Authors: John Keay
The
Quarterly Review’s
critique of Colebrooke’s paper appears in its July 1817 issue in Vol. XVII; its retraction is tucked away in a review of Alexandre de Humboldt’s
Sur l’Elevation des Montagnes de l’Inde
in the January 1820 issue in Vol.
XXII. For Playfair’s review of Lambton’s work see the
Edinburgh Review
of July 1813 in Vol. XXI. And for James Prinsep’s account of the Calcutta base-line see
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
, Vol. 1 (Calcutta, 1832).
Most of the Everest extracts are from his
An Account of an Arc of the Meridian
(London, 1830),
An Account of a Measurement of Two Sections of a Meridional Arc
(2 vols, London, 1847) and
A Series of Letters Adressed to HRH the Duke of Sussex
(London, 1839). These contain Everest’s own, not impartial accounts of his work. They have been supplemented by reference to Phillimore’s extracts from his correspondence in the Survey’s archives.
The bicentenary of Everest’s birth in 1990 occasioned a couple of symposia which resulted in the Survey of India’s
Souvenir of the Birth Centenary of Col. Sir George Everest
(Dehra Dun, 1990) and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’
Colonel Sir George Everest: A Celebration of the Bi-centenary of his Birth
(London, 1990). Papers on the life of Everest by J.R. Smith, on the triangulation of the Cape of Good Hope by Colin Martin and Roger Fisher, and on map-making policy in India by Matthew Edney were found particularly relevant.
On an earlier occasion, the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, a useful summary of the ‘Heights and Names of Mount Everest and Other Peaks’ by J. de Graaff-Hunter appeared in
Occasional Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society
, No. 15, October 1953.
Other works which proved helpful include: Simon Berthon and Andrew Robinson,
The Shape of the World
(London, 1991); Matthew Edney,
Mapping an Empire: The Geography of India
(London, 1997); J. Howard Gore,
Geodesy
(London, 1891); Arthur R. Hinks,
Maps and Survey
(Cambridge, 1913); Kenneth Mason,
Abode of Snow
(London, 1955); W.A. Seymour (ed.),
A History of the Ordnance Survey
(London, 1980); R. Smyth and H.L. Thuillier,
A Manual of Surveying for India
(Calcutta, 1851); John Noble Wilford,
The Mapmakers
(London, 1981).
Finally, some details have been drawn from three of my own books:
India Discovered
(London, 1981 and 1993), on Mackenzie and the early surveys;
The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company
(London and New York, 1991), on the political background; and
When Men and Mountains Meet
(London, 1977), reprinted in
The Explorers of the Western Himalayas
(London, 1996), on the Kashmir Survey.
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Achola 84–5
Agra 43, 81, 90, 127
extension of Great Arc beyond 106, 117
provisional limit of Great Arc 18, 75, 82, 98
surveyed 130–1
Akbar, Emperor 130–1
Andes 39, 46, 47, 49, 115
Andhra Pradesh 1
Anglo-Maratha wars 42–3
Anglo-Mysore Wars 19, 20, 22–3, 51
Anglo-Nepalese treaty 42
Anglo-Nepali War,
see
Gurkha War
Ararat, Mount 39
Arcadia 143, 145, 157
Armstrong, John 144, 164–5
Asiatic Society of Bengal 39, 40, 47, 107, 167, 169
Asiatick Researches
20, 156, 173
Assam 160
Assaye, battle of 42
astronomical observation 8–9, 27, 48, 69–70, 82, 154–5
Astronomical Circles 151, 154
observatories 7, 70, 154
Zenith Sectors 29, 70, 73, 96, 118
Baird, General David 22
Bangalore 52, 54–5, 59–60, 73
barometers 118–19, 124
base-lines 8–9, 28, 54, 59, 98–100, 104, 107–8, 116, 122–3, 139, 143–4, 150–2, 153, 161–2
height measurements 33–5
length measurements 30, 31, 33, 55
Begampet 6
Bengal 21, 22, 23, 42, 105, 106, 108, 162
Bengal Survey 38–9, 41, 43
Berar 95, 96
Betwa river 98
Bhagalpur 40, 46
Bhataona 147–8
Bhopal 97
Bhutan 38–9, 40, 42
Bidar 74, 95, 153, 154–5
Bihar 21, 41, 42–3, 164
Boileau, Capt. Alexander 128, 131–2
Bombay 21, 42, 82, 85
Bombay Longitudinal Series 82, 84, 89, 99, 104, 106, 158
Brittany 59
Bulandshahar 147
Calcutta 21, 23, 29, 42, 82, 107, 108
base-line 104, 106–8, 122, 127, 160, 174
Survey headquarters in 109, 141–2
Calcutta Longitudinal Series 82, 104–6, 109, 135, 136, 160
Calcutta Meridional Series 163
Canada 19, 24, 32
Cape of Good Hope 87
Cary, William 30, 72
Cassini family 24
Cawnpore (Kanpur) 45
Chambal river 148
Chimborazo 39, 115
cholera 80
Chomo Lhari 38–40
Chorakullee 86, 89
Chur, The 113–14, 117, 118–21, 123, 138, 143, 153, 162
