Letter to the Editor

Publication Year: 1955.

December 17, 1954.

Dear Sir:

Ever since Mt. Everest was determined to be the highest known point on the earth’s surface, its elevation, as published by responsible and irresponsible sources, has fluctuated alarmingly from the figure computed by the authority best qualified to speak on the matter, the Survey of India.

It is refreshing, therefore, to note that in November, 1954, the Survey of India, in announcing the result of three years of careful observations from a number of stations within 20 to 40 miles of the mountain, established the official height of Mt. Everest as 29,028 feet. The probable error is considered not to exceed 10 feet.

Let us hope for wider and more permanent acceptance of this elevation than was accorded the Survey’s original figure, only 26 feet lower.

Yours very sincerely,

Walter A. Wood.