The Great Arc (19 page)

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