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RAKIPOSHI, OR DEVIL'S TAIL

FROM A PAINTING BY COLONEL H.C. B. TANNER

MOUNTAIN (25,550 FEET HIGH) IN HUNZA NAGAR

iN DAN 3S UR. OE Yes,

BY Rp ee

CHARLES E. D. BLACK.

aee

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF HER MAJESTY’S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR
INDIA IN COUNCIL.

LONDON:
SoLtp By
E. A. ARNOLD, 37, Beprorp Street, Stranp, W.C.
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & Co., 14, Partiament Street, S.W.

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & Co., LIMITED, Patrrnostrer House,
CuHarina Cross Roap, W.C.

HENRY S. KING & Co., 65, CornutLi, H.C.
LUZAC & Co., 46, Grear RusseLy Srreer, W.C.

B. QUARITCH, 15, Prccapitxy, W. ;
AND
EDWARD STANFORD, 26 anv 27, Cockspur Srtkerr, Caarine Cross, S.W.
1891,

Price Seven Shillings and Siapence.

cad

Printed by Eyre 4
Majatye ea

Her

NDON

Wawa
ClO2NT LE HON TS:
Page
PREFACE - = = = - = - - Vv
CONTENTS :
I. Indian Marine Surveys, First Period, 1875-82 C - - 1
IJ. Indian Marine Surveys, Second Period, 1882-90 - © - 18
Ill. Great Trigonometrical Survey of India - = = - 38
IV. Topographical Surveys - - : - - - 67
V. Revenue Surveys - = - - - : - 100
VI. Geographical Surveys and Explorations — - - - - 128
VII. Afghan Boundary Commission - = 5 c liz,
VIII. Tidal and Levelling Observations - © - ° = gs
IX. Geodetic Observations - = = ; - 209
X. Supply of Scientific Instruments - - - - - 216
XI. Head Quarters of Survey Department 5 - = - 221
XII. Geological Survey of India - - = - - 236
XITI. Indian Meteorology - - - © - - = 280
XIV. Statistical Survey of India - - at Nature - 3i4
XV. Archeological Surveys - - - - - 320
XVI. Geographical Work of the India Office - - - = 3f3
Appenprix. Return of Scientific Instruments examined at the India Store
Depot, 1887-1890 - - - - - - 379
INDEX - - - - - - =e SSO
ILLUSTRATIONS.

FRONTISPIECE.—Rakiposnr Mountain (25,550 feet high), in Hunza-Nacar.
To face Title page.

Map or Inpia - - - - - - To face page 1.

x Y¥ 20321. a 2

[PR 18 1 kG Ihe

Tuts work was suggested by Mr. Clements R. Markham’s
“Memoir on the Indian Surveys,” in which the geographical and
other kindred operations carriel out in India from the date of
the British occupation were reviewed in a most picturesque and
masterly manner. In 1878 a second edition of Mr. Markham’s
work was published, in which the narrative was brought up to
1875, and in some cases for a year or so later. For the last fifteen
years I have been accumulating notes in moments of leisure,
with a view to the publication of a volume which might serve as a
continuation to that by Mr. Markham, and the kind support
given to the project by the Secretary of State for India and the
Viceroy has now enabled me to present the work in a more or
less complete shape. From unavoidable circumstances the arrange-
ment of matter is not identical with that adopted by Mr. Markham,
but I believe I have conformed to it sufficiently to make reference
easy, and wherever the source of information is not specially
mentioned, it may be assumed that it will be found in the official
Annual Report for the particular year.

J have to express my sincere acknowledgments to those friends
who have been good enough to read through the proofs and favour
me with numerous suggestions, of which I have gladly availed
myself. To General J. T. Walker, R.H., C.B., F.RS., &e.,
formerly Surveyor-General of India, I am indebted for his careful
revision of the Trigonometrical, Geodetic, and other chapters.
Colonel H. R. Thuile, R.H., the present Surveyor-General of India,

1 Y 20321, b

vil PREFACE.

has also supplied much useful additional matter in Chapter XI.
Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., has furnished me with several
valuable comments on the Geological Section; Mr. H. F. Blanford,
F.R.S.. kindly revised the Meteorology; Sir W. W. Hunter,
K.C.S.1., C.LE., suggested some improvements in the brief chapter
on the Statistical Survey ; while Commander A. D. Taylor, late I.N.,
and Commander A. W. Stiffe, late I.N., Colonel W. Barron, B.S.C.,
Colonel W. J. Heaviside, R.E., Mr. E. Roberts, F.R.A.S., and
Mr. T. Cushing, F.R.A.S., have been obliging enough to give
similar aid in respect of the chapters dealing with Marine Surveys,
Revenue Surveys, Geodetic Observations, Tidal and Levelling
Observations, and the Supply of Scientific Instruments, respectively.
Colonel J. Waterhouse, B.8.C., Major H. Raverty, and Mr. Ney
Elias, C.I.E., have also given valued assistance in other ways.
Last, but by no means least, Dr. Jas. Burgess, C.I.H., has shown
great interest in, and supplied most useful information for the
Chapter dealing with Indian Archeology, a subject in which he is
an eminent and acknowledged authority.

My object has been to supply an outline sketch of the remarkable
labours achieved during the last fifteen years by the chief Indian
scientific departments, and to facilitate reference to the detailed
records of those services. Any possible success that may have
attended this effort is greatly due to the kind encouragement and
co-operation shown by the above gentlemen.

CHARLES E. D. BLACK.
London, October, 1891.

REFERENCES

British Torritory colored.___ Pink
Dependens & Subordinate Native States Yellow
Raibvays opened ____

—Do___ not opened) _§$_ nmemeemencemeneeneni
eh $$

The numerals denote the height above sea level in feet,
This Map is intended only to exhibit the principal
places, chic rivers £0, in. India.

Ades Bank
Mud Bank_||

Pedihol Pati
* 99 Islands

AR TTGPAS, oF Cancer ae omits

INDIAN EMPIRE

Scale 265 miles = to 1 mch
a —

id
Cape Negrais|//Y,
__Cape Negeais|

Atyuadn Reef LightHouse

i Andaman DY
oy esr

Wee oreniaie
(Jurvisiblaniank

(Deitdendaman tt

Car Nicobar I*

Peet

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.*

First Prriop, 1875-82.

The survey of the coasts of India has ever been a matter of high
importance for navigators, and from the days of the old Bombay
Marine and its successor, the Indian Navy, the observations of the bold
and experienced seamen belonging to those services bore rich fruit
in the labours recorded in the pages of the “ Memoir on the Indian
Surveys.” ‘he operations of these Indian officers extended to the
Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Arabian and African coasts, China Sea,
and other regions far beyond the limits of India proper. But in
1862 the Indian Navy was abolished, and no arrangement was made
for continuing the excellent survey work for which the service had
become renowned. After a long period of inaction, a small bui
efficient and economical department was at length organised in
1875, under the superintendence of Commander A. D. Taylor, late
I.N., a good start was made, and an encouraging record of work
achieved had been shown in the pages of the first report.

In the spring of 1876 Commander Taylor started on a tour of
inspection of the principal ports on the coast of Burma, where two
steamers had struck some little time previously on rocks unmarked
on the existing charts. Akyab, Bassein, Rangoon, Moulmein,
Tavoy, Mergui, and the Pakchan river were visited, as well as the
ultra-Indian ports of Kopah and Junkseylon on the Siam Coast.
From this inspection, after examining the chart of Amherst, which
was found most incorrect and incomplete, Commander Taylor
arrived at the conclusion that no large port of British India so
much required to be carefully surveyed. Navigating Lieutenant
Jarrad, R.N., was accordingly despatched in the “ Clyde” to execute

* The spelling of Indian proper names has been assimilated to that adopted in the
Imperial Gazetteer of India.
me SECHRI. Ne A

2 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

the survey during the year 1876-77. The Admiralty chart of
Tavoy river was also found to be very erroneous, but during a brief
stay Commander Taylor was enabled to take observations and
soundings which resulted in a more reliable chart being pro-
duced. At Junkseylon he met Captain A. de Richelieu, Siamese
Royal Navy, commanding the gunboat ‘ Coronation,’ from whom
an excellent preliminary survey of that island was obtained, and
published at Calcutta.*

In July Commander Taylor proceeded, with Navigating Sub-
Lieutenant E. W. Petley, R.N., to False Point to report how the
sum of Rs. 30,000, applied for as a loan to the Port Fund, could best
be spent in the interests of the port. On this an elaborate report
was submitted to Government. In the following March he was
deputed to Goa with instructions to visit the harbours of Karwar
and Marmagao and report on their relative merits as shelter-giving
anchorages durig the §8.W. monsoon. On careful consideration,
Commander Taylor came to the conclusion that Marmagao was
superior as a natural harbour, and in some respects as regards the
practicability of making improvements quite equal to Karwar. Two
officers, Nav. Lieutenant Jarrad, R.N., and Mr. Falle, were sent to
survey Madras roadstead, and a careful sectional survey of the
part of the roadstead and beach abreast of the native town was
commenced by them and continued by Lieutenants Hammond and
Pascoe on the scale of 600 feet to 1 inch.

Lieutenant Jarrad’s next work was to connect, astronomically,
Diamond Island, Rangoon, and Amherst Pagoda, the three principal
stations in the Gulf of Martaban essential to the reproduction of
a new chart of that locality. An elaborate sectionally sounded
double elephant sheet survey of Moulmein river approaches was
excellently carried out, comprising 105 square miles of water
closely examined, and 36 miles of coast trigonometrically laid
down. An important correction of the true bearing of Double
Island lighthouse from Amherst point was obtained by Lieutenant
Jarrad, who discovered the former to be 14 miles westward
of its true position, notwithstanding that if had already been
shifted a distance of 43} miles to the eastward of the positions
shown on the Admiralty charts. His next step was to commence a

* An interesting article by Captain De Richelieu on Salang island or Junkseylon
will be found at page 118 of the Geographical Magazine for 1878.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 3

survey of the port of Akyab, in the vicinity of which several
wrecks had occurred, but owing to an outbreak of cholera it was
impossible to continue operations, although the necessity for a
thorough survey of the place was much felt, as it is much frequented
by rice traders and as a harbour of refuge.

Another survey which had to be abandoned through an epidemic
of cholera was that of Chittagong (Karnaphuli river), where the
encroachment of the sea had necessitated the removal of the lights
at Norman’s Point to some more suitable place. Lieutenant
Hammond had been entrusted with this work, but on the arrival of
Commander T'aylor most of the party were found to be suffering
from fever and dysentery, healthy drinking water being unpro-
curable, and heaps of half-burnt or half-buried human corpses
encountered here and there by the surveyors in course of their
work. Operations were therefore broken off.

A large number of questions affecting navigation, such as
the hindrances to the free navigation of Bassein river, brought to
the notice of the Secretary of State hy the Liverpool Shipowners’
Association, rules affecting emigrant ships (for the better protection
against fire), improvements in signalling on Indian coasts, amend-
ments of Native Passenger Ships Act of 1876 with reference to
long and short voyages and seasons of fair and foul weather, Wc.,
were forwarded for report by the Government to the Superintendent
of Marine Surveys. The preparation of a complete list of Indian
lighthouses and light-ships, with details of cost of erection and
maintenance, their positions, distinctive characteristics, &c., was
undertaken, as well as the Annual Return of Wrecks and Casualties
in Indian Waters. Hydrographic Notices containing sailing direc-
tion for Junkseylon or Salang island, Mergui archipelago, Rangoon
river, Moulmein (Salwen) river, Kyouk Phyou, and False Point were
published, and Notices to Mariners relatine to new lights, buoys,
and newly-discovered dangers were also published and issued to the
Indian maritime authorities, and to foreign Governments, while the
English, Spanish, Dutch, American, Chinese, German, and Indian
notices were duly embodied and marked (so far as applicable) on all
the charts in store. Altogether 3,279 charts were corrected and
brought up to date, and a new catalogue of charts was issued.

In the following year (1877) the Superintendent carried into
effect his deferred tour of inspection of the ports of the peninsula of
A 2

4 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

India on both coasts from False Point round to Bombay. The
following were visited and reports made on each :—

False Point. Colachel.
Gopalpur. Cochin.
Calingapatam. Narakal.
Bimlipatam. Beypur.
Vizagapatam. Calicut.
Coconada. Tellicherri.
Masulipatam. Cannanur.
Madras. Mangalore.
Negapatam. Karwar.
Tuticorin. Bombay.

Owing to the special surveying steamer which was being
built at Bombay not beimg completed, the surveying operations
during the year were entirely carried on by two boat parties, one in
charge of Lieutenant Jarrad, R.N., and the other (a smaller one)
in charge of Mr. Morris Chapman, late I.N. The first-named
party surveyed the port of Ratnagiri (including Mirya and
Kalbadeyi bays) in four months, the plotting comprising 38 miles
of coast and 21 square miles of water sounded on the scale of
4 inches to 1 nautic mile. Viziadrug, including Rajapur and
Ambol Ghur bays, was next taken in hand, and sailing directions
for all these parts in the shape of hydrographic notices were also
compiled. Both at Mirya and Viziadrug the large percentage of
iron contained in the laterite (which in some places forms a layer
of considerable thickness over the igneous rock of which the coast
is formed) exercised a very considerable disturbing effect on the
compass needle. so it was with considerable difficulty that magnetic
observations were made. Both on this account and owing to the
inconvenience of working with boats in lieu of a well-found
surveying vessel slow progress was made.

At Paumben, Commander Taylor had found during his tour of
inspection that an accurate survey of the pass or channel between
India and Ceylon and its approaches was much required; the only
existing chart being on too small a scale. The Government of
India further desired that the examination might be complete, so
as to enable a time estimate to be formed of the labour required
for any subsequent widening and deepening of the channel. The
last survey by Commanders Powell and Ethersey, late LN.,

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 6)

had, curiously enough, been made exactly 40 years before.
Several trigonometrical stations had been fixed in the vicinity by
Major Branfill at the time of his connecting India with Ceylon in
1875, consequently Mr. Chapman was enabled to connect his marine
work with ease and accuracy. ‘he whole survey was shown on two
sheets, and no fewer than 455 miles of water were sounded over.
Navigating Lieutenants Hammond and Pascoe paid a visit to
Cochin, Beypur, and Calicut to ascertain what changes had occurred
since the last surveys. At the first-named nearly half of Vypeen
island was discovered to have been washed away, and other changes
had taken place necessitating a re-survey. About 10 years ago
the monsoon sea breached through Vypin island at Cruz Milagre,
two miles north of the town, and so large was the body of water
that great and costly efforts were made to close it. These for-
tunately succeeded, but during the two years of existence of the
gap, the main ebb stream of the Cochin backwater was much
weakened, and the sandy ridge of the bar was driven m about a
cable’s length by the monsoon swell, besides other changes. At
Beypur and Calicut minor hydrographic data were noted, and the
recess was utilised by Lieutenant Pascoe in preparing the fair
drawings of the extended survey of Madras, which was added to
the previous survey by Lieutenant Jarrad in 1876, the whole being
shown on ore sheet and plotted on the scale of 10 inches to
1 nautic mile. It extended from St. Thomé on the south to
Kasimodo on the north, and comprised 5? miles of coast, while the
soundings were carried out to the 10-fathom line, 7.c., between
two and three miles off shore.

