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| 0335 |
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
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fortunate. At Sánjú one of them was blown down in front of my tent by a sudden violent gust
of wind, and the very next day another, which I had entrusted to the care of Dr. Bellew, was,
on account of the length of the march, given to a horseman to carry: the horse fell in cross-
ing a river and No. 2 was smashed. The third survived, and regular observations were taken
with it throughout the winter in Yárkand. It too was broken on the return journey, its carrier
falling with it in a stream.
I was also provided with numerous aneroid barometers, hypsometers and thermometers.
The latter I had specially made to order in England, as none that I could procure in India were
graduated low enough to register the minimum temperature to be expected in the higher ranges
of the Himalayas. As was to be anticipated in a journey like ours, very many of these have been
broken; loose horses getting at night amongst the tent ropes, and in the extreme cold weather
even inside the tent, have much to answer for.
While at Dehra Dún* prior to starting I was occupied in making myself familiar with the
instruments I was about to take with me, and in practising the observations I should probably
chiefly be dependent on; in drawing up and getting lithographed portable and compact forms
for registration and computation of observations, and other miscellaneous preparatory work.
I prepared a large number of sheets with all the most northerly points fixed by the Great
Trigonometrical Survey on the frontier of India projected thereon, as well as the latest
determinations of the Russian survey; in order that by whichever route we might go
or return, or wherever we might wander, I might lose nothing for want of previous prepara-
tion. These charts were not of so much service to me as I had hoped, as wherever there
was a chance that they might be utilized, the vicissitudes of the climate, and the rapidity
with which we had to travel, invariably interposed to prevent my making full use of them.
Colonel Walker also designed, and had prepared and photozincographed, a star chart, projected
on a new principle, showing only stars of the first three magnitudes, nautical almanac stars
being distinguished from all others. I found this chart a very valuable practical guide while
observing.
On Sir Douglas Forsyth's application to Colonel Walker four of the Great Trigonometri-
cal Survey "Pundits," or rather two of the old Pundits with two assistants, were attached
to the Mission, as it was hoped that an opening would occur for the despatch of these men
from Eastern Turkestan across the Gobi Desert and through Thibet to Hindustan. It was
not deemed advisable however to employ them thus, and when the Mission advanced from
Yárkand to Káshghar it was necessary to leave them in Yárkand. Permission was given,
however, for one of them to follow me to Káshghar, and he did useful work, of which more
hereafter. The remainder were employed in Yárkand during the winter in taking meteoro-
logical observations.
Road to Yarkand.
For a few marches from Leh, in every direction, the country has been carefully and
correctly surveyed and mapped in former years by parties of the Great Trigonometrical Survey
under Major Montgomerie, R.E., but between this rigorously executed survey (bounded on the
north by the head waters of the Núbra and Shyok, and on the north-east by the Ling-zi-
thung plains) and the table-lands of Turkestan, lie vast tracts of mountainous country, parts of
which, through the enterprise, zeal, and energy of Messrs. Shaw, Hayward, and Johnson, have
been mapped with tolerable accuracy, while other parts have probably never yet been traversed
by man, certainly not by geographers. It was my object to weld together as far as possible
the existing materials into a harmonious whole and to add whatever I could to existing data.
It had been decided that the Mission should proceed to Sháhidúla in two parties, the head-
quarters going by the old Kárákoram route, whilst a detached party, consisting of Captain
Biddulph (in command), Dr. Stoliczka, and myself, was directed to proceed vid Changchenmo
by the route by which the former Mission returned from Yárkand in 1870, and as we had
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714
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