Clark, William xix
Clive, Lord Robert 38
Coimbatore 60
Colby, Thomas 103
Colebrooke, Charlotte 44–5
Colebrooke, Henry 40–1, 43, 46–9, 59, 114–15, 163, 173
Colebrooke, Robert 40–1, 43–6, 47–8, 53, 63, 115, 159, 173
Comorin, Cape (Kanya Kumari) 9, 60, 154
compensation bars 103–4, 107–8, 143–4, 151, 153, 161
Crawford, Charles 35–8, 41, 46, 47, 166, 173
Darjeeling 159, 163–4
Dateri 147
Davis, Samuel 76
Deccan plateau 86
Dehra Dun 29, 49, 141–2, 143, 144, 152, 157
De La Caille, Abbé 87–8
Delambre, Jean-Baptiste 76
Delhi 21, 42, 43, 81, 106, 127, 128, 135–6
de Penning, Joe 68
de Penning, Joshua: background 69
family of 68, 95
heads Calcutta office 95, 109, 142, 144
fieldwork 85, 89–90, 96
relations with Everest 85, 94–5, 156–7
resignation 94–5, 97
Desideri, Ippolito 38
Dharoor 86, 89
Dhaulagiri 46–7, 48, 124, 163
Dinwiddie, Dr 29, 30, 71, 151
Dove, Charles 135
droogs
51–3, 129
Dun 137, 140–1
Everest’s baseline 143–6, 152, 160–2
Herbert’s base-line 122, 143
Hodgson’s base-line 116–17, 143
earth: composition of 27–8, 73, 121
curvature of xix, 25–7, 69–70, 71, 87, 140, 154–5
East India Company 20–1, 76, 102, 106
Ecuador 26, 39
Edinburgh Review
75, 174
elephants 5, 44, 53, 127, 137
Ellichpur (Achalpur) 95, 96–7
Everest, George xxi, 34, 71
on accident to Great Theodolite 62–4, 66
appearance 92, 171
appointed to Survey 10, 18, 64, 68, 75–6
background 10, 106
death 172
fieldwork 1–13, 80, 84–7, 96–9, 127, 128–38, 150–2, 154
on Garhwal survey 124
home leave 101–4
house of,
see
Hathipaon
honours xx, 102, 171
ill health 12–14, 78, 95–6, 99, 101, 146, 151
as innovator 84, 87–9, 97, 128
on Lambton 67, 77–8
marriage 171
mental breakdown 99, 152, 153
mountain named after xvii, 14–15, 166–7, 171
personality of 3–4, 11, 14–15, 64, 69, 94, 100, 109, 134, 145–6, 150, 152
portraits of 92, 141
relations with Indians 148, 170
relations with Lambton 75, 77, 85
relations with staff 69, 93–5, 99–101, 134–7, 142, 156–7
reports of 58, 80, 84, 138, 155, 156, 174
retirement 156, 171–2
scientific papers 172
as Superintendent of G.T. Survey 70, 83, 93–4, 142–3
as Surveyor-General 102, 103, 109, 141–2, 166
unpopularity of 94, 169
Everest, Mount: height ascertained 164–7, 168
naming of xvii, 15, 166–7, 168–71
Faraday, Michael 171
Fatehpur Sikri 130, 131
flares 131–2
France 22, 24, 26, 59, 61, 76
Academy of Sciences 76
‘Frances’ 68, 78
Ganges, river 43, 44–5, 63, 109, 128, 140
Gangetic delta 105
Gangetic plain 75, 81–2, 98, 105, 117, 127, 159
sources of 115, 116, 120
Gangotri 125
Garhwal 49, 116, 123–5, 127, 159, 173
Garling, Lt James 80
geodesy xix, 24, 26, 34, 56, 65, 71, 73, 76, 87–8, 121–2, 154–5
Ghats 57
Godavari river 1, 6, 11, 12, 97
see also
Kistna-Godavari region
Gogra river 44
gopurams
61–2
Gorakhpur 44, 46
Great Arc of the Meridian 9
completion of 108, 139, 146–7, 150, 152, 156
and Himalayas 49–50
as Lambton’s brain-child xix, 14, 18, 23–4, 27–8, 49
map of xv
significance of xix–xxi, 14, 81
Great Theodolite 72, 96, 105, 148
accidents and repairs to 62–4, 66, 101
overhaul 108
rebuilding of 101, 138
shipping of 30, 31–2
transport of 54
Great Trigonometrical Survey of India 3, 124, 127, 143, 156
beginning of 28
casualty rates 7, 80, 159
cost 7, 81, 83
and Great Arc 9
grid-iron system 83–4, 105, 108–9, 158, 160
and imperialism xix–xx, 83–4, 170
local reactions to 52–3, 148–9, 170
meridional series 159
official designation of 74
priority of 44, 102–3
reappraisal of 81
recalculations 71–2, 153
reorganisation 109–10
scale of 73–4
staff of 68–9, 93–6, 103, 144
survey methods 6–9, 10–11
survey parties 53–4, 72
Greenwich 9
ground measurements 8, 23, 28–9, 30–1, 33, 43, 55, 122
Gurkha (Anglo-Nepali) War 49, 115–16
Gwalior 127, 149–50
Haidar Ali 22
Haramukh 168
Hathipaon 111–13, 116, 138, 140–3, 151, 152, 156–7, 162
Havell, William 78
Hedin, Sven 170
height measurements 33–6
Herbert, James 121–6, 128, 143, 159, 163, 173
Himalayas 15, 21, 81, 105, 106, 110, 116, 138, 159
base-line 143–4
early accounts of 38–9
early surveys 116–25
Everest’s survey 113–14, 139, 144
foothills 43, 127
and Great Arc xviii, 15
heights of peaks 25, 35–42, 45–50, 59, 76, 82, 114–16, 123–6, 160–8
map of 161
Hindustan 96, 99, 117, 127, 128
Hinganghat 16–17, 58, 90, 93
Hodgson, Brian 169
Hodgson, Capt. John 116–23, 125, 127, 140, 143, 159, 163, 173
Hoshangabad 97
Hughli river 107
Humboldt, Alexander von 124, 173
Hyderabad 2, 9, 68, 117, 153
casualty rate in 80–1
Everest in 2–15, 18, 64, 136, 150
Nizam of 2, 60, 69, 74
relocation of 70