Some important additions to the hydrography of the Siam coast
were received from Captain A. J. Loftus, Topographer and Marine
Surveyor to the Siamese Government. The hydrographic work
executed by him extended along the west coast of the Gulf of Siam
from Hilly Cape to Lem Chang P’ra, a distance of upwards of
300 miles, and embraced Singora, Patani, and other anchorages
hitherto entirely unsurveyed, and indeed unknown, and filled up a
distinct gap in the existing charts of the coast. The work was
well produced; elaborate notes were appended to the sheets
explaining how the survey was carried on, as well as a large
number of views of various parts of the coast. These sheets were
reduced to convenient scale by Mr. R. C. Carrington and published
by permission of the Government of India at Calcutta,

6 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

The natural history investigations of the season 1877-78 were
necessarily confined to examining, collecting, and preserving speci-
mens of the fauna of the shores near Ratnagiri and Viziadrug.
The area examined included the tract from the sea to the Western
Ghats. It is only on the slopes of the hills that the various fauna
begin to be at all abundant, or to assume any individuality of their
own. All the intervening tract of country is parched and barren,
and composed of a thin soil overlying a substratum of trap rock or
laterite, the latter being apparently detrimental to the development
of animal organisms. The want of an efficient surveying vessel
hampered Dr. Armstrong’s operations, but a list of about 60
ornithological specimens collected by him finds place in his report
for 1877-78. Among miscellaneous papers submitted to Govern-
ment by officers of the Department and printed in the Appendix to
the Report for the year were the following :—

Remarks on some ports of the Madras Presidency, after inspection

in April and May 1877. By Commander Taylor, late I.N.

Report on some harbours, &e. of the Bombay Presidency. after
an inspection tour in May 1877. By Commander Taylor, late I.N.

Remarks upon the supposed silting up of the upper portion of
Bombay harbour. By Commander Taylor.

On the history of some of the oldest races now settled in Bombay.
With reasons for supposing that the present island of Bombay
consisted in the 14th century of two or more distinct islands.
By R. X. Murphy, Esq.

Extract from report by Mr. Morris Chapman, late I.N., on
Paumben channel and Rameswaram island.

In addition to various useful pieces of work performed by
Mr. Carrington in the compilation of new charts and of hydro-
graphic publications may be mentioned the result of a visit of
inspection to Bombay paid by him, on which occasion he examined
the whole collection of charts (11,787 im number) stored in the
dockyard there. Of these, the vast majority (10,045) proved to be
quite obsolete, and had consequently to be cancelled; the remainder
(1,742) were corrected by hand up to the latest date by Mr. Carrington,
and retained for issue to masters of vessels.

One of the first matters to be settled in 1878 was the selection of
localities where tide-gauges should be erected, with a view to the
determination of the mean sea-level along the Indian coasts. This
was settled by Commander Taylor in concert with Captain

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. Uf

A. W. Baird, R.E., Superintendent of Tidal and Levelling Opera-
tions, visits being paid to False Point, Vizagapatam, Madras,
Paumben (where, at Commander Taylor’s instance, Mr. Morris
Chapman was deputed to extend his survey three miles to the
eastward), Beypur, Karwar, and Bombay.

Later on, Commander Taylor was enabled to carry out a further
inspection of several harbours in company with Colonel Thomason,
and Verawal, Seraia, and Cutch Mandvi were visited. In connexion
with the Gulf of Cambay a petition signed by upwards of 70
native shipowners and shipmasters was submitted to the super-
intendent, stating that in consequence of the existing lights being
insufficient, and of the imperfect state of the chart, a large number
of vessels were either wrecked or damaged every year by sand-
banks in the gulf. The petitioners solicited that a thorough
examination of the‘gulf might speedily be made in the interests of
navigation; but owing to the want of a steamer, this could not
be taken in hand.

A pressing request was also addressed to the superintendent to
cause a survey of Bankote river mouth to be made, as it had the
largest traffic of any of the Konkan rivers, and was at the same
time very dangerous. The request was supported by Sir Richard
Temple, the Governor of Bombay; but as the survey formed no
part of the programme of operations sanctioned by the Government
of India, it could not then be undertaken. It was, however,
thoroughly surveyed by No. 1 Boat party in the following year.
An examination of Quilon roadstead was also asked for in the
interests of the Scottish India Coffee Company, who had large
investments in South Travancore; but this could not be undertaken
till 1883, when it was completed by Lieutenant Pascoe.

Asin the preceding season, surveying had to be carried on in
boat parties, under the command of Lieutenant Jarrad and
Mr. Morris Chapman. At the request of Sir R. Temple, Governor
of Bombay, the port of Jyghur, a harbour of refuge during the
S.W. monsoon, and its approaches were surveyed on the scale
of 6 inches to 1 nautic mile. Although small, the harbour was
found to possess many natural advantages, and to be easy of access
for vessels of 12 feet draught in all weathers. Lieutenant Jarrad
reported there was not much traffic, though at Saichor, about four
miles from the entrance, a very large number of pattimars were
laid up and repaired during the monsoon. The entrance to the

8 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

Daphol or Anjanwil river, where the passenger traffic by coasting
steamers was rapidly increasing, was next taken in hand and plotted
on a double-elephant sheet on ‘the’ same scale as the above
survey, as well as that of Chaul, where the Chaul Kadu and other
dangerous reefs and shoals had caused many a wreck to vessels
making for Bombay harbour.

Harly in September 1878 Mr. Morris Chapman commenced his
survey of Tuticorin roadstead and ‘harbour, the soundings being
carried out as far as the 5-fathom and 7-fathom line to the
north and south respectively. The heat was most trying, and the
weather so exceptionably bad that a suspension of the work became
necessary. Mr. Chapman was deputed to make an examination of
the water space eastward of the Shingle islands at Paumben,
principally with the object of finding a southern deep entrance to
the proposed ship canal through Rameswaram. Forty miles of
goundings were taken, but there proved to be no deep southern
entrance, though there are great advantages for one to the north.
On the 16th March Mr. Chapman became ill from severe exposure,
and though he was granted two months’ leave to enable him to
proceed to Australia, he unfortunately died before the season closed.
He was a painstaking and hardworking surveyor, and his loss
was severely felt in the Department.

On the 4th December 1878 the building of the new surveying
steamer “ Investigator “ was commenced, and the formality of
driving the silver nail into her stem took place. The ceremony,
peculiar to Bombay, is said to be of Parsee origin, and is some-
what analogous to that of depositing coins, &c. under foundation
stones. The nail was of silver, about seven inches in length and
three-quarters of an inch diameter near the head. The four sides
bore the inscriptions :—(1) Indian Government surveying steamer
“ Investigator,’ Bombay Dockyard, December 1878 ; (2) The Right
Hon’ble Lord Lytton, G.C.S.I., Viceroy and Governor-General ;
(8) The Hon’ble Sir R. Temple, G.C.S.I1., Governor of Bombay ;
(4) Captain G. OB. Carew, I.N., Officiating Superintendent of
Marine, and Jamsetjee Dhunjeebhoy Wadia, master builder.

During the year a Chart Depot at Calcutta had been established,
and was in good working order. Printed lists of all new charts
and hydrographic publications, and information as to where
the same were obtainable, were distributed to all Indian shipping
agencies, and to all shipmasters calling at Calcutta; and the result

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 9

Was an increase in the sale of Admiralty publications, and of charts
of Indian ports and anchorages. Many acknowledgments were
received from the maritime public of the practical utility of an office
where reliable charts and information were procurable.

Seventeen new charts were issued during the year referred to,
and the large number of 17,268 Admiralty and Marine Survey
charts corrected. Among the special reports prepared during the
year, and reprinted in the Aunual Report, were the following :—

Memorandum on the reefs and dangers southward of Kundari
Island, aud the necessity for better marking those dangers by night,
by Navigating Lieutenant Jarrad, R.N.

A description of some new species of Hydroid Zoophytes from
the Indian Coasts and Seas, by Surgeon J. Armstrong, Medical
Officer and Naturalist.

Reports by Commander A. D. Taylor, late I.N., on the Phaeton
Shoal and Alguada Reef, and on the various ports, &c. inspected by
him during the season.

A thorough inspection of the lghthouses and lght-vessels of
India, with such proposals for their improvement as might seem
best in the interests of navigation, was one of the early aims of the
Marine Survey Department. This inspection Commander Taylor
was enabled to carry out in the year 1879-80, and his general report
upon the Indian lights is printed in full in the Report for that year.
It contains some useful observations and suggestions in regard to
92 lights, from Karachi to Coco islands. A supplementary report
in the same volume deals with the question of the relief and supply
of Indian lighthouses and their periodical inspection.

Owing to the untimely death of Mr. Morris Chapman, I.N., the
temporary abolition of No. 2 Boat party, and the postponement of
the surveys of Beypur and Cochin had become necessary; and as
Lieutenant Jarrad’s health was impaired, arrangements were made
for him to remain at Bombay and for an amalgamated party
under him and Lieutenant Petley to take up the survey of the Bombay
harbour, which the experience of the previous year had shown to
be necessary.

The first survey undertaken, however, was that of Karwar, which
was plotted on the 6-inch scale by Lieutenant Petley ; but owing
to the inefficiency of the small steam cutters at the disposal of the
party, the survey could not be extended so far to the north and
south as was desirable. Bankote was also surveyed on the same

10 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

scale, and on its completion the party moved to Marmagao, where
a minute examination of that port was made at the request of the
Bombay Government, acting on the suggestion of the Hngineer-in-
Chief of the proposed Hubli-Marmagao Railway. This work was
completed at the hottest period of the year, and was rendered
exceptionally trying by the prevalence of the Kanara fever, which
occasioned much sickness among the party.

The special reports printed in the Appendix to the Annual Report
for 1879-80 comprised reports on False Point harbour, and the
great modifications and movements of sand going on there, two
memoranda on Coconada, and a new deep channel into the
Godavari river, and a memorandum on the proposed breakwater
at Marmagao, all by Commander Taylor, while some general notes
on the topography and history of the latter place were written by
Lieutenant Petley, with the assistance of Dr. J. Gerson da Cunha.

During 1880-81 the surveying operations consisted of a careful
survey by Lieutenant Petley of the Bombay foreshore from the
Prongs lighthouse to Mazagon, and to an average distance of
7,500 feet seaward. The result was to discover many rocky
patches and also less water on the Raleigh shoal than shown on
the existing charts. Lieutenant Petley then proceeded to Goa,
where by the 20th February all the seaboard coast and islands were
mapped and 55 square miles of water were minutely examined, the
sounding lines being run in sections, those over shoal and dangerous
eround being as close as possible. The Portuguese Governor-
General took great personal interest in the progress of the survey,
and had it not been for this, the difficulties would have been far
ereater than they were, for the natives somehow formed the idea
that the survey party were connected with the new salt tax treaty,
which was very unpopular, and many petty annoyances often
occurred. The survey of the Sunchi reef was awkward and
perilous, as the sea when apparently quite smooth would suddenly
pile up on the reef and develop into tremendous breakers, and with
the place full of sharks, the danger from a capsize was great. A
good descriptive and historical sketch by Lieutenant Petley of Goa,
its forts, churches, rivers, islands, &c., is printed in the Appendices
to the Reports for 1879-80 and 1880-8]. In the month of May
Lieutenant Petley made a hasty survey of the approaches to Princes
Deck, Bombay. The general result of the season’s work at

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. li

Bombay was that eight miles of coast line were triangulated and
20 square miles of water soundings were taken.

Lieutenant W. H. Coombs command a survey of the port af
Rangoon in November 1880 and completed it in March of the
following year, the space sounded being eight square miles, and the
length of coast measured a little more than 20 miles. Some notes on
the history and topography of Rangoon were compiled by Lieutenant
Coombs during his stay, and find place in the Report.

During the summer and autumn of 188] Mr. P. J. Falle executed
a survey on the scale of 400 feet to the inch of that portion of
Dowdeswell island (Orissa coast) which hes north of Hukitollah, and
is most seriously affected by the action of the winds and waves of the
southerly monsoon, as also by the river freshets. Mr. Falle also
made observations later on in the year on the set and velocity of
the tides in the harbour.

On the 3rd March 1881 the new surveying steamer ‘‘ Investigator ”
was launched, and Lieutenant L. 8. Dawson, R.N., an able surveyor
of 18 years’ standing, possessing considerable experience of hydro-
graphical matters, was appointed to the command of the vessel.
He eventually succeeded Commander Taylor in the Superintendent-
ship of Marine Surveys.

The work at headquarters consisted in tendering advice on a
variety of matters of a scientific description affecting navigation to
the Government of India and the local governments and administra-
tions. in May 1881 the superintendent was appointed President of
a Committee on Indian Lighthouse Administration.

In 1880 events arose which ultimately had a most important
bearing cn the future of the Department. In the early part of that
year disagreements began to crop up between Mr. Rh. Carrington,
the Superintendent of the Drawing Branch, and some of the Royal
Nayy officers who had been lent for surveying service by the Lords
of the Admiralty, and this culminated in the services of Navigating
Lieutenant F. W. Jarrad, R.N., being replaced by the Government
of India at the disposal of the Admiralty on the 6th February 1880.
Lezegthy correspondence followed between the Indian Government,
the Commander-in-Chief on the Hast Indian Station, the Lords of
the Admiralty. and the Secretary of State for India. This led
eventually to the Government of India determining to institute an
inquiry into the working of the Marine Survey Department, and a
committee was appointed for the purpose under the presidency of

2 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

Major-General J. T. Walker, R.H., Surveyor-General of India, the
other members being Mr. D. M. Barbour, officiating Accountant-
General of Bengal, Mr. H. F. Blanford, F.R.S., Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of India, Commander A. D. Taylor,
late I.N., Superintendent of Indian Marine Surveys, Commander
A. D. Street, R.N., Assistant Secretary to the Government of India
in the Military (Marine) Department, and Mr. C. E. Palmer, R.N.,
Examiner of Marine Accounts as Secretary. The chief proposals
of this Committee were that the Survey Department should he
amalgamated with the Indian Marine and that a rather smaller
surveying establishment than the original one should be sanctioned.
The head of the department was to be styled Superimtendent of
Coast Surveys in lieu of Superintendent of Marine Surveys, the
employment of Royal Naval officers was to be continued, and
arrangements were to be made for marine zoological observations and
trawling to be carried on in the new surveying steamer, under the
supervision of a Naturalist. The post of superintendent was
recommended to be conferred on Commander T. A. Hull, R.N., an
officer who had had great experience in coast surveying in various
parts of the world, and in the projection and compilation of charts
in the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty.* The Admiralty,
however, objected to the Superintendentship being given to an officer
retired from the Royal Navy, and this proposal had to be abandoned.
The general re-organization of the Department too, on the lines laid
down by the Committee, did not commend itself to the Admiralty
and the Secretary of State, and at the suggestion of the former,
advantage was taken of Commander Taylor’s prospective retire-
ment to depute Captain H. W. Brent, R.N., the recently nominated
Director of Indian Marine, to take up the question on his arrival in
India, so as to advise the Government as to the best way of dealing
with the Marine Survey Department.

