This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX C THE NARRATIVES OF THE PUNDITS I Think it desirable, for various reasons, to reprint the following extracts from the Official Reports of the natives employed by the Indian Survey, who were, since Sir Joseph Hooker, my only predecessors in the Nepalese valleys of Kangchenjunga. It affords me pleasure to give to these brave and intelligent men the full credit they deserve for their bold spirit of adventure and their remarkable powers of topographical and general observation. Their narratives are valuable as contributions to our knowledge not only of the country traversed but also of the people of the district, their way of living, and their beliefs. Indeed, it is in this respect, as general observers even more than as cartographers, that I am disposed to estimate highly such men as Sarat Chandra Das and Rinsing. As mapmakers they have their obvious limitations; though Rinsing, had his work been interpreted by draughtsmen skilled in mountain delineation, might have furnished much more new detail to our government maps than he has succeeded in doing. I should like also, in order to avoid the possible misapprehension of certain necessary comments, to say here that as regards mountains and mountaineering I regard the stories of the Pundits' adventures as essentially 'true tales'--from their point of view. So long as his official superiors are loose in the use of the technical terms of orography it can be held but small blame to a native if he employs such words as glacier and crevasse in the wrong places. That these explorers were capable of considerable feats of physical strength is clear. To carry his employer on his back up the last slope of Mont Blanc is a feat that, as far as I know, no Chamoniard has ever attempted. These hardy...