Drew, Frederic
The Northern Barrier Of India, A Popular Account ...

The Northern Barrier Of India, A Popular Account of the Jummoo And Kashmir Territories
Publisher: Edward Stanford. First Edition, 8vo, pp VI+X+336+ 2 maps, 26 Plates. All edges gilt. 3 mounted Woodbury types from photos by Frith, 23 engraved ill, folding isometric view, 2 maps in color on one folding sheet. Rebacked. The mounted Woodbury-type photographs are from photographs by Francis Firth and show a group of Dards, Kashmiri Pandits, and Kashmiri Boatmen. A popular account of the Jummoo and Kashmir Territories. Covers the outer hills, city of Jummoo, vegetation, crops.Inhabitants of the outer hills, classification of races, the faiths, villages & towns, places of pilgrimage, origin of the name Dogra. The court of Jummoo: early state, Sikhs, rise of Gulab Singh, cession of Kashmir, present Maharaja, Nazors the festival of Holi, royal marriage. Region of the middle mountains, Bhadarwah, inhabitants, Kishtwar, Padar, Deodarforests, Bhutna. March to Kashmir, an Englishman's camp, Mu-ghal Saraes, Panjal Pass, Sirinagar. Kashmir Gulmarg, Lolab, Sind Valley, Sonamarg, route to Tibet. People of Kashmir:their physique, charactger, cottages, Pandits, Muhammadan pilgrimage, boatman, the women. Siringar & its environs, the name of the city, Mosques & temples, English quarter, garden by the lake. Route to Gilgit, mountain ranges, Kishanganga River, Gurez, Nanga Parbat, the Indus, Bawanji. Gilgit & the frontier: village & fort, products, Punial, extreme boundary & neighbouring states. Dard people, casts, peculiar customs, Buddhists & Mohammadans. Baltistan, Tibetan climate, taking of Skardu, Shigar, Basha, Arandu glacier, K2, Doesai plateauet al. Balti people, polo game, Leh, Ladakh, Plateaus &c."In February 1862, following representations by the British military commander of the Punjab and the mediation of Sir Roderick Murchison, Drew resigned the geological survey to enter the service of the maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Ranbir Singh. He was initially engaged in a mineral reconnaissance of the territories, was then charged with the management of the forest department, and finally, in 1871, was appointed vizier (governor) of the province of Ladakh. In addition, he probably acted unofficially as a British political agent, providing intelligence on a state on India's northern frontier which was considered to be of great strategic importance as a bulwark against Russian expansion. He acquired a detailed knowledge of the geology, topography, and anthropology of the country, which he employed in his major work, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: a Geographical Account (1875), which was written following his return to London in 1872. In 1877 he published an abridged, popular account under the title The Northern Barrier of India" (Oxford DNB). According to Peter Hopkirk, it was Frederic Drew who was in charge of the recovering of George Hayward's body in the Darkot village in the foothills of the Pamir Mountains. Hayward (1839-1870) was a British explorer who had been murdered during his expedition to Pamir, during one of the most tense phases of the Great Game (The Great Game, 2006, p.345-346). "The author made a stay in Kashmir for nine years between 1862 and 1871, and travelled widely in its country. And he discovered how G. Hayward was killed in 1870, and found the burial site" (Yakushi D327).
Size: 17.8 x 12.3 cm 7 x 4.8 inches)
Good condition
Provenance:

Keywords: .