IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
JOHNSON'S ASCENT OF E 61.
243
Yarkand road from the neighbourhood of the Shayok River. He ascended E 61, many miles further to the east, in 1865 in the course of his celebrated journey to Ilchi.»' He also points to the fact that on STEIN'S map in the Geogr. Journal, Dec. 1902, the peak of Johnson, E 61, appears as Murtagh, with an altitude of 23,890 feet.
In the Alpine journal of the same year Dr. Longstaff, entered the question at greater length.2 He reminds us of the fact that W. H. Johnson was a member
of the Indian Survey Staff, and worked, in Kashmir, 186o-65.
Very weighty evidence must be required, therefore, to upset his identification of the actual points which he reached. It is one thing to say of a 'mere mountaineer' that he mistook his position or his peak, and quite another to suggest this of a professional surveyor. As a matter of fact, I believe no one has as yet questioned Johnson's identifications of the peaks he climbed in 1865 from the Kuen-Luen plains.
Longstaff quotes the very favorable opinion of MONTGOMERIE and other authorities (R. G. S.) regarding the important services Johnson had rendered to geography.3 General J. T. WALKER, on the other hand, suppressed the official reference to Johnson's ascent of E 61. It was the statement of Johnson's ascending to 23,890 that was suppressed, but the ascent of the peak was not questioned. The question is, therefore, the height of E 61. Longstaff claims that Johnson indeed has ascended the three Kwen-lun peaks. It is only the altitude of the highest of the three peaks that is disputed.
On his memorable journey, 1900— i 90 I , M. A. STEIN tried in vain to get information about the road to the south, the same by which JOHNSON appeared to
have come.
At the same time the serious and very puzzling discrepancies I discovered between the sketchmap of Mr. Johnson's route and the actual orography of the mountains south of Pisha convinced me that I could not dispense with local guidance. 4
Of this passage Longstaff says:
»He is rather severe (p. 2 I 4) on Johnson's hurried sketch-map of the northern slopes of these ranges, of which he had only had bird's-eye views but bears out Johnson's general description of the country.» However, the height of Johnson's peak was officially accepted as 2 3,890 feet. And it was obvious from Stein's account »that the Kuen-luen Murtagh, the ascent of which by Johnson does not appear to have been disputed, is the culminating point of a range containing six measured peaks of over 23,000 ft.» He concludes: »Until the Kuen-Luen Murtagh is remeasured
' Ibidem, p. 345.
2 A Note on IV. H. Johnsons' Ascents in the Kuen-Luen. Alpine Journal. May 1908, Vol. XXIV, p. 133 et seq.
3 Montgomerie, however, regarded Johnson's survey in this region as merely »a rough sketch». Journ. Roy. Geo. Soc. Vol. 41. I87I, p. I 4o.
4 Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan. London MCMIII, p. 214.
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