who holds more authority-not only spiritual, but even temporal-over a vast number of followers in the Upper Oxus States, in Kashmir, in Burmah, and, I believe, even in China, than the constituted rulers of those countries can pretend to exercise. From the far-off Pamir every Maulai feels himself bound to subscribe from his scanty means towards a yearly tribute to his spiritual lord; and across the snowy passes which lie between Central Asia and India this tribute is carried and delivered, regardless of the difficulties which for many stages beset the embassies on their journeys.

In the Encyclopædia Britannica the Shiah sect is treated of in great detail, giving an almost exhaustive account of their history. They were originally simply the partisans of Ali and his descendants. Even in the lifetime of Ali an effort had been made to adore him as an incarnation of the Deity, and in Persia they became divided into several sects, each holding for one or other of the descendants of Ali, and paying him the reverence due to a deity; and we may suppose that the before-mentioned Persian Prince residing in Bombay, and largely given to horse-racing in Western India-in fact, a patron of the Indian turf-is one of the descendants of the original saints so commonly regarded in olden times by the Persians as a person of the greatest sanctity. But the Maulais, as a distinct sect, appear in no published record to have been treated as if they possessed any political weight whatever.

The Persian Prince above alluded to receives adulation, and I believe more substantial recognition, from even the rulers themselves of the Upper Oxus States-those princes who claim descent from Alexander the Great, but who within the past few years have passed under the rapacious rule of the tyrant of Afghanistan. Under one pretext or other the leading and most influential of the Upper Oxus Princes have been made away with by the Ameer, and the rest must inevitably meet their fate at the hands of our Afghan ally, whose hands are steeped with the blood of every man of note in his dominions whom he might consider to have been in the least degree inimical to his rule; but such subjects as these, which perhaps verge on Asiatic politics, I must pass over as being other than geographical, and will conclude my remarks on the Shiahs by pointing out the marked difference they exhibit when contrasted with the Sunis and considered as possible subjects of the Queen, and especially in relation to their behaviour to travellers who may go amongst them in search of geographical knowledge.

The Shiahs evince little or no fanatical hatred to us as Kaffirs, and they will more readily allow us our little foibles in the way of eating ham and drinking wine than is permitted by the Sunis. They are, in fact, more get-at-able than the latter, and it seems therefore a pity that Asiatic-British subjects of this sect number so very few families.

The Sunis of Kashmir, a quiet, long-suffering people, have a considerable liking for the English, chiefly, I suppose, because we stand out in such a pleasing contrast against the oppressive and exacting ruling Hindu class. In Gilgit, also, we are well thought of; but in the Indus Valley, round Chilas, amongst a people whom we have never moved, our name carries no authority. So little regard is paid to our prestige that,

once when Colonel Biddulph had occasion to send some of his baggage over the Indus to Gilgit by the Chilas route, the goods were all sent back by the way they had been brought, with a message that the Chilasis were an independent people, who took no note of the authority of any ruler whatever. Lower down, on the Kaghán border, the tribes of the Indus Valley attacked a survey party under Mr. Scott, who escaped only after making a gallant resistance against great odds. Lower down, again, occur the Miranzais, a Pathan tribe, who have only just during the past year met their deserts from the rifles of our forces. The Indus Valley, with its numerous branch streams which join the main river between Nanga Parbat and the Black Mountain on the Peshawar border, is peopled by a number of interesting clans, of whom we know little beyond what we may learn from one of our trained explorers' reports, published many years back. They are all Sunis and mostly inveterate raiders, and, notwithstanding the repeated punishments inflicted on them year after year, will remain so for ages to come.

On the Indus the Baltis are the only Shiah Mohammedans. They of all mountaineers may be considered the most hardy and enduring under privations that few other human beings could live through. Of small physique, they are excellent mountaineers, and will carry loads over tracks but barely passable for a goat. Ill clad and poorly fed, they endure cheerfully the cold of winter or the great heats of summer. Employed in Simla, and on other hill stations, they give but little trouble to the police, notwithstanding that sometimes many hundreds may be encamped together for months at a time. The Baltis have been classed amongst the Tibetans. I believe many of them are Maulais. Their language may perhaps be a patois of Tibetan, but nothing appears to be known of it. Rondu, a town of Baltistan, is at any rate a Tibetan word; Ron, or Rong, meaning "precipitous," from the great cliffs through which the Indus flows at this place. Iskardu, or Skardu, the fruit-garden of the Indus Valley, is also a part of Baltistan, and the name is Tibetan.