An elaborate report on the Marine Survey Department was
compiled by Captain Brent, and its entire work since its origin in
1874 was severely criticised. A series of statements and charges
was brought against the Department, but it is enough to state here

* Captain Hull was author of a remarkable paper read in 1874 before the Royal
United Service Institution called “ The Unsurveyed World, 1874,” which enumerated
and specified all the more pressing coast surveys then needed throughout the world.
The paper attracted much attention.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 13
that the general purport of this part of the report was to allege
that the Calcutta Office or shore establishment had been unduly
magnified at the cost of the survey proper, that India required her
coasts surveyed, but-no Hydrographic Office, and that the most
useful and profitable course in the interests of the State was
‘to break up the Indian Marine Survey Department.”

Captain Brent's detailed recommendations regarding the personnel
and records were as follows :—

Commander A. D. Taylor, late I.N., Superintendent of Marine
Surveys, was to be pensioned. The post of Superintendent of the
Drawing Branch was to be abolished, and 10 clerks and draughts-
men were to be either transferred to other Government posts or
dismissed. All the Admiralty charts purchased by and presented
to India, were to be sent back to the Hydrographer, while Indian
survey charts were to be sent to Bombay dockyard, together with
chart boxes, instruments, drawing materials, tin cases, &c.
Surveyors original charts were to be sent to the Admiralty
Hydrographer.

The Wreck Register and the clerk employed thereon were to be
transferred after the Ist July to the Port Office, Calcutta, instructions
being sent to the Indian ports to send all information in future to
that official instead of to the Marine Survey Department. The Port
Officer has since carried on this duty in addition to his own work.
The Annual Return of Lighthouses and Light-vessels was to be
handed over to the Home Department, and the Notices to Mariners
abolished, on the ground that they could always be procured from
London. Captain A. W. Stiffe, the Port Officer, was directed in
1887 to prepare a new corrected edition of the former Return, and
to the same officer was also entrusted the duty of issuing all Notices
to Mariners relating to India.

With respect to the future conduct of surveys, Captain Brent laid
down at the outset that it was only from the active list of the Royal
Navy that efficient marine surveyors could be obtained, and that the
Indian surveyors should be therefore nominated by the Admiralty,
the posts of assistants being filled by officers of the Indian Marine.
But the two classes were to be kept distinct, there being no promo-
tion from the lower to the higher grade. Their work was to be
sent home directly to the Hydrographer, such charts as might be

14 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

required promptly for local navigation and engineering wants being
first photo-zincographed in India. Printed Admiralty charts of the
coast of India were in future to be corrected at the Admiralty.
In the opinion of Captain Brent the ‘“ Investigator” steamer and
two boat parties would be sufficient at least to start the surveys
with. Unfortunately, however, it has never been found practicable
to increase this force.

The future establishment was to consist of a surveyor in charge (in
lieu of the Superintendent), who was to be placed in command of the
“Investigator,” direct the boat surveys, arrange all survey work
and connect it with the points of the Great Trigonometrical Survey.
The programme of operations was to be submitted through the
Director of the Indian Marine to the Government of India for
sanction. The surveyor in charge was to decide which of the
surveys would be of sufficient importance or use to be photo-zinco-
eraphed, and he was to countersign the original charts before
forwarding them to the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, to decide
on the form of all hydrographic information, whether emanating
from the marine surveying officers, port officers, or other sources, and
to forward such information to the Admiralty for publication. He was
to communicate with the Hydrographer of the Admiralty respscting
past operations and those most pressing in the future from a local or
Indian point of view, obtaining his approval or dissent before acting
on the more important points. ‘l’o report to the Hydrographer as
to any changes in the naval personnel and to the Director of Marine
any changes in the Indian personnel likely to prove of benefit to the
pubhe service. ‘lo make demand on the Hydrographic Office in
England for such charts, surveying notices, or publications as
may be necessary tec meet local Indian requirements. To answer
any questions velating to harbour conservancy by means of buoys,
beacons, or lights; those of a secondary nature to be kept for the
recess.

Owing to the arduous character of the duties and the trying
nature of the ciimate, it was stipulated that the duration of
the appomtments should be limited to five years, renewable if
advisable. The naval officers were to come under the Uncovenanted
Civil Service rules for leave and furlough, but, to count their time
and to keep them under the Naval Discipline Act, their names were
to be borne on the books of the flagship on the Hast India station
or such other ship as might be necessary from time to time.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 15

There was to be an office at Bombay under the Director of Marine
with two draughtsmen and a clerk, and these officials were charged
with the custody and care of the charts.

Local governments and administrations and the several port officers
were to promptly communicate all information regarding wrecks,
lights, navigation, buoys, beacons, shoals, or other matters affecting
the safe navigation of the seas, to the Director of Marine for the
information of the surveyor in charge. The surveyor in charge
was to be the adviser to the Government of India upon all matters
connected with the navigation of Indian seas, the lighting and
marking of the sea approaches to all great Indian ports and rivers,
conservancy of harbours, and cognate subjects.

This general scheme was approved by the Government of
India.* The proposed staff as agreed to by them was to consist of
one surveyor in charge and seven officers, all of the Royal Navy,
and nine assistant surveyors of the Indian Marine. The total cost
of the scheme was to be Rs. 1,938,000, which was estimated to bea
saving of Rs. 7,000 a year on the cost of the then existing establish-
ment (Rs. 2,00,000 per annum), but as the actual expenditure of the
latter was about half a lakh less than its sanctioned limit, the new
scheme was in reality the more costly of the two.

The Secretary of State duly accorded his sanction to these pro-
posals, and the retirement of Commander Taylor on the Ist July
1882, under the 55-year rule, enabled the re-organization to be
completed. He was succeeded in the charge of the Marine Surveys
by Commander L. 8. Dawson, R.N.

Commander Alfred Dundas ‘Taylor, whose active Indian career thus
practically came to an end, is an officer whose public service here
merits some notice.

His earliest eastern services were rendered in the Persian Gulf when
he was a midshipman on board the Honourable Hast India Company’s
ship “‘ Elphinstone.” On leaving that vessel in June 1843 he was
granted a certificate as ‘‘a first-rate navigator who promised to be as
** good an officer.” His surveying career commenced in the following
year under Commander Montriou (succeeded later on by Lieutenant
Selby) in the brig “‘ Taptee,” along the Concan coast below Bombay,
and this work was carried on for four years. Promoted to the rank
of lieutenant in 1847 the next two years found him on board the

* Military (Marine) Letter, No. 29 of 1882, dated 1st September 1882.

16 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

steam frigate “ Feroze,” in the Red Sea. In the autumn of 1850
he was appointed to command the surveying vessel ‘‘ Pownah,” in
which, during the next six years, he carried out a survey of the
Gulf of Cutch and the Malabar coast. In 1855 he examined the
port of Karwar, and was then sent by Lord Harris (father of
the present Governor of Bombay) to survey Coringa bay and
Coconada port, on the Coromandel coast, and Cochin, on the Malabar
coast. Resuming the latter survey, he finished southward as far as
Calicut by the middle of 1859. Later in that year he was sent to
pilot the expeditionary force against the rebellious Waghers at Bet
and Dwarka, and then proceeded to England on furlough. In 1862
Commander 'laylor was pensioned off on the abolition of the Indian
Navy but, at the request of Admiral Washington, the Hydrographer,
his services were utilised in the compilation of Sailing Directions
for the West Coast of Hindostan, which work was published in 1865.
It was during the course of the next few years that in his researches
at the India Office, Commander Taylor became aware how little had
been done to improve the hydrography of Indian waters, a subject
eventually brought by the Secretary of State under the notice of
the Government of India, which led to the formation of the Marine
Survey Department under Taylor’s charge.*

During the six years of its existence, the cost of the Marine
Survey Department had been as follows :—

Rupees. as. pp.
1875-76 - - 160,771
1876-77 : : 1,40,484 O 1
1877-78 - - 198: 200 ee
1878-79 - - 160320 7g. ai,
1879-80 . - Gy Oe yes) ill
1880-81 - - 194,607" OF Or

Total Rupees 914067 9 @Q
Or, on an average, Rupees 1,502,344 per annum.

Under Commander Taylor’s superintendentsnip, ¢.e., from April
1875 (the date on which work was commenced at headquarters) up
to the end of September 1881, the publications of the Marine
Survey Department consisted of the following :—68 new charts,

* See Mr. Markham’s Memoir on the Indian Surveys (Second edition), p. AS.
Commander Taylor last year (1890) signalized the 50th year of his public service
by the compilation of a China Sea Directory, a sequel to the Indian Ocean Directory.

} Including Rs. 83,536, part construction of the surveying steamer “‘ Investigator.”

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 7

24 Hydrographic Notices, 172 Notices to Mariners, 5 Annual
Returns of Wrecks and Casualties in Indian Waters (1876-1880),
6 editions of the List of Lighthouses and Light-vessels in British
India (1876-1881), and various other useful publications, including
Spheroidal Tables, Glossary of French Nautical Terms, Tables of
Natural Seales, Table of Distances at which Objects are seen at
Sea, &c. The advantages, too, of a chart depdt at Calcutta, where
hyd1ographical publications could be promptly obtained without the
long delay of reference to England, were beginning to be fully
appreciated by the mercantile public, and in 1580-81 1785 charts
were sold, being at the rate of between five and six charts a day.

Such were the results accomplished by the Department during its
brief existence. Under the superintendence of its able and devoted
chief, and with the co-operation of its energetic officers, it had
made a position for itself, and its good work was beginning to be
kmown and thoroughly appreciated by the mercantile marine
frequenting Indian seas. Had it been able to survive those internal
and external petty jealousies, from which no public department, any
more than any other human institution, is exempt, it would
undoubiedly have achieved a long record of good work, worthy of
comparison with that, which during the present century, has made
the history of Indian land surveys so famous and brilliant. Un-
doubtedly much of the marine survey work has since been continued
by earnest and capabie hands. But the break-up of a department
is seldom unaccompanied by evils; the old personnel vanishes,
the old lines are obliterated, the experience which it has taken years
to build up, is either discredited or wholly lost, and the result is,
even at the best, a serious interruption to that record of continued
progress and development which are the aim of all Hnglisb
administrations.

x Y 20321. B

Il.
INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

Seconp Perrriop, 1882-90.

The Indian coast surveys now entered on a new chapter of their
history. The headquarters had been moved from Calcutta to
Bombay, future operations were to be mainly confined to
surveying, pur et simple, and Commander lL. 8. Dawson was
appointed to their charge on the Ist July 1882,* in the place of
Commander A. D. Taylor, late I.N., retired.

The “ Investigator’ paddle steamer, 508 tons, was now available
for surveying purposes, and was arranged as a sort of floating
headquarters of the Marine Survey Department, a complete set of
charts, sailing directions, pilotage books, and works of reference
being taken in her, to enable Commander Dawson to deal with any
hydrographical question or reports referred to him.

During the year 1881-82 her officers performed the following
survey work :—

* Commander Dawson had been employed (while Lieutenant) as Naval Assistant in
the Hydrographic Deparimeut of the Admiralty since 1876. He had previously had
10 years’ experience in surveying in the Mediterranean, China, River Plate, New
Guinea, and at Fiji, where he commanded the schooner “ Alacrity.”

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 19

The boat party, in charge of Lieutenant W. H. Coombs, R.N.,
also did some useful work. It executed a survey of False Point,
on two sheets, the scales being 600 feet to 1 inch, and 4 inches to
1 nautic mile, respectively. For the first month the whole of the
work had to be carried on with only the whale boat, and all the
officers and men suffered more or less from the malarial fever, for
which the place is notorious. The remainder of the season was
taken up with surveys of Santapilly reef, Coconada, and the
southern portion of Madras harbour.

During most of the following year the charge of the surveys was
temporarily transferred to Lieutenant A. Channer, R.N., and under
his superintendence a survey of the Karil Kachal channel and
Vingorla rocks was made, after which the ‘‘ Investigator” weighed
anchor and proceeded to run a line of deep-sea soundings parallel
to and about 60 miles off the coast to the Gulf of Manar, and
across the gulf to Colombo, passing over the “ Wedge bank.”

The next work undertaken was a survey, in December 1882, of the
Dhumra river entrance, and the portion of the Baitarani (Byturnee)
river from its junction with the Dhumra up to Chandbally, and the
following month Balasore roadstead and Burraballung river up to
Balasore town were charted. The “ Investigator’ next proceeded
to Chittagong, where a rough reconnaissance of the Meghna river,
from Narayanganj to Sandwip channel, and of the Karnaphuli or
Chittagong river, to three miles seaward was made, after which the
ship returned to Bombay.

No. 1 Boat survey party, which had been in abeyance during the
previous year on account of the officers formerly composing it
having been required for duty on board the new surveying steamer,
was reconstituted on the Ist October 1882. Under Commander
Dawson, a survey of Back bay, Bombay, on the scale of two inches
to the mile, was commenced, and continued and completed by
Lieutenant Pascoe, the result being to show a slight deepening of the
bay to the northward as compared with Lieutenant Whish’s survey
of 1861. Karachi harbour was next taken in hand, and plotted
on a double-elephant sheet, the work comprising 194 miles of coast
line, and 16 square miles of sounding. <A decided silting of the
harbour on the west side, and also a great decrease of water space
to the northward by the Puhi and Soti creeks were revealed, and
westward of Manora Point several rocky patches, where numerous
vessels had lost their anchors, were found, and clearly marked and

B 2

20 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

defined. The party were then conveyed to Beyt harbour, in Baroda
State, where the fixing of the position of the new lighthouse, in
process of building, and a plan of the harbour and entrance
channels were desired. This survey was duly completed on the
4-inch scale.

No. 2 Boat party, under Lieutenant W. H. Coombs, undertook
surveys of the entrance to the Chittagong river, and of Akyab, the
latter being on the scale of 3 inches to the mile and embracing
an area of 60 square miles. Operations were much delayed by
the deplorable condition of the steam cutter, which broke down
continually, and which Lieutenant Coombs was obliged to work at a
dangerous amount of pressure to enable him to get even so moderate
a speed of three knots an hour.

The total work during the season showed an exceedingly good
record, the ‘‘ Investigator” and the two boat parties having been all
working at their full strength. Exclusive of the Meghna recon-
naissance, 320 square miles of soundings had been taken, and 32
square miles of topography in detail, 250 coast line in linear
miles, and 60 deep-sea soundings made. The “ Investigator” was
reported by lieutenant Channer to be admirably adapted for
the work, being very handy and light im running soundings from
25 to 100 fathoms.

