George Everest spent much of the first half of the 19th century surveying
India. Dogged triangulation by the benighted colonel the Indians called “Kumpass
Wala” virtually covered the entire subcontinent. But the most intriguing
revelation in Everest, J. R. Smith’s austere biography of an austere life, is
that almost the only geographical feature he never saw was the mountain that
bears his name. Published by Whittles, £37.50, ISBN 1870325729.
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