Buddhists now demand for a short time our attention. In the Himalayas they occupy perhaps one-fourth or one-sixth of the habitable area of the mountain chains drained by those rivers eastward of Kashmir, which flow directly into Hindustan; and though the great mass of Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhists remain persistently aloof from us, yet little by little our frontier officers are becoming acquainted with the ways, and, in one or two instances, with the language of these interesting races. The Buddhists of Sikkim go to our schools, where they readily acquire the knowledge the masters are able to impart; and the friendly manner in which travellers in Sikkim are treated leads one to hope that, so far as these people at least are concerned, we shall soon know all that is interesting regarding them and their ways of life, if we have not already learnt it. It is the same with the Buddhists of Lahaul and Spiti, who have been long under the ken of able observers, who, from time to time, have published interesting and complete notices of the people who inhabit these highly mountainous tracts. But with regard to the semiBuddhist classes who skirt Tibet on the north, and the Hindu population on the south, this cannot be said. Some of these peoples are indeed

separated from us by the wide belt of the Nipal and Bhutan territories, through which we cannot hope to explore what lies behind, and those tribes with whom we are almost in touch are nevertheless situated so far away from us, that our British officials can spare but a very short period amongst them, and then only at long intervals of time. Mr. Drew, in his standard work, gives much exact information of the tribes who lie along the northern frontier of Kashmir, but the semi-Buddhist tribes now spoken of do not extend so far to the west as to be embraced in his work; and in no other publication that I am aware of are they even mentioned, though, in saying this, I confess that I have not searched through the available records so as to make such a statement authoritatively.

Along the north of Kumaon, a British district of N.-W. Provinces, one may meet one of the clans now spoken of, and round the highly picturesque villages of Budi and Garbiang these interesting and friendly people may be studied at leisure, in a climate which leaves nothing to be desired and amidst some of the grandest features of nature.

Here the people, even in this age, are so unaccustomed to the visits of Europeans, that the inhabitants-men, women, and children-will follow you about, pleased at the evident interest taken in their ways. Without wishing to be rude, and with no idea of intruding on your privacy, they will sit round your tent watching every movement. Every one of them is ready to fetch and carry for you, and, in such broken Hindustani as they can command, ready to reply to any questions you may put. A small looking-glass which I happened to possess was passed by the women from hand to hand, and a group remained for hours arranging their hair and freely passing comments on their own personal appearance, when, for the first time in their lives, examining themselves in my very minute mirror. The headmen are said to have amassed considerable wealth in the transport of borax, which for several generations has been carried through their country to India.

At Budi I witnessed the interesting funeral ceremonies of one of the inhabitants a two days' affair-including the graceful sword and scarf dance by the men and women, and the hunting and subsequent despatch of a domestic yak, which, after being chased about under volleys of abuse, was speared and eaten. The idea was, that, by heaping indignities on the yak, the departed old woman would presently obtain, in the world to which she had been transferred, that rest and quiet which, as a dweller on earth, had been denied her.

The two villages inhabited by the semi-Buddists are the last towards the east that are accessible to Europeans, for here commences Nipal, which, for five hundred miles, occurs along the Himalayas, till at Sikkim we meet with the friendly people, who may be visited in their villages and in their monasteries, where even casual visitors will be entertained by the monks sitting in conclave with the abbot, if I may so call the head priest. These, in return for the hospitality they entertain you with, will receive any trifling present with thanks, and will pass you on to the next Gonpa or monastery, after having done all in their power to enliven your stay with music or dancing, and the drummers will escort you out of their lands far towards the next stage of your journey.

VOL. VII.

2 T

THE MAPPING OF THE WORLD.

BY JOHN GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S.

'PART IV. -NORTH AMERICA.

(With a Map.)