At the beginning of the season, 1883-84, Commander Dawson
resumed charge, and the first piece of work undertaken was
the survey of Cochin on the 8-inch scale, which some four years
previously had been postponed owing to the death of Lieutenant
Morris Chapman, late I.N. The Cochin river entrance, the bar,
and backwater were all sounded, the area amounting to 12} square
miles, and the positions of the bar buoys, as previously laid down,
were found to be considerably in error. The vessel then proceeded,
vid Colombo, to the coast of Burma, and on its way took a line of
deep-sea soundings across the Bay of Bengal from Dondra head,
the southernmost point of Ceylon, to the vicinity of Cheduba island.
At the mouth of the Sandoway river Lieutenant Channer was left
for the purpose of surveying the approaches to Tongoup and
Sandoway, while Commander Dawson went on to the entrance
of the Rangoon river, where numerous complaints had been received
as to the extension of the banks, silting of channels, and general
alterations in the hydrography of the Rangoon river. This survey
proved to be lengthy and difficult, and several new channels and

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. val

ereat changes in the main condition of the river were ascertained
to have taken place. It was completed in the early part of
March; no fewer than 168 square miles beimg sounded over
on the 2-inch scale in the Rangoon river and its approaches,
from the China Bakir river and entrance to the Port of Rangoon.
The port itself was sounded on the 6-inch scale. It was ascer-
tained that the time of high water at full and change of the
moon at Rangoon had become about 45 minutes earlier than it
was in the year 1829, a change accounted for by the scour of
the river having increased in consequence of artificial embank-
ments, &e.

Cheduba strait and Ramri roadstead were next taken in hand,
a detached boat party under Lieutenant Helby, R.N., being told off
to the former, while the “ Investigator’s” officers were engaged
on the triangulation of the whole, as well as on the detailed
survey of Ramri strait. ‘lke survey of the approaches to Sando-
way and Tongoup, covering 301 square miles, had been made
as mentioned above by Lieutenant Channer.

Boat party No. 1, under the charge of Lieutenant T. C. Pascoe,
was employed during the latter part of 1883 on the survey of
Quilon, where the Travancore Government was anxious to construct
a deep-water harbour, there being no other harbour on the
Travancore seaboard, and the backwaterz, which extend 100 miles
altogether to the north and south, offering great advantages for
boat traffic up to the foot of the bills. The party returned to
Bombay by Christmas day, and the remainder of the season
was taken up with the surveys of Mahuwa or Mowa and
Shial Bet.

No. 2 Boat party, under Commander Falle, I.M., mapped out
Vizagapatam and Calingapatem, and under Lieutenant Morris Smyth,
R.N., who took charge on the Ist February, made a survey of
Negapatam and Nagore.

Thus the full programme drawn up for the Season 1883-84 (with
the exception of the search for the Sacramento shoal, which owing
to the want of a vessel for the purpose had to be abandoned) was
carried out, with the additions of the entrance to the China Bakir
river, the approaches to Sandoway and Tongoup, and the port of
Negapatam. The total out-turn for the season amounted to
11 charts and plans, covering 746 square miles of soundings, with
15 deep-sea soundings.

22, INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

The next year (1884-85) saw Commander Alfred Carpenter, R.N.,
assume the direction of the operations,in place of Commander
Dawson, the Department during the interval between the two
commands being placed in charge of Lieutenant Channer, R.N.
The “ Investigator’s”’ first course was to Sandoway Roads, where
work was immediately commenced in contmuation of the Cheduba
and Ramree harbour surveys of the previous season.

The Cheduba_ straits were completed in December 1884
after a year’s work, during which 83 linear miles of coast and
905 square miles of soundings were charted, new shoals were
discovered, and the so-called Port Childers, formerly described as an
excellent harbour, was proved to be full of dangerous pinnacle
rocks.

An examination was made of the Orissa coast from Dhumra river
to Balasor, but no detailed marine survey of the shore was
carried out. Soft mud flats dry at low water extended two or
three miles off its entire face, while dense jungle and mangrove
swamps formed the actual coast. Many of the stations along
the shores made by the great trigonometrical surveyors some years
previously had become submerged: the two-fathom line extended
from three to four miles off shore, and at six miles no portion of the
coast could be seen from a ship’s deck.

A camping party, landed on Shortt island, proceeded to delineate
the Palmyras shoals, 88 square miles of which were charted, while
the “ Investigator” re-sounded the whole of the bank of soundings
(or Pilot's Ridge) between False Poimt, Palmyras Point, and the
Eastern channel light-vessel, carrying the soundings out to 30
fathoms. The positions of the various soundings were found
astronomically, and every observation carefuily checked by four or
five observers, each with his own sextant, as attention had been
repeatedly called by captains of vessels bound for the Hugli river
to the erroneous nature of the soundings on published charts of this
part of the Bay of Bengal.

The result of the survey showed an almost identical bottom
contour to that on the Admiralty chart (False Point to Mutlah)
as delineated by Mr. R. C. Carrington. ‘The amount of square
miles sounded over by the Pilot’s Ridge survey was 2,400. On its
completion the “ Investigator’s” boats assisted in sounding the
extreme seaward face of the Palmyras shoals, which had apparently
projected eastward half a mile from their former position.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 25

The bar of the Dhumra river was found also to have altered
considerably since 1882.

In March 1885 an examination was made by the “ Investigator ”
of the curious submarine ravine called the Swatch-of-no-ground,
south of the Sundarbans. It was found to have an average breadth
of nine miles, with a floor of from 600 to 400 fathoms depth, and
inclined sides of soft mud of about 1 in 4. The mouths and sands
of the whole delta of the Sundarbans converge to throw their ebbing
waters towards the Swatch, and one suggestion has been that the
eddy caused by these waters meeting has tended for many ages to
prevent the mud held in suspension from settling over the central cleft,
and thus the banks on either side have grown seaward while the
Swatch has retained its original depth.

The result of the 1884—5 season’s work of the Marine Survey of
India was 11 charts and plans, including one of the entrance to the
Rajpuri river by a boat’s party, under Lieutenant EH. Helby, R.N.
The “ Investigator ’’ ran also over 4,500 linear miles of soundings. In
the department of zoological and botanical work the general expe-
rience of Commander Carpenter, R.N., and Lieutenant Channer, R.N.,
who had both served on board H.M.S. “ Challenger,” proved most
valuable. Under the supervision of Mr. G. M. Giles, M.B., F.R.C.S.,
who acted as surgeon-naturalist, some interesting hauls from
deep-sea trawling were made, though the appliances had been
long disused, and the microscope was one of very old-fashioned
construction.

On the whole the season of 1884-85 had been one of fair weather,
and the outcome of work was larger than during any previous
year.

In March 1885, the “ Investigator’? left the Sunderbuns and
carried a line of soundings to Kyauk-pyu in Arakan, where a survey
of that port was commenced and finished in April. Seven deep-sea
soundings were taken diagonally across the Bay of Bengal, on the same
line but between the soundings taken by Commander Dawson in
December 1883, and thus a complete section of the bay was obtained,
the average distance between the casts being 70 miles. The surface
temperature averaged 86°5; that of the abysmal regions of the
open ocean is universally low, the mean temperature of the sea
bottom being everywhere about 36° in very deep water, this being
the terzperature of greatest density.

24 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

The follewing charts and plans were draughted :—

— Seale.
Cuarts.
Approaches to Sandoway = - - : - | 1 inch to a mile.
North and West coasts of Cheduba_ - - - -| 3 a -
False Point to Mutlah river - - - =a ™ =
Sketch of Orissa coast - - - © Ft » ”
PLans.
Ramrece harbour, Cheduba : - 2 - | 3 inches to 2 mile.
Cheduba strait - - - B : : Kh oD as
Kyauk-pyu - - = x = al 3 2 2
Palmyras shoals - - - - - -| 8 ie x
Mergui harbour - - - - S|) oR = Fs
Tavoy river - - - - - = Sip - i
Bhaunagar, Kathiawar - - . = = 6 i ¥
55 Y (in three sheets) - - - | 20 A “4
ao Tor Janis ar . “ 2 ;
Rajpuri or Janjira harbour ule > -

All the above, with the exception of the large scale of Bhaunagar
(which was for local engineering purposes), were completed and sent
to the Hydrographer, and four of the plans were photo-zincographed
at Poona and sent to the Chief Commissioner of Burma for local
distribution.

The approaching outbreak of war with King Theebaw necessitated
some scheme for piloting a flotilla advancing on Mandalay and
Bhamo, for buoying the river and for preserving the buoys, as
native pilots beyond the frontier were not tobe had. A,river survey
party under Commander A. Carpenter, R.N., was accordingly formed,
with a small reserve party under Commander P. J. Falle, I.M.,
which was established at Pagan, about half-way between the frontier
and Mandalay. The main party, on joining the war flotilla at
Mirhla, were sent forward to lead the fleet up to Mandalay, throwing

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. D5)

the survey launch ahead to sound whenever there was a Coubt as to
which channel the main stream had adopted for the dry season.
The possession of a gun and a bluejacket’s crew were a very service-
able help to them when sounding ahead of the other vessels. Com-
mander Carpenter and lus party then piloted the flotilla up to
Bhamo, haying first taken the pilots over the shallowest portions and
examined the latest-formed channels. A complete sketch survey
was made of the river from Thayetmyo to Bhamo, and was checked
by astronomical observations at 20 positions, forming altogether a
valuable addition to geography. The survey party returned to
Rangoon and rejoined the ‘ Investigator’’ towards the end of
January, having received the thanks of General Sir H. Prendergast
for the skilful assistance which they had rendered to the Irawadi
war flotilla.

The next survey taken up was that of the Mergui archipelago,
the Admiralty chart of which (by Captains Ross and Lloyd of the
Indian Navy) was found to be very correct, the only defect being an
insufficient number of soundings. ‘The islets are all steep, and many
are mere pinnacles, which makes it probable that similar dangerous
pointed rocks exist below water. The Great Western Torres islands,
immense heaps of boulders overgrown with foliage, were visited,
and their position tested by angles to known peaks and found to be
1 miles out.

About this time a fresh datum for the low-water level on Indian
charts was resolved upon. Previously,the soundings used to
indicate the depth at the average lowest tides of all the lunar
fortnights during the year, but as this had been proved by the
observations of Major Baird to give in some cases more water
than actually existed, owing to the considerable difference on the
west coast of India between night and day tides, and on the Kast
and Burmese coasts between winter and summer ocean level, it
was decided that all soundings and tide tables should be reduced to
the lowest low water of the year, provided it was not phenomenal,
e.g., brought about by an earthquake or cyclone. The only exceptions
to this rule was to be made at Karachi, Marmagao, and in the River
Hugh, where the harbour authorities sound their own ports and
prefer their own reduction datum. This, however, was a matter
which would not confuse the mariner, as at such ports pilots are
obligatory.

26 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

Lieutenant HE. C. H. Helby, R.N., in charge of No. 1 Boat survey
party, completed the survey of the approaches to Bhaunagar com-
menced in the previous season. The soundings extended over 104
square miles, charted on the scale of three inches to a nautical mile.
No. 2 Boat party, under Lieutenant M. H. Smyth, R.N., was
engaged in buoying the China Bakir entrance to the Irawadi
river, and in the survey of Mergui, already mentioned.

On the “ Investigator’s”’ return from the Western Torres islands,
in March, she completed the southern approach to Mergui, taking
in some 20 miles of the beaten track to the southward. Preparis,
Narcondam, and Barren islands were next visited. From the last
two islands radiating lines of soundings were carried out to ascertain
their slope to the floor of the ocean. It was found that they rose
from a depth of 1,140 fathoms, but that the north-east slope of
Narcondam was being encroached upon by the outlying banks from
the great rivers flowing into the Gulf of Martaban. The temperature
observations taken seemed to favour the inference that no greater
depth than 760 fathoms exists in any of the passages between the
Andaman islands or between that group and Acheen.

In May, Lieutenant A. Channer, R.N., was again appointed as
Surveyor in charge (Commander Carpenter being absent on leave
in England). ‘The following charts and plans were drawn during the

recess :—
Irawadi river from ‘thayetmyo to Bhamo, on #-inch scale in
4 sheets.
China Bakir river - - . - on 2-inch scale.
Mergui Fells passage - - = je, Oe
3 Northern approach - = ey Ly ee
<3 Kings island to Christmasisland - ,,1 ,, _,,
Cambay Perim to Bhaunagar - CE? eae i
fs Narbada = - re ee tS,
4 Mandwa Bay, Diu - - =) eS 6

besides sailing directions, tidal, and other data. These were all
completed and forwarded to the Admiralty Hydrographer, copies
having been photo-zincographed by the Poona Office.

The first place examined by the ‘“ Investigator’ was Hinze basin
on the Burmese coast; the Moscos islands were then re-plotted,
and the beaten track in the Mergui archipelago from Christmas

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. Dil

island, where the survey of the previous season had ended,
down to Forrest strait near Pakchan. ‘The track is useful to
local trade and gives protection to vessels trading to Singapore,
but until thoroughly surveyed on a large scale, which the trade
does not at present seem to reauire, it is not recommended for
large and deep draught vessels. In fact, large ships able to steam
against the ordinary monsoon would not use it.

On Christmas day a visit was paid to the Elephant islands, close
to the south-east side of Domel island. ‘I'he former are composed
of a marble of medium quality, and are very remarkable, both for
their abrupt shapes and the beautiful grottoes they contain. The
grottoes are mostly accessible at low water through tunnels below
high-water mark opening into lofty caves. At the south end of
the largest islet, which is 1,000 feet, a low-water tunnel admits
a boat into a lagoon, entirely closed by high precipitous cliifs and
open only to the sky. Into this lagoon, which seems to be
purposely created for smugglers, several cave grottoes open from
under the cliffs. An interesting description of these islands will be
found in the Records of the Geological Survey.

With the object of examining the banks extending off the
Sundarbans between Chittagong and the “Swatch,” a survey was
made of the Meghna flats. No less than 1,750 square miles were
sounded, the result being to show more water in nearly every
direction than on the published charts, and no extension of the
prominent shoals. No. 1 Boat party completed their survey of
the channel between the Narbada river and Perim island in the
Gulf of Cambay (Narbada river to Perim island), the triangulation
being carried across the gulf from the Kathiawar side to Broach
point by means of mirrors which were extemporised as_ heliostats.
Mandwa bay, Diu head, was also surveyed, the area sounded being
10 square miles, while in the case of the Gulf of Cambay it was
65 square miles. Between October and February the “ Investigator ”
was at work in surveying the entrance to the Beypur river, and
here, and at Calicut, and off Cotta point, an aggregate area of
139 square miles were sounded and plotted on various scales. Boat
party No. 2, surveyed the approaches to the Yé river on the
Tenasserim coast on the scale of feur inches to the mile, but the
work was much impeded and interrupted by the ill-health of the
party, until on the 18th November no fewer than 23 were on the

28 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

sick list, and work was suspended. Places situated on tidal estuaries
where fresh and salt water come into contact are notoriously
malarious, and though not of a severe type the disease in this case
was extremely persistent.

