1 Published BooksJohn Wood
John Wood (1812 – 14 November 1871) was a Scottish naval officer, surveyor, cartographer and explorer, principally remembered for his exploration of central Asia.
After schooling at Perth Academy, he joined the British Indian Navy and soon demonstrated a flair for surveying. Many of the maps of southern Asia which he compiled remained standard for the rest of the nineteenth century.
In 1835, aged twenty-two, he commanded the first steamboat to paddle up the Indus River and surveyed the river as he went. Four years later, he led an expedition up the Pamir River to Lake Zorkul ("Wood's Lake"), which he took to be the source of River Oxus. He was the first European in the Pamir Mountains since Bento de Goes, and it was Wood who introduced the term "Roof of the World" for the Pamirs. The Royal Geographical Society recognised his work by awarding the 29-year-old "Lieutenant John Woods" its Patron's Medal in 1841 "for his journey to the source of the Oxus and for valuable labours on the Indus". [wikipedia]
