1856.] Route of two Nepalese Embassies to Pekin. 479 



covers a large space of the road which must be understood as com- 

 mencing soon after leaving the 14th stage or Thdlung and not after 

 leaving the 15th stage or Tingri Langkot. 



The documents now submitted themselves suffice to prove the 

 meaning of langur, since they show it to be equivalent to the la of 

 Tibetan and the Shan of Chinese ; consequently also (as we know 

 from other sources) to the Turkic tagh and the Mongolic lila. It may 

 therefore be rendered " mountain" as well as " mountain pass," and 

 this is the reason, perhaps, why the Nepalese often do not discriminate 

 between the name of the pass and of the peak of Bhairava but blend 

 them both under the name Bhairav langur, which is equivalent to the 

 Gnalham thangla of the Tibetans. Col. Waugh therefore may be 

 assured that his Mount Everest is far from lacking native names, and, 

 I will add that I would venture in any case of a signal natural object 

 occurring in Nepal to furnish the Colonel with its true native name 

 (nay, several, for the country is very poly glottic) upon his furnishing 

 me with the distance and bearings of that object, although neither I 

 nor any European had gone near it. # For the rest, I cannot withhold 

 my congratulations upon this second splendid result of Col. W.'s 

 labours though alack ! it would seem fatal to my pet theory of sub- 

 hiraalayan water-sheds, — a term carefully to be discriminated from 

 the Himalayan water-shed to which I now purpose briefly to advert. 



Since I presented to the Society in 1849 my paper on the physical 

 geography of the Himalaya a good deal of new information has been 

 published, mixed with the inevitable quantum of speculation, touching 

 the true character of that chain, and the true position of its water- 

 shed, with their inseparable concomitants, the general elevation and 

 surface character of the plateau of Tibet. 



titor for notice in the whole intervening space. It is precisely half way between 

 Gosain-than which overlooks N«pal proper and Kangchan which overlooks Sikim. 



* It is obvious to remark, that no European has ever approached Dhavalagiri 

 which yet lacKs not a native name known to Europeans and in fact I myself have 

 been twice as near to D6va dhiinga, vel Bhairav than, vel Bhairav langur, vel Gna- 

 lham thangla, as any European ever was to Dhavalagiri. The Bhotias often call 

 the Bhairav langur, Thangla or " pass of the plain," viz. of Tingri, omitting the 

 more specific designation Gnalham, which also might alone designate the object, 

 nay, which is the name of the snowy mass as opposed to the pass over it and the 

 plain beyond it. 