The natural history results were meagre during the year 1886-87,
Surgeon G. M. Giles having been deputed to serve with the Chitral
and Kafiristan Mission during the greater part of the year.

Towards the close of March 1887 the ‘ Investigator’’ completed
the survey of the shallows off the mouths of the Meghna river.
The soundings on the ‘‘ South Patches ” proved to be even shallower
than hitherto supposed. This shoal has caused a great many wrecks
from endeavours to avoid it, for sailing vessels arriving off
Chittagong with their chronometers often in error after long ocean
passages, give it too wide a berth and get wrecked on the Meghna
shoals. With the present corrected chart, vessels making for
Chittagong should be able to avoid these Patches, while the rectifi-
cation of the peaks and outlying islets of the Andaman and Nicobar
groups will tend to decrease the wrecks on the flats of the
Sundarbans by enabling vessels standing up the Bay of Bengal to
fix their true positions.

From the ‘‘ South Patches” a line of soundings was first run
south to the latitude of Akyab, and then a line of deep-sea
soundings was carried at intervals of 70 miles to Madras, the depths
gradually increasing towards the latter place, 1,820 fathoms bemg
obtaimed 40 miles off Pulicat, near Madras. This line was the first
record of the depth of the northern portion of the Bay of Bengal.

Commander Carpenter’s paper on the mean temperaiure of the
Bay of Bengal, with its chart, has been published in the Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1887, Vol. LVI., Part II.
The temperature records afford an extremely useful check on the
observations of depth in cases where the sounding wire indicator
gets out of order.

Off Madras a closely-sounded survey was made, on the scale of
two inches to the mile, of the Tripalur reef and Rockingham patch,
where three steamers had grounded, one being lost and another
very badly damaged. This survey was connected with the land
survey stations. A few soundings were also taken north of Pedro
Point in Ceylon, where a gap existed in the soundings showing the
eastern entrance to Palk straits.

ms a

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 29

During the recess the following charts and plans were turned
out by the officers of the “Investigator” and her two boat
parties :—

Charts.
White Point to Mergui - - + inch to 1 mile.
Meena flats - - - 6 99
Beypur to Sacrifice rock = - l#inches ,,

Plans.
Mergui archipelago - - - $ inch %
Forests strait - 2 Spe clin Hiss 99
Tripalur reef, @c. —- - - 2 inches "
Beypur and Calicut roads’ - ae ON nds »
Yé river = - = OL IaN55 %
Approaches to ditto - - SA gp ”
Beypur river bar - ar wor ht ss 5
Cotta point and reef - : BB) Gs »»

All except four of the above have been photo-zincographed for
local use, and all except that of the Meghna flats, which was purely
astronomical, were based on data of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey. Sailing directions, tidal and other data were also
compiled.

For the next season the sanctioned programme comprised a
survey of the western coast of the Andaman islands, and of the
Ganijam coast between Santapilly and Hurrichpoor in latitude 20° N.,
but later on the Madras Government requested that that of the
Ganjam coast might be postponed another year.

A line of deep-sea soundings was carried from Porbandar to the
Laccadive islands, one result of which was to indicate that the
Laccadive submarine peaks sprmg from an ocean floor about
1,100 fathoms, or one and a quarter land miles deep, and are
themselves about the same height as the Western Ghats in those
latitudes.

A curious discovery was made at Chitlac island, tending to prove
the existence of a southerly current on the west coast of India.
A large wooden tank had floated ashore over the reef in September
1885 with a human skull inside, and from enquiry this appeared to be
part of the wreckage of the British Indian wooden barque “ Jabree,”
of 695 tons, with a crew of 60 men and 40 passengers, an account
of the loss of which is given in the Wreck Register for 1885.

30 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

She had reached Ras-el-Hadd on the east coast of Arabia, when
she was caught in a gale and foundered in a few hours; seven of
the crew managed to climb into an empty wooden water-tank
which had been washed off the deck, and there the seven men
lived for ten days without either food or water. After the lapse
of those ten days the survivors died one by one, the bodies being
flung overboard, and the tank drifting on steadily towards the coast
of Cutch at the rate of 28 miles a day. ‘The sixth man died whilst
within sight of land, and the last solitary survivor managed to
crawl ashore at Jakao, in Cutch. He found a pot of millet, but
his throat was so parched that he was unable to swallow it till it
was moistened with sea water; thus refreshed he was able to make
his way along the shore till he reached a native hut, where he was
kindly treated, though laid up for a long time with fever.

Commander Carpenter considers that there is very little doubt
that this same tank, after touching the coast at Jakao on the north
side of the entrance to the Gulf of Cutch, was driven seaward by
the outset of the gulf consequent on the heavy monsoon rains,
and drifting southwards along the west coast of India in the
southerly current that relieves the pressure of water on the Sind
coast during the S.W. monsoon, was carried out to the Laccadives
after the monsoon was over.

The ‘Investigator’ proceeded in November to the Andaman
islands, which, with the exception of the little Andamans, had been
all recently triangulated by Captain Hobday of the Trigonometrical
Survey. A coast survey based on the land triangulation, and
on the scale of one inch to the mile, was set in hand, and 724
square miles in all sounded. Of the harbour of Port Blair a rough
chart by Lieutenant Dickson aud Mr. Marshall, I.N., had been
made in 1861, and as a more perfect survey was now considered
necessary, a detached party under Lieutenant B. Whitehouse, R.N.,
took this in hand, and completed 16 square miles of soundings on
the 5-inch scale, including 288 square miles about the Western
Coral banks, which were gone over most minutely to ascertain
whether there was any really dangerous shoal water on them. The
least water found was six fathoms. On two occasions instead of
anchoring on the banks for the night the ship was allowed to drift,
and some very rare marine specimens were obtained by trawling,
and sent to the Calcutta Museum.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 31

The Andamanese were found to be no longer treacherous nor
hostile to Huropeans landing on their islands. <A great number of
them now talk Hindostani, which they learn with great quickness.
A tide-watching party placed in tents at the west end of Andaman
strait was met by some 30 natives. wno left their hut a mile and
a half distant and encamped close to the Englishmen, Ii was at
first supposed that they had come for protection against other
tribes, but it transpired that they had really come to protect our
people, a welcome change of feeling which is attributable to the
excellent administration of Colonel Cadell and his predecessors.

During 1887, Lieutenant Helby, R.N., who had been im
charge of No. 1 Boat party, brought the survey of Beypur and
Calicut to a close in time to recess at Poona in May. Thirty miles
of the Malabar coast were well surveyed and the Calicut reefs
clearly depicted. Lieutenant Helby then handed charge of the
boat party to Lieutenant M. H. Smyth, R.N., who, during 1887-88,
made large scale surveys of the small ports of Porbandar and
Nayibandar in Kathiawar, and also surveyed Cannanur on the
Malabar coast, all in excellent style.

In 1887 Staff Commander T. C. Pascoe, R.N., left the Indian
Marine Survey and reverted to Admiralty employment after having
been 11 years in the Department, during which he had done much
valuable work.

A detailed report on the results of the deep-sea dredging casts,
by Surgeon-Naturalist G. M. Giles, is annexed to the Marine Survey
Report for 1887-8, as well asa tabular analytical catalogue of the
collection by Mr. J. Wood-Mason, Superintendent of the Indian
Museum at Calcutta. Another appendix is the interesting little
paper referred to above by Commander Carpenter, R.N., on the
mean temperature of the deep water of the Bay of Bengal, with its
accompanying chart, the general effect of which is to show how
rapid the fall in temperature is at the varying depths from the
surface down to 150 fathoms, while after 1,200 fathoms the change
in temperature becomes very slow.

In 1889 Surgeon A. Alcock (who had succeeded to the post of
naturalist), I.M.S., was permitted to reside at Calcutta during the
recess, for the purpose of arranging the collections made and
deposited in the Indian Museum at Calcutta. Thanks to this per-
mission, Surgeon Alcock has been able to make a very large addition

ee eT ee er)
a .

32 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

to our knowledge of Indian Marine Zoology, more especially in
regard to fishes, of which he has described 44 entirely new to science,
and 62 new to the Indian fauna.

In the spring of 1888 the “ Investigator,” having completed the
examination of the outlying dangers on the west coast of the
Andaman group, took a north and south line of deep soundings
about 100 miles west of the Andamans and Nicobars from latitude
12° 40’ to latitude 5° 45’ N. In the latter position a submarine
elevation was found representing a submerged peak rising 2,000 feet
high from the floor of the ocean, about half way between the Straits
of Malacca and Ceylon.

During the recess the following fair charts (with the exception
of the 20-inch Porbandar harbour plan) were drafted and forwarded
to the Admiralty Hydrographer :—

Name of Chart or Plan. Seale.

*Port Blair to Sistersislands = - - - + - 1 inch to 1 mile.
North Sentinel island - : - -

” 2?

|
i gs [ea dter
*Port Blair - - = - - - | 5 inches

bb)
Macpherson’s strait —- - - . =|) 2 aes
West Coral bank - = - = = = |), eliainchses ames
Middle and South Coral banks = - - - = eee 45

Porbandar harbour - = - - - | 20 inches _,,

|
{
*Porbandar and Navibandar - - - = | A: AS, x

*Cannanur to Mahe - - = s Z 12s a
*Plans of Cannanore and Tellicheri - - = 3

” 33

* Photo-zinecographed for local use.

The “ Investigator” left Bombay harbour on the 20th October,
and after having coaled at Colombo carried some deep soundings
to the Andamans. Confirmatory evidence was obtained of the
existence of the ridge or plateau of 1,700 fathoms found in April
1888 about 170 miles west of the Andamans. Between this ridge
and the islands there is a submarine valley of 1,900 to 2,000
fathoms, which appears to stretch up from Acheen; on the west

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 33

side of the valley the water appeared to be slightly colder than the
normal temperature of those depths.

Arriving at Port Blair, No. 1 Boat party was landed for the
purpose of making a survey of Diligent straits on the one-inch
scale, while the “Investigator” visited South Sentinel island and
the bank off the S.W. point of Little Andaman, both of which were
sounded.

Before proceeding to the Orissa coast, deep soundings were taken
across the bay. The Bay of Bengal proved to have a regular
decline towards its mouth, the Andaman and Nicobar ridge forming
its eastern boundary (the sea east of the Andamans being a separate
basin); there is slightly deeper water nearer the coasts than m the
centre, and the depth falls very suddenly from the 100-fathom line
off the Sunderbunds to the 900-fathom line. If we take the slope
of the bed of the bay between the 1,100 and 1,400 fathoms contours
as being the true gradient of its fall, unaffected to any great extent
by the detritus from the rivers, and carry this gradient, which is
only 1 in 396, northward, we find that it brings the bed of the bay
up on a level with its surface only when it reaches the foot of the
Himalayas.

The survey of the Orissa coast was begun at the mouth of the
Devi river, and first carried to the northward for 24 miles. This
survey was on the one-inch scale, and was afterwards carried by
the “ Investigator”’ along the coast for a total distance of 199 miles,
operations being greatly helped and expedited by the marks erected
by the land surveyors. ‘The mouth of the Devi river, the anchorage
at Puri, and Gopalpur anchorage were also charted on the four-inch
scale.

During 1889-90. the operations were carried along the Ganjam
coast to the south of Gopalpur. A survey of the Coco Islands was
also commenced during the same season, as well as an examination
of the Bassein River and its approaches, by the boat party under
Lieutenant G. 8. Gunn, R.N.

The Report for 1888-89 was the last submitted by Commander
Carpenter, R.N., and in it he took the opportunity to draw up a
brief review of past work, as well as a forecast of future operations.
More than seven years had elapsed since the “ Investigator”
had made her first surveying trip, and in that time she had run
some 44,000 miles, of which just half were actual lines of close
soundings taken on various surveys. ‘he “ Investigator’s’’ boats

1 ¥ 20321. C

34 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

had, in addition to the parent vessel’s mileage, run some 11,500
miles of similar soundings. 'I‘his total mileage, however, was far
from completing the shores of India. As a matter of fact, at that
time only 1,715 miles or one-third had been charted sufficiently for
safe navigation out of a total length of 5,100 miles, consequently
much remained and even now remains to be done before the coasts
of India can be said to be adequately surveyed.

The logalities specially needing attention have been specified in
a very valuable memorandum by Commander Carpenter, which is
attached to the Marine Survey Report for 1888-89, and a brief
notice of these requirements is here desirable, and will form a fitting
conclusion to the present chapter.

The mouths of the Indus have not been examined since 1877,
when they were surveyed by Lieutenant A. W. Stiffe, and are
continually reported to be shoaling seaward. A re-survey will
have to be done astronomically with a mark boat as a guide to the
line of soundings. The original survey was made as far back as
1848-49, and the examination in 1877 was only over the most
projecting portion, which, however, is that which most specially
requires attention from time to time.

The Gulf of Cutch shows signs of increasing trade, and before
long the ports of Mundra, Tuna, Rojhi, and Salaya creek will require
charting on scales sufficiently large for harbour improvements.
The gulf was well surveyed for open navigation in 1852 by
Lieutenant (now Commander) A. D. Taylor,* but the plotting on
the chart requires fitting in with the land triangulation.

The coast of Kathiawar from Dwarka point to Gogha in the
Gulf of Cambay is fairly well shown, and an improved chart to
Diu head is to be compiled, but Jafrabad, between Diu and
Goapnath, requires charting on a large scale, and the whole coast
needs sounding off. It was surveyed by Lieutenant Ethersey, I.N.,
in 1837, in a pattimar. The operations now called for would occupy
two years.

The Gulf of Cambay is practically unsurveyed, with the exception
of a portion from Bhaunagar creek down to Perim island and
across to Broach, which represents about one-seventh of the whole
area. The head of the gulf is shallowing up and becoming less
navigable every year, and this is resulting in the banks at its

* See page 15.

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 35

mouth extending further seaward, and becoming more dangerous
to shipping. It was also surveyed by Lieutenant Hthersey prior
to 1845, and though a very creditable piece of work, considering
the means at his disposal and the ferce tidal currents, the chart is
now quite unreliable. The work would take three years.

The Bombay coast, from latitude 20° N. as far as Bombay, has
been very slightly delineated, and the whole stretch is rocky and
dangerous, but there is no immediate call for a survey, though
the projecting reef near Danu, specified in the old Indian Navy
Officers Memorandum of 1862, requires examination, and as
local trade increases there will be a demand for reliable charts
of the small ports of call along it, while a harbour of refuge
is especially needed somewhere midway between Danu and
Bombay. A boat party could be employed here with advantage
for four years, or it would take the “ Investigator” herself about
two years.

At the northern end of the Kanara coast there are about 60 miles
of very rocky coast, which though well surveyed by Lieutenant
A. D. Taylor in 1856, are not charted so as to meet present require-
ments. ‘There is not sufficient protection here for a boat party, and
the scale, to be adequate, should be two inches, which would occupy
the “Investigator” two seasons. A detailed survey will soon be
required from the Enciam rocks to Cape Comorin,a rocky strip of
the Travancore coast some 25 miles in length. On the Tinnevelli
coast the Manapand shoals require proper delineation, and with the
above-mentioned bit of ‘'ravancore coast would not take more than
a single season.

