GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 151 



on Captain Wahab and Imam Sharif, who succeeded in mapping an 

 area of 423 square miles on the i-inch scale, including practically 

 the whole course of the Indus to a point considerably above the 

 great bend of the river near Thakot, and a good deal of ground 

 across the Indus adjoining Buner. These operations combined with 

 the results of the expeditions in 1852-53 and 1868,* and with the 

 survey of the Mullah {see page 141) enabled a new sketch map of 

 the Black Mountain district to. be compiled on the 1-inch scale. 



Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. — The country between Sikkim, Shigatze, 



and Chetang was traversed by the explorer L , who started from 



Darjeeling in March 1875, with the intention of reaching the Tsanpo 

 and making a route survey along as much of its course as was practi- 

 cable. The direct route from Sikkim to Shigatze had not been 

 previously surveyed, as it crosses a frontier line which is guarded with 

 much jealousy by the Tibetans. Shortly after crossing the Kangra- 

 lama La or Lachen pass he was taken prisoner and sent to Shigatze, 

 where he was kept five months. He was then allowed to join a party 

 of merchants and travelled eastwards to the Yamdok-tso lake, after 

 which he turned northwards and followed the river to Chetang, but 

 was warned that further progress along its banks was useless unless 

 in company with a strong body of men to protect him from the 

 robbers and wild tribes, so he turned southwards and tried to return 

 to India by the route via Tawang taken by Pundit Nain Singh in 

 1874-75. The authorities at the latter place however, stopped his 

 further progress and confined him in the public flour mill. Event- 

 ually he was enabled to return to Darjeeling via Giangtse Jong, 

 Phari, and the Chumbi valley, which had been partially traversed by 

 Captain Turner in 1783. 



But the most remarkable of the journeys made by any of the 



Indian native explorers was that of A k in Great Tibet in 1878- 



82, in the course of which he traversed the entire breadth of the 

 Tibetan plateau from its origin in the Himalayas to where its 

 northernmost spurs die away in the Mongolian deserts, and explored 

 a large tract of unknown ground on the confines of South-Eastern 

 Tibet and Western China. 



A k, whose real name is Krishna or Kishen Singh Milm-wal, is 



by caste a Kawat Bajput, and first cousin to the late Nain Singh, 

 CLE., by whom he was trained. The family have been established 

 for many generations in Milam in Kumaun, where they are held in 

 * See Paget's Record of Expeditions agaiust the N.W. Frontier Tribes ; revised by 

 Lieutenant A. H. Mason. London (Whiting & Co.), 1884. 



