 state without taxing to the utmost the endurance of a hardy set 

 of men. Adjoining Kashmir to the eastward comes Kangra, 

 with its subdivisions of Kulu, Lahaul, and Spiti. Kangra had 

 once been roughly surveyed prior to the arrival there of Col. Tan- 

 ner's party, who are now at work on a very elaborate contoured 

 map, which will take a long time to complete, owing to the in- 

 tricacy of the detail demanded. Between Kangra and Kumaon 

 occur various native states whose territories are being surveyed 

 on the scale of two inches to one mile, also contoured work, re- 

 sulting in very e'aborate and trustworthy, though somewhat ex- 

 pensive, maps. Eastward of Kumaon, Nipal stretches along our 

 border for some five hundred miles till Sikkim is reached ; and 

 eastward again of Sikkim comes Bhutan, and various little-known 

 and semi-independent states which lie on the right bank of the 

 Sanpo River. Nipal marches with the Kumaon border for many 

 miles, and advantage was taken of the existence of the trigono- 

 metrical stations on the Kumaon hills to extend our knowledge of 

 the adjacent topography of Nipal, and this was done about four 

 years ago with some little result. The more prominent peaks in 

 Nipal within a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles 

 were fixed trigonometrically, and some slight topographical 

 sketching was done. From the trigonometrical stations near the 

 foot of the lower hills, both in the North- West Provinces and in 

 Bengal, trigonometrical points have lately been fixed, and some 

 distant sketching done in Nipal, for five hundred miles between 

 Kumaon on the western, and Sikkim on the eastern, extremity of 

 this kingdom; and, again, from the trigonometrical hill stations 



along the western boundary of Sikkim more points and hazy 

 topography of Nipal was secured. This very meagre topography, 

 sketched from very great distances, comprises all the geography ' 

 of Nipal other than the sparse work collected by Col. Montgome- 

 rie's explorers, or by explorers trained to his system who have 

 worked since his death. AU the existing data, whether trigono- 

 metrical, distant sketching, or native explorers' routes, are now 

 being combined, as far as the often conflicting and contradictory 

 materials admit. The resulting map of the country, though at 

 most little better than none, is all we have to expect until some of 

 the strictures on travelling in Nipal are lessened by the Nipal 

 Government. 



The whole of the Nipalese border, which marches with British 

 territory for some eight hundred miles, is jealously guarded, and 

 no European is allowed to cross it, except when the Resident of 

 Kashmir, or his own personal friends, are permitted to proceed by 

 a certain and particular ioute, between the military station of 

 Segowli and Katmandu. Sikkim flanks the eastern boundary of 

 Nipal, and the, until lately, indefinite western boundary of Shutan. 

 British Sikkim is a small tract, which has twice been surveyed on 

 suitably large scales. Independent Sikkim, which contains Kin- 

 chinjangee, one of the highest mountains, and some famous 

 passes, — the Donkhya, visited by Sir Joseph Hooker and a few 

 others; and the Jelap, where our forces, under Gen. Graham, 

 have lately been employed, — was sturveyed in reconnaisance style 

 by Mr. Robert, an energetic and hardy assistant of the Survey of 

 India Department. The sketch-map obtained by this gentleman 

 is complete, and similar in character to that of Gilgit by Col. 

 Tanner, and to that of Nari Khorsam and Hundes by Mr. Ryall. 

 It does not pretend to any exhaustive detail. 



Our knowledge of Bhutan, or, rather, our ignorance of it, is 

 about on a par with that of Nipal ; but in Bhutan we have the 

 valuable information left by Capt. Pemberton, who forty-three 

 years ago traversed the greater portion of the country from west 

 to east. Besides Pemberton's %vork. Col. Godwin-Austen, while 

 he accompanied Sir Ashley Eden's mission to the court of the Deb 

 Raja in the year, 1863, executed a route-survey in western Bhu- 

 tan. The engineer officers who were attached to the military 

 force at Pewangiri also did some little topographical sketching; 

 and beyond this we have distant sketching and trigonometrical 

 work, as in Nipal, which also has yet to be combined with the 

 route-surveys of native explorers, some rather recent, and some 

 of greater date. The difficulties which are presented to further 

 researches in the direction of Bhutan geography seem unlikely to 

 diminish. Our knowledge, then, of Bhutan is as unsatisfactory 

 as that of Nipal. Eastward of Bhutan occur those numerous 

 semi-independent hill-states which sometimes, when necessity 

 presses, own allegiance to Thibet, and at others assert their com- 

 plete freedom from control. Col, Tanner himself has sent in two 

 maps of this region derived from native sources, and both upset 

 maps previously accepted, and it is highly improbable that we 

 have any but the most rudimentary and vague knowledge of the 

 course of the Sanpo below Gyala Sindong, and not even that of 

 the course or limits drained by the Dibong. Col. Tanner then 

 referred in some detail to the great rivers that have their sources 

 in the Himalayas, and concluded by giving some advice to tourists 

 as to the best routes to take. 



BANANA PRODUCTION. 



The banana industry, which, according to the " Handbook of 

 the American Republics." was only commenced in 1883, is becom- 

 ing more and more important every day. The bananas, which 

 grow spontaneously in the tropical countries, have been from that 

 date an article of commerce. Formerly they were planted in the 

 coffee plantations to shade the young trees and shelter the grains 

 from the wind that would sweep down the unmatured berry. The 

 fruit of the banana was used to fatten pigs, or grew without any 

 cultivation in the mountains and plains, thus going to absolute 

 waste. Bananas principally come from the British West Indies, 

 Cuba, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, British Hon- 

 duras, Colombia, Hawaiian Islands, and Salvador. 



The lands chosen for the production of the bananas are those 



