102 WAUGH ON MOUNTS EVEREST AND DEODANGA. [Jan. 11, 1858. 
The second Paper read was : — 
2. On Mounts Everest and Deodanga. By Lieutenant- Colonel Andrew 
Scott Waugh, f.r.g.s., &c., ( Gold Medallist , r.g.s.) 
Communicated by Col. W. H. Sykes, m.p., v.p.r.g.s., &c. 
Surveyor-General's Field Office, Dhera Dhun, 
5th August, 1857. 
My dear Thuillier, — In my letter No. 29, of 1st March, 1856, 
communicating the results of our calculations for the position and 
height of No. XY. in my list of Himalayan peaks, I stated my 
reasons for deciding to call this peak “ Mount Everest.” 
At the August meeting, last year, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 
you were good enough to communicate the results regarding “ Mount 
Everest ” in an interesting address delivered by yourself. The facts 
having been thus promulgated, Mr. Hodgson endeavoured, in the 
Journal of the Asiatic Society, to establish the identity of Mount 
Everest with Deodanga, &c. The arguments adduced for this pur- 
pose were so palpably conjectural, resting on hearsay evidence 
alone, that I thought it needless to refute them, as their fallacious 
character was apparent to any person competent to understand the 
subject. The true geographical latitude and longitude of Deo- 
danga are unknown to Mr. Hodgson, or even its true bearing and 
distance from any locality which can be recognised as a fixed point 
of departure. Its height also is unknown. All these data are 
elements necessary to the identification of that mountain. The 
physiognomical contour of a mountain is a very uncertain test, 
because it changes with every mutation of aspect ; but even this test 
is wanting in Mr. Hodgson’s case, as he has never seen Deodanga. 
In April last my attention was drawn to another communication 
made by Mr. Hodgson to the Asiatic Society, from which it appears 
that he has taken steps to put the subject in what appears to me a 
very unfair light before the Boyal Asiatic Society, as well as to 
have his conclusions on a point of great ambiguity promulgated as 
certainties in journals of extensive circulation : under these circum- 
stances I considered that it would be satisfactory to scientific men that 
the grounds on which the supposed identity of Deodanga was made 
to rest should be examined and discussed. In my judgment the 
only proper way of doing this is to lay the whole of the documentary 
materials before a Geographical Committee composed of geometricians 
of experience and capacity, competent to deal with such investiga- 
tions ; with this view I issued the Departmental Orders annexed. 
Of the five officers to whom this duty was assigned, four have now 
delivered their reports ; the fifth, Lieutenant Montgomerie of the 
Engineers, is at present difficult to communicate with, being absent 