IN the United States and Canada surveying and mapping have within recent years made more rapid progress than in almost any other part of the World. Notwithstanding this, it is to be regretted that no complete systematic topographical survey has yet been organised. In most countries the topographical survey is carried out under military direction, and results in a scientifically correct survey of all the land surface-features, physical and artificial-a map which is thus a reliable basis for all other special surveys. This, as a rule, is the best and quickest method in the long-run. In the United States and Canada, however, time could not at first be found for this thorough survey. Special maps were hurriedly prepared to meet specified wants-the Division of Lands, the War Office, the Boundaries Commission, and other State Departments. Thus, various surveys were commenced, each to meet special requirements, but as a rule regardless of general utility, unsystematic, and incomplete. In 1885, Captain Wheeler, of the U.S. Army Engineers Corps, submitted to his Government an able and exhaustive report on the surveys of the World, and therein proposed a scheme for a complete and uniform topographic survey of the States, to be carried out by the War Department; but this proposal has not yet been adopted. In the meantime the chief topographic and trigonometric survey of the United States is being carried out on a less ambitious scale in conjunction with, and under the direction of, the Geological Survey. The work of this Survey has until recently been for the most part confined to outlying and comparatively thinly-settled regions that were previously little known. Consequently, as will be seen from the accompanying sketch-map, the territories in the "Wild West," which not long ago were almost unexplored, are now better mapped than many of the densely-populated centres of civilisation in the east. The publications of this Survey, under the direction of Major Powell, are noted in Division I. of my list of United States maps. The maps are issued on three scales-viz. 1 : 62,500, or slightly less than one mile to an inch; 1: 125,000, or about two miles to an inch; and 1: 250,000, or about four miles to an inch. The large scale is used for the settled and populous regions, and the smaller scales for the mountainous regions and thinly-populated territories. Of the 162,500 scale, 197 sheets are now issued; of the 1:125,000 scale, 195 sheets; and of the 1: 250,000 scale, 65 sheets. Prior to the establishment of the Geological Survey as the official map of the United States various organisations were in operation in regions west of the Mississippi, known as the "Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories" (Div. II. in list); “The Rocky Mountain Region"; and "Geological Exploration of the Black Hills" (Div. III.). Under the War Department (Div. VI.) was "The

Geographical Survey of the Territory West of the 100th Meridian " and the "Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel." The other trigonometrical surveys are "The Hydrographical Survey of the Great Northern Lakes," "1 now finished; "The Topographical Survey of the Mississippi River," also finished; and "The Hydrographical Survey of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts" (including Alaskan), now nearly complete. Among other surveys of a much less topographical character than the foregoing may be mentioned some of the separate State Surveys, the Land Office, and the Post Office, Maps. I may here mention that, in estimating the value of most of these American survey maps, it must be borne in mind that, although in many cases on fairly large scales, for exactness of topographic detail they cannot be compared with European

surveys.

Canadian surveys are mostly confined to the subdivision of Crown lands, and, with the exception of a minor triangulation, a few latitude and longitude observations, with reconnaissance surveys, the work consists simply in establishing standard and meridian lines, townships, and sections. The Geological Survey under Dr. Selwyn has, however, done much to amplify the maps of the Crown Lands Department. Its valuable topographical work is best shown, in the special geological maps of Cape Breton Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Eastern Quebec, now in progress. Most of its map publications appear in monographs and reports. The Hydrographic surveys of Capt. Bayfield in the St. Lawrence Basin (1850), and of the British Admiralty on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, including Newfoundland, are at present the basis of most maps. Among incidental contributions to the mapping of the country may be mentioned the maps of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In Canada, at present, there are still large tracts in the north, north-west, and northeast that are altogether unexplored.

Mexico is now to be congratulated upon having fairly commenced a Topographical Survey of her territories, although as yet only three sheets are published. Otherwise the present maps of the country, excepting a special topographical survey of the State of Puebla, are merely reconnaissance surveys, with some coast charts. For the Central American States there are no general topographical surveys, and the maps are all more or less sketchy and incomplete. The survey by the United States Government for the proposed Nicaragua Canal is one of the most important pieces of work yet accomplished.

In the West Indies there are also no general topographical surveys, and the maps of the islands are for the most part based on charts, supplemented by reconnaissance and land-division surveys.

Summarising the mapping of North America, it will be seen from the following table that, although rapid progress has been made, yet only about 15 per cent. of the land-surface can be said to be even fairly well surveyed, compared with about 91 per cent. of topographical surveys in Europe :

1 These Coast Survey Maps are only mentioned in my list in cases where they have not been incorporated in other published maps.