The Laccadive Archipelago was well plotted in 1844-48 by
Captain Selby and Lieutenant A. D. Taylor, but the islands have
never been properly placed in longitude. Several of the group are
three to four miles out of position and should be rectified by chrono-
metric distances. This would take two months.

On the eastern coast of India the large bay north of the Paumben
Pass called Palk Straits is far from complete, the soundings being
thick only in shore, while the banks which extend from Point
Calimere to the north point of Ceylon are of sand and liable to
change. Inthe event of the deepening of the Paumben Pass, an
accurate survey of the banks will be required with the object of
findmg the best position for light-ships, buoys, &c. The small
ports of Karikal, Cuddalore, Porto Novo, and Pondicherry require to

36 INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS.

be charted on a large scale, which witb other miscellaneous work
would take a season.

From Madras to False Point the east coast of India was, until
1888-89, quite unsurveyed, and as beacons have been erected by
the land surveyors this important piece of work could be finished by
1894. With the view of rounding off this survey, the portion
between the Mahanadi river and the Palmyras shoals should be
examined and the soundings carried out in a south-easterly direction
to 40 fathoms. This would then join on to the survey of the Pilot's
Ridge, and approaches to the Hugli, executed by the Department
in 1885.

The Burma coast from 20 miles north of Elephant Point down
to the Terrible Rocks has only been sketched, and many complaints
are received from steamers trading up and down it. The coast is
essentially rocky, and there are mud volcanoes at its south end
which are liable to form new shoals. This coast would take three
years to complete.

Passing over the extensive Cheduba Strait survey, we again come
upon a large piece of coast 150 miles in length from Sandoway to
Cape Negrais, which has never received more than a running survey,
and that as far back as 1826-30. This part, until properly charted,
28 quite unapproachable for steamers owing to the numerous rocks
and shoals that exist. But as it lies in a bight and out of the track
ot passing vessels, the requirement is not pressing.

The Bassein river has not been examined since 1853, and has
undergone great changes, but the upper reaches which connect it
with the Irawadi shift so frequently that a marine survey would
be thrown away, and vessels must depend only on their pilots.
The entrance should, however, be sounded, and this could be done
by a boat party im one season. The Great Baragua mud flat,
extending across the deltaic mouth of the Irawadi, has never been
thoroughly delineated and was only sketched in during the early
years of this century. In 1855 Captain Ward, I.N., made a survey
of it and of the outer banks of the Sittang river, but unfortunately
the drawings were lost. The Sittang river mouth, too, is a blank
on the present charts, nothing whatever being known of its present
channels. One season should consequently be set apart for a general
sounding of the Gulf of Martaban and Sittang banks.

The coast of South Burmah from Amherst to Pakchan, a length
of about 400 miles, with the exception of Yé River, Tavoy River,

INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 37

and Mergui, has only been delineated by running surveys as far
back as the years 1820-30. The principal trade route or beaten
track of trading steamers has however been sounded out sufficiently
for present purposes. As trade develops and new products are
discovered fresh surveys will be required. Besides the coast proper
there is an extensive archipelago, on the islands of which discoveries
have lately been made of silver, lead, tin, and marble, which afford
exceptional facilities for shipment. ‘he coast proper will take at
least six years to survey, and the archipelago another three years.
Pakchan, the Andaman islands (at present only one-fourth surveyed),
the Coco group, and the Nicobars also require attention.

Summing up these requirements it will be seen, with the present
establishment, about 40 years must elapse before the coasts of India
and Burma can be surveyed sufficiently for safe navigation, and by
that time British India may have extended its sea-board, and other
coasts may demand attention. Moreover, in 40 years time ocean
trafic will probably have very much enlarged, and rapidity of
transit increased, greater facilities will be required to bring produce
from small ports to larger ones, for shipment on ocean steamers and
there will be a gradual development of new ports and localities.

Whether it will be found expedient as well as possible to cope
more expeditiously with this large field of future operations, by
commissioning another surveying steamer, is a point that remains
to be seen. The matter has been commended by the Secretary of
State to the careful consideration of the Government of India. In
any case there is clearly a very extended field of employment for
the Indian Coast Survey Department for many years to come.

(oe)
(08)

III.
GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

For more than a century and a half it has been generally
recognised that a trigonometrical survey forms the most correct
basis for mapping a country. The selection of sites for the careful
measurement of base lines, from which one or more series of triangles
are projected over the expanse of country to be mapped, and the
closing of the operations on to a second base line, the final measure-
ment of which forms a check on the accuracy of the operations—this
process spreads in every direction a network of precisely defined points
within which it becomes possible for the topographers to insert the
details. It was General Roy who commenced the work in England
towards the close of last century by the measurement of a base on
Hounslow Heath in 1774, and in 1802 Colonel Mudge was engaged
in the measurement of his are of the meridian from Dunnose to
Clifton. The same year saw the commencement of the actual work
of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of Indiain the measurement
of Major Lambton’s base line near Madras. A graphic account of
Lambton’s work and a history of the subsequent triangulation under
Everest, Waugh, and Walker are contained in four chapters of the
“Memoir on the Indian Surveys.”

In 1876, at the time that our review of these operations begins,
the Trigonometrical Branch was under the control of Colonel
J. T. Walker, C.B., R.E., F.R.S., Superintendent, Major-General
H. L. Thuillier, C.8.L, F.R.S., beige Surveyor-General of India
and Superintendent of the Topographical Survey.

Extensive chains of triangulatory measurements had by that time
been spread over the Indian Peninsula from the Himalayas to
Ceylon, and the principal triangulation was now fast approaching
completion.

The first rough topographical survey of all India was also
nearly accomplished, and this naturally suggested a reduction of
the establishments of the Survey. In September 1875 the first
step was taken by the Government of India in deciding that the

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 39

Survey budget should be reduced from 240,000/. to 200,000/. Two
topographical parties were abolished, one fuil party was transferred
to Mysore, its cost being defrayed from the revenues of that State,
and similar reductions were made in the Trigonometrical and
Revenue Survey branches. These reductions, however, did not
entirely commend themselves to the Secretary of State. Further
information was called for, Lord Salisbury expressing at the same
time his hesitation in sancticning to the full the proposed reductions
except on general financial grounds or in consequence of some
recent undue growth of survey expenditure.* The Government of
India replied to this in August 1876, setting forth full details of
the expenditure during the previous ]0 years. Even this informa-
tion, however, was not conclusive. The data, in the words of the
Secretary of State, gave—

no indication of any enlargement of these establishments, which may not be regarded
as a reasonable result of the increased desire for improved information, such as that
which it is the function of the Survey Department to furnish to other branches of the
administration.

His Lordship went on in his reply; to lay stress on the general
usefulness of the work of the Department :—

I continue to attach much importance to the steady progress of the construction and
publication of good maps of all parts of the Britisi provinces in India, feeling sensible
that without them serious obstacles are necessarily interposed in the way of the acquisi-
tion of that complete statistical knowledge of the country, the absence of which has so
long been a discredit to our administration, and the application of which is so requisite
for the purpose of progressive government.

I should therefore be glad if, when the time comes for considering the details of the
budget for the ensuing year, your Lordship should find yourself in « position to avoid
further reductions in the grant to the Survey Department.

These were statesmanlike words and undoubtedly would have
borne fruit in at least arresting further reductions. But in the
meantime a grave misfortune had arisen. A famine was over-
spreading huge tracts of country, aggregating some 200,000 square
miles, in Madras and Bombay, and 36 millions of people were in
the most serious plight. It was, in fact, the most grievous calamity
of its kind experienced in British India since the beginning of the
century.{ This terribie state of things and the heavy expenditure
caused thereby, which, of course, were not foreseen at the time the
Secretary of State’s despatch was written in January 1877, made it

* Geographical Despatch to India, No. 3, dated 24th February 1876.
+ No. 1, dated 4th January 1877.
{ Report of the Indian Famine Commission, paragraph 60.

40 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

impossible to rescind or even to modify to any great extent the
scope of the orders of 1875.

It was about this time that General H. L. Thuillier, the Surveyor-
General, was retiring from the service in which he had done such
excellent work for five and forty years, and the Government took
the opportunity to call upon his successor, Colonel J. T. Walker, to
frame a scheme of re-organization of the Department. This
re-organization involved an amalgamation of the three branches of
the Survey, viz., the Great Trigonometrical, the Topographical, and
the Revenue. Up to that time they had been virtually separate depart-
ments, each with its own cadre of officers and establishments of
Huropean and Native surveyors and its own superintendent.
Originally, when the three departments were first formed, at different
times, the duties which each had to perform were essentially distinct.
The Trigonometrical Survey was required to furnish the basis
on which all surveys of interior details were to rest, and the
framework within which they were to be filled and connected
together. The Topographical and the Revenue Surveys were to
furnish the interior details, the former having to survey by means of
plane-tabling the whole country, including Native States and British
territory with the exception of the richer British revenue-paying
districts, which were to be surveyed by the latter on a larger scale.
In course of time, however, the duties of the three departments
began to overlap and intermingle. The Trigonometrical Survey
was approaching its completion, and for many years a large propor-
tion of its surveyors had beeu employed on topographical work.
The Topographical Survey, though originally imtended for the
primary general survey of India, had had to undertake in many
cases detailed surveys on large scales, and the Revenue Survey had
in addition to its own special functions been largely employed on
the topography of hill districts on a trigonometrical basis. The duties
of the three departments had thus become much intermixed, while
at the same time che transfer of an officer from one department to
another was a matter of such difficulty, that, from every point of
view, amalgamation was most desirable. This amalgamation was
not carried out without a good deal of difficulty and damage
to individual prospects, coincident as it was with extensive
reductions. The amaigamated cadres of officers and surveyors were
at last constituted as follows :—

1 Surveyor-General and Superimtendent of the Trigonometrical
and Topographical Branches.

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 41

1 Deputy Surveyor-General and Superintendent of the Revenue

Branch.

+ Deputy Superintendents, Ist grade.
TKO) asain ue Pinel sp
1S res 5 BIEL - on
li Assistant 35 listy 5
[eleecs =e e DANGl 4,
eters, Ei BIOL on

9 Surveyors, lst grade.

12 3 2nd ,,

16 5 Ord (33

22 : 4th ,,

23 Assistant Surveyors, Ist grade.
25 5 * 2ndeies.
Dill Bs i SIAL op
29 a = AG hemes

The designation of “The Survey of India” was given to the
amaleamated Department, which was henceforth to be one body,
its officers being held to be available for any description of survey
work that might be required of them, and the whole being placed
under the orders of Colonel J. T. Walker.

A brief notice of the previous services of this distinguished
officer seems here called for.

Major (now General) J. T. Walker, R.H., C.B., F.R.S., LL.D.,
&c., succeeded to the Superintendence of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey on the 13th March 1861, on the retirement of Major-
General Sir Andrew Waugh; he became Surveyor-General and
Superintendent of Topographical Surveys on the retirement of
Colonel Thuillier on the lst January 1878; and he held the three
united posts until the 12th February 1883, when he quittcd India
preparatory to retirement. He had entered the corps of Bombay
Engineers in 1844, served throughout the Punjab campaign of
1848-49, and had been employed for the next five years in making a
rapid military survey of the Northern Trans-Indus frontier, which he
carried single-handed over an area of about 10,000 square miles,
from Peshawar down to Dera Ismail Khan; he served in several
encounters with the hill tribes on the Trans-Indus frontier, and
during the mutiny of 1857 was ‘severely wounded at the siege of
Delhi; for his military services he received three medals and three
clasps, a brevet majority, and the Companionship of the Bath.

42 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

He was appointed an assistant in the Great Trigonometrical
Survey on the Ist December 1853, took a share in the measurement
of the Chach base line in the valley of the Indus near Attock,
and for some years was conducting the principal triangulation
along the Indus and on the meridian of 733°, and in carrying a
line of levels to connect the stations of the triangulation with the
sea.

In 1861, when Colonel Walker became superintendent of the Great
Trigonometrical Survey, the greater portion of the principal triangu-
lation had already been completed, and the time had arrived for
determining the procedure by which the fallible values of the several
angles and base-lines, as obtained by actual measurement on the
eround, were to be rendered consistent, and final values were to be
determined for the lengths and azimuths of the sides of the triangles
and also for the latitudes and iongitudes of the stations, which is
the ultimate object of all first-class triangulation. Already pro-
visional corrections had been applied to the angles of certain chains
of triangles directly connecting base-lines for the linear error
generated between the base lines, whereby the length of one base,
as computed through the triangles from the other, was brought into
accordance with the measured length. But this was only a small
part of the requisite reductions for general consistency. The
triangulation being formed of a large number of meridional chains
tied together by a few longitudinal chains—forming sections some-
what resembling a gridiron in shape—presented a large number of
circuits; and at the closing side of each circuit two values were
forthcoming not only of the length of the side but also of its
azimuth, and two values were also forthcoming of the latitudes and
longitudes of the stations at its extremities. Thus three geodetic
errors—as they have been called—had to be recognised and disposed
of by a process of dispersion throughout the angles, as well as the
linear error; and the question arose, and a most embarrassing
question it was, as to how the requisite angular corrections to
produce consistency throughout could be legitimately computed.

The procedure adopted was to form equations of condition
expressing the errors of the angles in each circuit as unknown
quantities in terms of the closing error of the circuit, for the three
geodetic as well as the linear errors. In forming the geodetic
equations—now done for the first time in any survey—it was found
that the co-efficients of the unknown quantities in them were greatly

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 43

more difficult to determine than the co-efficients in the linear
equations, for they consist of summations of series of terms from
the commencement of the circuit up to the position of the angle
whose error is the unknown quantity, whereas in the linear equations
the co-efficients are merely the co-tangents of the angles. The
solution of the equations was effected by Gauss’s method of minimum
squares, in which every unknown quantity is given the weight due
to the facts of observation of which it represents the error. The
number of triangles in each circuit was so great that every equation
usually contained at least a hundred unknown quantities and often
many more, and thus the simultaneous solution of any considerable
number of circuits would be a matter of enormous labour, requiring
every precaution to ensure accuracy in the execution of so large a
mass of interdependent calculations. It was found practically
impossible to undertake the simultaneous solution of the whole of
the principal triangulation of India; the triangulation was tbere-
fore apportioned into five sections, of which the dividing lines were
the two longitudinal chains of triangles, one connecting Karachi
with Calcutta, and the other connecting Vizagapatam with Bombay,
and also the portion of the central meridional chain of triangles
called the Great Arc, which lies between the parallels of 18° and 30°
Of the sections thus obtained, the four northern ones were of a
quadrilateral form, and were called the North-Hast, North-West,
South-East, and South-West Quadrilaterals, the directions having
reference to certain points common to all the four sections at their
convergence in Central India, namely, the Sironj base-line, which
was the adopted origin of the lnear element of the survey, and the
Kalianpur Observatory, the adopted origin of the geodetic elements
of azimuth, latitude and longitude. The fifth section embraced the
whole of the Peninsula to the south of a line from Bombay to
Vizagapatara, and, being triangular in form, is called the Southern
Trigon, Hach figure presents an enormous amount of simultaneous
interdependent calculation, greater than had ever been executed in
any survey, or probably in any investigation whatever.

