GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES IN UNINHABITED REGIONS AND THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE MOUNT EVEREST MAP

Abstract

(I) The deserts of India and Baluchistan.—In the eastern half of the Great Indian Desert there are rock-outcrops projecting above the sand at in tervals averaging twenty miles; these have been landmarks for travellers for centuries, and consequently they all have native names. In the western desert there are no outcrops and no objects to name; but the desert nomads and the camel-breeders do have names for vague undefined areas, which seem to move as the sandhills move. The rock-outcrops in Baluchistan are larger and more numerous, and many are consequently without Baluchi names. Nothing would have been gained from inventing names; names are for use, not for show, and the desert people know their own requirements. It is better on a map to limit the nomenclature to the names that have been born of the people and that have stood the test of time than to supplement them with fictitious names. Survey stations on unnamed hills are therefore generally designated by symbols such as B45.