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HISTOEY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. 159 tered, both from the deficiency of those means which are usually considered essential, and from peculiar physical obstaclea The instruments were exposed to all the casualties of a long voyage and journey, and much rough usage. The progress of the survey was also much retarded by natural impediments. For some time, the operations were suspended after the early period of every day, in consequence of avalanches of snow and rock being hurled into the valley as the heat of the sun melted the snow ; and a passage was often to be forced through many obstacles, and along the face of precipitous rocks. There was, especially, one occurrence so diflferent from those which usually cross the calm path of scientific investigation, that it deserves especial notice. It is thus recorded in the " Journal " of May 26, 1817 : — The path to-day was of the worst description, and is on the whole, I think, the most rugged march 1 have hitherto had, though there are not any long ascents. Nothing can be more unpleasant than the passage along the rotten ladders and inclined scaffolds by which the faces and comers of the precipice near Blairag^hati are made. The rest of the way Hes along the side of a very steep mountain, and is strewed with rocks. The ruins of the snowy peaks, which are on all sides, were very grand and wild. Too much tired to attempt to boil mercury in the tubes to-day. At night, having prepared the instruments to take the immersion of one of Jupiter's satellites, we lay down to rest, but between 10 and 1 1 o'clock were awakened by the rocking of the ground ; and on running out saw the effects of an earthquake, and the dreadful situation in which we were pitched, in the. midst of masses of rock, some of them more than a hundred feet in diameter, which had fallen from the cliffs above us, and probably brought down by some former earthquake. The scene around was shewn in all its dangers by the bright moonlight, and was, indeed, very awfuL On the second shock, rocks were hurled in every direction from the peaks around to the bed of the river, with a hideous noise not to be described, and never to be forgotten. After the crash caused by the falls near us had ceased, we could still hear the terrible sounds of heavy falls in the more distant recesses of the mountains. We looked up with dismay at the* cliffs overhead, expecting that the next shock would detach some ruins from them. Had they fallen, we could not have escaped, as the fragments from the summit would have flown over our heads, and we should have been buried by those in the middle. Providen- tially there were no more shocks that night. In the morning, we removed to the left bank of the river. We had the curiosity to measure trigonometrically the height of the cli£ at the foot of which we were during the shock, and found it to be 2,745 feet. The height of the station above the level of the sea appeared by barometic measurement to be about 10,300 feet. Notwithstanding these and other natural obstacles, the enterprising travellers persevered, and on the 31st of May, 1817, reached the point where the Ganges first issues from beneath a vast bed of snow, surrounded by gigantic peaks, in latitude 30 deg. 56. min. 6 sec. north — a spot to which there is no record that any person before had penetrated. The operations for the survey of the peaks of the Himalaya range were. carried on upon a vast scale. One of the principal stations was at an elevation of 12,000 feet, in the regions of perpetual snow : the distance of some of the peaks from the stations at which they were observed exceeded 150 miles; and above twenty of those peaks attain an elevation of between 20,000 and 27,000 feet, including the loftiest known mountains in the world. The results of those labours have become weU known. Four sheets of the Atlaa of India were made from General Hodgson's trigonometrical surveys, and under his immediate superintendence. In the great geographical work of Ritter, his authority is appealed to as definitely fixing the positions which he surveyed. The principal characteristic which marks General Hodgson's surveys is his perseverance under difficulties of no ordinary kind, and his great fertility of resourca His astronomical and geo- metrical observations were made with a delicacy and accuracy which will fuUy bear a comparison with those executed under far more favourable circumstances ; and in every emergency he availed himself of all the means suggested by sound philosophy and practical common sense. There is a series of transit observations made imder his superintendence at Calcutta, and a series of magnetic observations made by him at the same place. General Hodgson was appointed Surveyor-General of India in May, 1821, by Lord Hastings when Governor-General, but not confirmed by the Directors, who considered the patronage to be in their hands. In lieu of this, he was appoiiated Revenue Surveyor-General In 1826, he was Digitized by Google