Of these sections of the triangulation the North-West, North-
East, and South-Hast Quadrilaterals were reduced, and the final
results printed and published at the head quarters of the Survey in
Dehra Dun, by Mr. Hennessey and other officers directing the
computing staff, under the immediate superintendence of General
Walker. ‘The results are contained in Volumes II. to IV. and VI.

44 : GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

to VIITL. of the Account of the Operations of the Great 'l'rigono-
metrical Survey. Of these volumes, nine in all—of which No. I. is
on the Base-lines, No. V. on the Pendulum Operations, and No. IX.
on the Longitude Operations—were published under Colone! Walker.

The principal triangulation of the Indian Survey was designed,
from its commencement, to furnish data for employment im the
determination of the figure of the Harth. The central chain, executed
by Colonels Lambton and Everest, which extends from Cape Comorin
to the Himalayas, has several stations at which astronomical observa-
tions of the latitude were taken to convert it into a geodetic are,
and it is a most valuable arc, and has been employed in all the latest
and best investigations of the Earth’s figure. But east and west of
this central chain there were several other meridional chains when
the triangulation was completed, sore of them of an accuracy at
least equal to and perhaps greater than that of the Great Arc, and
these only required to have the latitudes of certain of their stations
determined astronomivally to become valuable meridional ares for
geodetic purposes. Moreover, a further contribution to geodesy
became practicable as soon as a sufficient number of telegraph lines
had been run over ihe country, by connecting certain of the
trigonometrical stations with those lines, and then determining the
differences in longitude between the stations telegraphically.
Colonel Walker obtained a supply of new instruments for these
observations, and a large number of astronomical latitudes and
differential longitudes were observed under his directions, and
employed by Colonel Clarke. R.E., C.B., of the Ordnance Survey, in
his latest investigations of the earth’s figure, published in his work
on Geodesy. Much of this work, however, still remained for
completion on Colonel Walker’s retirement, but the principal
triangulation of all India proper was completed, and the greater
portion of it had been finally reduced.

Colonel Walker also initiated the pendulum operations, which
were completed under his superintendence, and the tidal and
levelling operations, which are stil] in progress.

In 1864 he went to Russia to make the acquaintance of the
officers at the head of the Russian Topographical Department, and
for several years he was indebted to them for copies of their latest
maps of regions in Central Asia, which he employed in the com-
pilation of the successive editions of his well-known map of
Turkestan. He also did much to advance the operations of the

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 45

celebrated native explorers who have obtained so much new
geography in Trans-Himalayan regions.

On being appointed Surveyor-General, Colonel Walker proceeded
to carry out the amalgamation of the three branches of the Survey
referred to above.

Colonel Walker held the Surveyor-Generalship until 1883, when
he was succeeded by Colonel George Charles De Prée. The latter
officer had entered Addiscombe in 1848, and was appointed Second
Lieutenant of the Bengal Artillery im 1850. He served with the
Pegu Field Force in the following year, and examined the 'Tonghup
pass between Arakan and Burma, and reported on its practicability
for elephants. For this he was thanked by Lord Dalhousie, the
Governor-General, and he also gained the Pegu war medal. In
1854 he jomed the Survey Department and was deputed to take up
topography in Ganjam, where he worked for many years, being
afterwards attached to the contiguous survey of the Chota Nagpur
Division. On the disbanding of No. 4 Topographical Party (see
p- 74), he was placed in charge of No. 7 Party (Rajputana and
Simla). He officiated as Surveyor-General in 1883-84, and in the
latter year was confirmed in the appointment, which he held up to
his death, in Jersey, on the 18th February 1887. He was a talented
and indefatigable officer, and his early death was undoubtedly due
in great measure to the inclement and unhealthy tracts in the
eastern part of the Peninsula where he had so long and energetically
laboured. He was succeeded by Colonel H. R. Thuilher, R.H., (son
of the former Surveyor-General of that name) who obtained his
commission in 1857, and whose good services have admirably
sustained the traditions and reputation of the Department.

During the year 1876-7, at which period our review of these
operations begins, three parties were engaged on principal triangula-
tion, on the Madras Coast Series, the Hastern Frontier Series,
and the Hastern Sind Series, and two parties in the Assam Valley
and British Burma on secondary triangulation. The primary
object of the Madras Coast Series was the completion of the
principal triangulation in Southern India by a regular series between
Madras and Cape Comorin, with a branch series vid Palk straits
connecting Ceylon with India. Triangulation had been carried into
this region by Colonel Lambton in the beginning of the century,
but on leaving the hills of the central peninsula and entering a
vast plain covered with trees and vegetation, it met with difficulties
which the early appliances of the survey were inadequate to

46 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

surmount and which necessitated the stoppage of the operations,
A large blank in the triangulation thus remained to be filled in.
The Madras Coast Series (under the temporary direction of Captain
T. T. Carter, in place of Colonel Branfill) started from Southern
Tanjore and worked northwards, so as eventually to effect a junction
with the Madras Longitudinal Series at its eastern extremity. The
country was unfavourable for triangulation, beimg flat, with imnu-
merable groves of valuable trees; the villages were numerous, and
each covered much ground, and owing to the want of roads locomotion
was by no means easy. The famine, too, which was raging in
Southern India during the season, made the question of supplies
a difficulty, prices being excessively high, and the villagers occa-
sionally disinclined to supply food at any price. The country
traversed by the party skirts the coast of South Tanjore for some
fifty miles along the north-western shore of Palk straits (the Sinus
Argaricus of Ptolemy), and les between the deltas of the Vaigai
and the Cauvery rivers.

In the following season the triangulation was carried by Colonel
Branfill across the paddy swamps of the Cauvery delta into the
valley of the Coleroon. The lofty tower of the Provincial College
at Kumba onam afforded an excellent station, which greatly
facilitated the passage of the delta. An approximate connexion
with the levels of the South of India Railway was effected, and
seven of Colenel Lambton’s old stations were identified and con-
nected. An interesting note on the physiography of the Cauvery
delta, together with a list of the proper names of stations and places
with root meanings and notes on their characteristics, was compiled
by Colonel Branfill during the season and published by the Asiatic
Society of Bengal.

Next season (that of 1878-9) saw the party working across the
alluvial flats of the Coleroon, Vellar, and South Pennar rivers, and
it was not till the hillock and rock-studded plain of the Carnatic
was reached that the ground became favourable for triangulation.
The great Siva temple of Gangaikondapuram, in the north-east
corner of the Trichinopoly district, was visited and described by
Colonel Branfill, and his paper thereon was also published in the
journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

The operations of this party were brought to a conclusion in the
year 1879-SO0 by the measurements of three polygons between
Pondicherry and Madras. Secondary chains of triangles were
carried from the main chain to fix the positions of the hghthouses

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 47

at Pondicherri, Negapatam, and other distant points, and in course
of this work recourse was very frequently had to the lofty
temples called Gopurams, the temporary conversion of which into
theodolite stations was successfully negotiated by the Assistant
Surveyor, Mr. Potter. The principal triangulation being finished
early in the season, Colonel Branfill proceeded to the west coast to
connect the secondary triangulation which Colonel Lambton had
brought up from Cape Comorin over the hills of Travancore and
Cochin to Ponani, early in the present century, with the secondary
triangulation of the Malabar minor series. Colonel Branfill’s opera-
tions closed with certain observations for the better connection of
the triangulation on which the topography of the Nilgiri Hills is
based, with his principal triangulation. ‘This completed the modern
operations in Southern India, the greater portion of which fell to
his share and were accomplished with considerable skill, energy,
and perseverance.

The Hastern Sind Series, on the meridian of 70°, was commenced
by Captain Rogers in 1876, at a side of the Karachi Longitudinal
series. It lay across a country of sheer desert, composed mainly of
parallel ridges of sand of considerable height with steep slopes
covered with low thorn jungle ; occasionally these sandhills disappear
and give place to a variously moulded surface of ever shifting sand
utterly devoid of vegetation called ‘“‘draens.” Curiously enough,
wells of good water are occasionally found in these spots, the
water in other parts of the desert being scarcely drinkable. The
villages are for the most part built on the tops of the sand-
hills, which in winter are warmer than the valleys. During
1877-78 the rains falied in Sind, and Captain Rogers was
consequently despatched to carry a secondary triangulation from
the western frontier of Sind into Baluchistan along the line
between Jacobabad and Quetta, a series much needed for the
correction of the maps of Southern Afghanistan and Baluchistan ;
tke position of Kandahar in particular being placed on one of the
best maps 15 miles west of its real position. Towards the
British frontier there is a great dearth of water and vegetation,
but near the hills there are ravines and watercourses, several con-
siderable villages, and traces of much greater prosperity and
population in times past, the subsequent deterioration being attri-
buted mainly to the unsettled condition of the country. Captain
Rogers laid out several triangles near the entrance to the Bolan

48 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

pass, after which he marched to Quetta and fixed the most conspicuous
hills around. During the following season war broke out with
Afghanistan and Captain Rogers was attached to the southern army,
but Mr. Price carried the triangles up to Quetta, and Mr. Torrens
extended them to the boundary of Pishin beyond. A good descrip-
tion of the Kachi plain lying between General Jacob’s tower on the
British boundary and the mountains forms part of Mr. Price’s official
report. The various pieces of triangulation completed by Captain
Rogers and his assistants comprised the following: Ist, the series
from Jacobabad to Quetta; 2nd, the series from Quetta to Khelat ;
ord, the series from Quetta to Kandahar: 4th, the triangles round
Kandahar and the Khakrez valley.

It was not till near the end of the field season of 1879-80 that
the work of the Eastern Sind Series was resumed, when Captain
Rogers completed two double polygons spanning a direct distance
of 64 miles. In the followimg year the series was completed by
Colonel Branfill by four polygonal figures carried northwards, and
closing on toa side of the Great Indus Series. A chain of secondary
triangles was also successfully carried by Mr. ‘Torrens across
Central Sind to Sehwan, on the Indus, to furnish points for the
revenue and topographical surveyors.

On the northern confines of India the survey of the mountainous
districts of Kumaun and Garhwal (of which only a small area
remained to be done) had been in abeyance during 1875-76 so
as to enable the whole strength of the party to be applied to
the Dehra Dun survey, which by that means was finished in
that season. In 1876-77 the Kumaun and Garhwal survey was
resumed under Mr. E. C. Ryall and also brought to a conclusion.
The winter had been exceptionally severe, and the spring and
early summer cold and wet; consequently this told much against
the surveyors, whose operations had to be conducted at an average
elevation of about 16,000 feet above sea-level; Mr. Ryall’s highest
point of observation was 19,600, while Mr. Pocock executed
one plane table section at 19,000 feet. The snow-line was much
lower than usual, and owing to the inhabitants being thereby detained
in their winter homes long beyond the ordinary time, supplies were
very difficult to obtain. Mr. Ryall’s triangulation is described below,
p- 50. To Mr. J. Peyton was entrusted the topographical survey of the
Byans valley, but here again the exceptionally unfavourable weather
proved a great obstacle to work. In July there were only five days
of clear blue sky, when the mountain features could be delineated,

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. : 49

and in the Kuti Valley, behind most of the great snow and rain
collecting mountains, the weather was seldom fine for more than a
couple of hours in the morning. ‘The Byans valley communicates
with Tibet by three routes, the principal and earliest open to
travellers being called the Lipu Lek pass; in moderate weather this
is avery easy pass. There are seven villages in the valley, ali
facsimiles of each other, but with the exception of some half-dozen
houses built in the style of Swiss chalets, they all are small and low,
the building material being furnished by the cedars of the adjoining
ranges. The Bhotea inhabitants of these lofty regions are a race
of sturdy hillmen, with no caste prejudices, ready to eat game of
all kinds and to drink to any extent. They are principally engaged
in agriculture and breeding sheep and goats, and all their clothing is
made by hand looms, the wool being procured from their own
sheep. Woollen blankets and plaids of bright colours and scarfs
are made by the women, who occasionally act as coolies when there
isa lack of men. At Garbia, one of the largest villages of the
Byans valley, the Tartar physiognomy is by no means prominent,
and some of the faces were expressive and even pretty. Mr. Peyton
found the men always faithful to their engagements, and many of
them while in attendance on him underwent great hardships,
roughing it on the cold mountain tops without shelter of any kind.
To Mr. Pocock and Mr. Warwick was allotted the topography of the
northern and southern portions, respectively, of the Dharma valley,
which runs contiguously to the Byans valley, and in the case of the
former the inclemency of the weather was equal to and the altitude
even greater than in the Byans valley where Mr. Peyton was
occupied. The entrance to the Milam valley is through a stu-
pendous gorge overhung by large masses of granite precipices;
the gorge is about 12 miles in length, and the road through it is for
the most part a mere series of narrow steps built along the faces of
steep hillsides or rugged precipices; where these steps cannot be
made planks leading from one ledge of a precipice to another are laid
across. ‘The mountains here are composed of three different kinds
of rock, the lowest formation is granite, of which all the most lofty
peaks are composed; the second is hard slate; and the third and
highest is a hard crystallised limestone. At the village of Milam*
the valley splits into two; the one to the west is occupied by an

* This is the village where the celebrated explorers Nain Singh avd Kishen Singh
were both born and brought up. See page 151.

i YE DLP BSc D

50 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

extensive glacier, the other might be calied a narrow gorge,
extending up to the very watershed line on the Unta Dhurra pass,
below which lies a glacier four miles in length. Owing to this glacier
the Unta Dhurra pass is the most difficult of all the passes in
Kumeun and Garwhal.

Mr. E. C. Ryall succeeded in extending the Milam series of
triangles (origimating from a side of the Kumaun and Garhwal
survey) up to the frontier of Hundes—which is the name of the
S.W. province of Tibet—and then for some distance across the
frontier, whereby he was able to fix the positions of a large
number of peaks in Tibetan territory.* The severity of the winter
had caused the routes to be blocked up with snow; but though
this may have deterred ordinary travellers, the Tibetan officials
were on the alert, and soon after Mr. Ryall had crossed the frontier
his presence became known to them. By informing them, however,
that his object was to survey the northern limits of British territory,
which he found it impossible to do from the south, he succeeded in
satisfying them, and was allowed to proceed. Mr. Ryall was
enabled to fix a large number of snowy peaks across the Suilej,
including the remarkable needle-like peak of Leo Porgyal situated
at the point where the British frontier crosses the gorge of the
river, the sacred Kailas, and other lofty peaks at the head of the
Manasarowar lakes and to the east. The triangulation accomplished
was sufficient to furnish bases for a detailed survey, if one should
ever be desirable. The province of Hundes or Nari- Khorsam occupies
the upper basins of the Sutlej and the head waters of the Karnali
river. It is a most desolate region, the only trees being poplars, and
these being found only along the lower banks of large streams.
One of the most important places is the military fort of Taklakhar
(Tiger’s fortress), which is garrisoned by about 100 men and is close
to the Nepal frontier. It is in reality a huge mound, the dwellings
being excavated in the centre and the sides loopholed for defensive
purposes. Within are said to be vast stores of grain and ammuni-
tion, the former being subject to no deterioration owing to the
extreme dryness of the atmosphere. Tuklikhar was the last post
occupied by the Dogras in their disastrous invasion of Hundes, when
Zorowar Sing’s Indian army of 6,000 men was routed by the
Chinese and perished miserably by the sword and by the frost on

* See special report attached to Surveyor-General’s Repert for 1877-78. Some
interesting particulars are also given in the Trigonometrical Survey Report for 1876-77.

