The Great Arc: The dramatic tale of how India was mapped and Everest named by
John Keay, HarperCollins, 拢14.99, ISBN 0002570629
QUEEN Victoria鈥檚 empire builders had a slogan: 鈥淭rade follows the flag.鈥� But
everything happened in reverse when they got to India. It was only after the
East India Company had set up its mercantile empire that Britain pushed on with
conquest. And following that army came another to measure the territorial booty.
British surveyors and mappers swarmed over India, to the bewilderment of
multitudes of Indians.
Two men, William Lambton and George Everest, took on the first and most
arduous task of setting up a system of triangulation鈥攁 line across the
land from which all other measurements could be derived. To do this they had to
trace a 2560-kilometre 鈥淕reat Arc鈥� across India, from the southernmost tip
at Cape Comorin to the Himalayas in the north. In his book The Great
Arc John Keay relates this stupendous tale with admiration.
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While equally determined in their task, Lambton and Everest were very
different, the former quiet, unassuming and tenacious, and Everest hot-tempered,
imperious, but just as tenacious. As Keay puts it: 鈥淐olonel Lambton beguiled
India; but Lieutenant George Everest, his eager new assistant, chastised
颈迟.鈥�
Keays introduces Everest first, quelling a mutiny in an Indian escort, a
curtain-raiser to the scientific adventure that follows.
Lambton is next. He was supported by Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of
Wellington, then campaigning in India. Lambton more or less vanished for 20
years. The only signs of life were occasional reports in journals.
The difficulties were immense, complicated by disease, heat, poor transport
and war. The 鈥淕reat鈥� Theodolite, a desperately needed instrument, was sent out
on a ship from England which was then captured by the French. Amazingly, when
recognised as a scientific instrument, the French politely sent it on to Madras
with a complimentary letter.
Lambton was tubercular and died far short of his goal in 1823, after drinking
a pint of Madeira. The fever-wracked Everest had joined a few years before. The
Arc was incomplete and the worst stretch lay ahead. Everest proceeded to tackle
this with his customary energy and spleen.
Keay writes affectionately of the fuming, anxious Everest, alternately
excoriating his assistants (鈥淵ou all seem to me to be right stark staring mad鈥�)
and complimenting them. The achievement was a brilliant one: the Arc鈥檚
measurements were accurate over its length to a few centimetres.
This is a marvellous tale well told: it couldn鈥檛 have been done better.