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 51

the 12th December 1841. The people of Hundes (called Hunias)
are of Tartar origin, having the well-known leading ethnological
characteristics of that race. They own large flocks of big, long-
fleeced sheep, and herds of cattle and Tibetan goats, as well as a
few yaks. There are five principal passes leading from Hundes into
British territory, and the traffic over them is carried on between the
15th June and the 15th October. The passes, however, are not
declared open till the authorities have satisfied themselves as to the
absence of epidemics in the Ghats, the effect of smail pox, &e. on
some occasions among a people so indifferent to cleanliness having
been terrible. Shawl wool is taken in large quantities to Amritsar
and other places in the Punjab, while sheep’s wool is also largely
exported to the Himalayas, where it is made up into blankets and
serges.

In the following year Mr. T. Kinney was despatched up the
Bhagirathi valley to supplement Mr. Ryall’s observations in the
direction of the Nilane vaJley and the T'saprang district of Hundes.
The Bhagirathi forms the westernmost source of the Ganges, and
the gorge through which the Nilang valley is entered is terrific in
aspect; snowy peaks, from 20,000 to 21,000 feet in height,
towering overhead, while the stream flows 10,000 feet below, walled
in by sheer precipices sometimes 3,000 feet in height. ‘The descrip-
tion given by Captain Hodgson in 1817* fully bears out Mr. Kinney’s
more recent account. Owing to the Tibetan frontier officials having
been sharply censured by the Governor of Gartok (who has supreme
authority over the province of Hundes) for allowing Mr. Ryall to
cross the frontier the year before, Mr. Kinney was unable to do
much more than fix some of the Tibetan peaks from the crest of
the watershed, some 19.000 feet in height. The cold was intense
throughout, and as the party were forced to encamp-at least
4,000 feet below, much time was spent in travelling to and fro, and
the out-turn of work not so great as it would have been under
favourable circumstances.

The secondary triangulation in the Assam valley was carried on
by Lieutenant Harman, in 1876-77, with his customary energy,
notwithstanding the unfavourable weather, incessant rains flooding
the nullahs and turning the forest paths into streams of mud and
water, which brought out myriads of leeches, to the great discomfort
of the party. Huge india-rubber trees had often to be felled, though

* See Asiatic Researches, Vol. XIII.
D 2

a2, GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

one, 112 feet in height, was usefully converted into an observing
station, enabling a connexion to be established with the triangulation
of Lieutenant Woodthorpe, who was carrying on a topographical
survey in the neighbourhood. The work of the season extended
over a distance of 53 miles, along the banks of the Brahmaputra to
within a few miles of Sadiya. During the following season
(1877-78) endeavours were made to extend the triangulation of the
region between the Subansiri and the Dihone, so as to ascertain
which of the two formed the continuation of the Sanpo river of Tibet.
As it was practically impossible to venture far across the frontier,
Lieutenant Harman was directed to measure the discharges of the
Subansiri, the Dihong, the Dibong, and the Bramaputra in order
to try and solve the question by ascertaining the magnitude of the
volume of water in each river, and thus obtaining indircct evidence
on the question at issue.

In company with Captain Woodthorpe, Lieutenant Harman pro-
ceeded to the Miri Hills, between the Subansiri and Dihong rivers,
and succeeded in sketching about 1,500 miles on the half-inch
scale. This included a portion of the Dihong river, higher than any
previously surveyed, but not sufficiently high to show whether the
stream is the continuation of the Sanpo or not. He next com-
menced to measure the river discharges, taking observations of the
following :—(1) the Subansiri river; (2) the Brahmaputra, at a
point three miles from Dibrugarh and below the junction of the
Dihong and Dibong rivers; (8) the united stream of the Dihong
and Dibong rivers, one mile below their junction and one mile above
their junction with the Bramaputra; (4) the Dibong river, at one
mile above its junction with the Dihong and half a mile below the
junction of the Sensri river with it; (5) the Brahmaputra river,
about nine miles above Sadiya and half a mile below the junction
of the united stream of the Tengapani and Noa Dihing rivers; and
(6) the united stream of the two latter rivers, at about 200 yards
below their junction.

The full details of these interesting operations, meluding the
sectional measurements and the calculation of discharges, have been
published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal.* ‘The general effect is
to show that the volume of water in the Dihong is from two to

® SeeJ.A.S. B., Vol. XLVIIL., Pt. 2, No. I., 1879. The measercments, in connexion
with the earlier ones by Bedford anit Wilcox, are also discussed in General Walker’s
paper on the Hydrography vf S.E. Tibet (see Proceedings Royal Geographical
Society, p. 581 of 1888).

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. Dy3)

three times as great as that of the Subansiri, and that the former
is much more likely to be the continuation of the Sanpo than the
latter.

The secondary triangulation in Burma consisted in 1876 of chains
projected from the Eastern Frontier Series in various directions,
one being from Myanong to Cape Negrais, (2) one from Prome to
Thayetmyo and Tonghu, and (4) a chain to meet (2) in the neighbour-
hood of Tonghu. The country through which these operations had to
be carried on was difficult, the hills being flat-topped, densely wooded,
and from their similarity difficult to distinguish apart. ‘The
dificulty of obtaining labour, too, was considerable, as the Burmese
coolies strongly object to being absent from home for more than a
day or two. In the following season (1877) Mr. Beverley was
instructed to select suitable sites for two lofty beacons which it was
proposed to erect on the coast line abreast of the Krishna shoal, the
lighthouse on which had mysteriously disappeared, whether blown
over in a storm or demolished by the collision of a vessel was
unknown. Strenuous efforts were made to extend the triangulation
towards these beacons during the year 1878-79; but in conse-
quence of the great difficulties encountered, owing to the country
being quite uninhabited and covered with dense forest and jungle,
through which it was almost hopeless to attempt to cut openings
for the rays, the attempt to triangulate was abandoned, and instead
thereof a traverse survey was carried to the beacons along the
best paths that could be found.

At the close of the season 1875-76 the line of principal triangula-
tion called the Hastern Frontier Series had been brought down to
the vicinity of Tavoy, whence, durimg 1876-77, it was carried
forward in all a distance of 92 miles, first hy Mr. H. Beverley and
afterwards by Captain J. Hill, R.H., who assumed command. For
the extension of the triangulation southwards it was necessary,
during the ensuing season, to have a station on the group of
islands known as the Middle Moscos, and another on the Southern
Moscos. The country traversed on the mainland was very lke that
of the previous season; a thick impenetrable jungle, covering plain
and mountain alike, and offermg great obstruction to the elephants,
which had often to be brought to the stations by tediously circuitous
routes. The trigonometrical measurements were advanced a distance
of 65 miles; the position of the town of Tavoy was fixed, as weil
as that of the “ Three Pagodas,” an important and well-known mark

54 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

on the boundary between Siam and Tenasserim. All the officers
suffered more or less in health after their exposure and privation m
the Tenasserim jungles, and the want of a sanitarium in Burma to
enable men to recruit before entering the duties of a fresh season
was much felt.

This series had now ‘reached a point about 35 miles south of
Tavoy, from which the direct distance to Bangkok, the capital of
Siam, was only 90 miles, while the distance round the coasts
was fully 2,000 miles. As a check on the marine surveys it was
very desirable for a chain of triangles to be carried across into
Siamese territory, and to this the King of Siam readily assented.
Singularly enough, the tract of British territory lying up to the
Siamese boundary, though only 42 miles in width, proved the most
difficult piece of all, the hills (composed chiefly of metamorphic rocks)
being generally flat with no commanding points, while the dense
tropical vegetation and unusually long rainy season of 1878 were
further obstacles to speedy progress. Once across the frontier the
country suddenly became more favourable, and with the ready
co-operation of the Siamese officials good progress was made up to
within 25 miles of Bangkok, the remaining portion being continued
by Captain Hill late in the followimg year, and completed by
Mr. McCarthy at the beginning of the season 1880-81.
Mr. McCarthy also determined the position of the six next most
important towns in Siam; one of the stations selected was part of
the celebrated Phra Pratom pagoda, the largest in Siam. The
outside circuit of its enclosure is 3,25] feet. Within this enclosure,
which is cloistered and turreted, are other cloisters, temples, and
belfries built on successive plateaux, while from the centre of the
highest a great bell-shaped spire springs to the height of 347 feet
above the ground. Besides these places the positions of several hill
peaks on both sides of the head of the Gulf of Siam were deter-
mined, compass sketches made of several of the chief rivers and
canals, and a plan of Bangkok prepared on the scale of four inches
to the mile.

In November 1880 Mr. McCarthy was requested by the British
Vice-Consul, Mr. Newman, to accompany a Siamese telegraphic
expedition then about to start for the Natyadung pass, on the
British frontier, about 55 miles higher up than the Amya pass, by
which the survey party had crossed into Siam. The whole route up
to the former pass was measured with cane ropes, and Mr. McCarthy

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 55

was also enabled to get bearings to fresh peaks and te affix the
names to some already observed. He returned to Moulmein on tne
13th April 1881, having been employed on field duty nearly
eighteen months, and having won good opinions in his dealings
with the Siamese officials and natives.

The extension of the Hastern Frontier Series or chain of principal
triangulation down into lower Tenasserim, with a view to the
measurement of a base-line at the southern extremity of British
indian territory, was taken in hand by Mr. H. Beverley in
November 1879. But the ill-health from which, in spite of a very
strong constitution, he had suffered for some years, proved fatal
and he died on the 22nd June. He had served 25 years in the
Department, and notwithstanding the malarious and difficult tracts
in which he had often worked his labours were assiduous and
successful.

The selection of a suitable site for the measurement of a base-
line was a difficult matter, but eventually a gcod spot was discovered
in the Mergui township, Mergui island, beyond the range of the
numerous creeks which penetrate inland from the sea. Lastly, but not
leastly, supplies for the numerous surveyors and their followers were
here easily procurable. While Mr. Potter, Assistant Surveyor, was
constructing the principal stations around the base-line, and clearing
the rays between them, Captain Hill was completing the remaining
triangles between Tavoy and the base-line and connecting his
heights with the sea-level for verification. Extraordinary difficulties
were experienced from the haze, which was so dense that the
shipping people and fishing population were unable to carry on
their usual calling. The meteorological observations throw very
little light on the cause of this peculiar haze. It generally
commences about the middle of January, with north-east or easterly
winds, and rain seems to have no effect upon it; with south-west or
western winds it clears. The natives add that exceptionally hazy
seasons occur at intervals of about five or six years.

The part of Mergui chosen for the base-line appears to have been
more thickly inhabited in former times than at present. Many
old pagodas, some in ruins, are scattered about. A number
of Mussulmans, chiefly descendants of men from India and the
Straits who have intermarried with Burmans, have taken up their
vesidence in the place; they are increasing steadily, and supplanting
the original Burmans. ‘The Mergui archipelago, consisting of

56 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

thickly-studded islands, interspersed with shoals and rocks, enjoys a
salubrious climate, and the scenery is beautiful. Many of the
islands are peculiar and interesting; one with a central basin
enclosed by walls of rock can be approached through a short tunnel
open only at low water, and when the tide rises communication
with the outer world is cut off for six hours. Another small flat
island, calied Tho Bya, has a small fresh-water lake in the centre,
and until recently villages stood and fields were cultivated round
the margin; but tigers came and multiplied to such an extent that
they drove away tne people, and the island is now deserted. With
the exception of the fishing people from Mergui and the neigh-
bourhood, the only inhabitants of the smaller islands of the
Archipelago are the Selung, a small tribe of strange, timid, wild
beings, without fixed abode, living almost entirely in their boats.
According to Captain Hill they appear to be fleeced systematically
by the Chinese, who send agents to them out into the Archipelago
to barter rice at exorbitant rates for the pearls, shells (which fetch
very high prices in China), bees-wax, mats, &c. which the Selung
are able to supply.

During the season 1881-82 two parties were engaged im the
conipletion of the Hastern Frontier Series and the measurement of
the Mergui base, viz., that under Major Rogers (who had relieved
Captain Hill), and the party under Colonel Branfill which in the
previous year had been employed in completing the Hastern Sind
Series. During the first half of the season these parties worked
independently of each other; Colonel Branfill’s in connecting
the principal triangulation with the base-line and executing the
necessary preliminaries for the linear measurement; Major Rogers’s
in extending the principal triangulation southwards and making a

reconnaissance of the islands of the Mergui archipelago, with a view’

to the future extension down to Singapore. With the aid of the
Indian Marine steamer ‘“ Celerity,” by which communication was
much expedited. the most was made of the brief observing season—
barely two months—and by the end of January all hands were
engaged in the measurement of the Mergui base-line under Colonel
Branfill. The base is only about 3-4 miles in length, or rather less
than haif the average length of the previous Indian base-lines
(that at Cape Comorin alone excepted); but suitable ground for a
longer base could not be found anywhere on the coasts or islands
of the Archipelago.

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 57

The actual measurements and comparisons of the compensation
bars with the standard of length occupied 24 days, and the
value of the length of the base- in, as determined by calculation
through the triangulation, which consists of a chain of polygonal
figures nearly 1,000 miles in length, proved to be only 3-4 inches,
or 1 inch per mile, in excess of the measured value.

With a view to determine the height of the base-line above the
sea a line of spirit-levels was carried from one end. down to the
coast—where arrangements were made for erecting a tidal
station. Astronomical observations for the determination of the
latitude and the azimuth were taken at four of the stations of
tbe principal triangulation in the vicinity of the base-line, and the
mean differences between these observations and the latitudes and
azimuths geodetically computed from Kalianpur—Colonel Everest’s
station of astronomical origim—were 8-2” in latitude and 11-2” in
azimuth; but the theoretical probable errors generated in the
course of the triangulation between the origin at Kalianpur and the
terminus at Mereui are less than +1” in latitude and +3” in
azimuth ; thus the discrepancies between the observed astronomical
and the deduced geodetic results at Mergui are probably due mainly
to the influence of local attractions in deflecting the plumb- -line at
the initial and terminal astronomical stations.

Latitude observations were also made at Moulmein by Major
Rogers, and the same officer also inspected the working of the
tide-gauges at Moulmein, Amherst, Rangoon, Hlephant point, and
Port Blair, and then proceeded to Poona to relieve Major Hill
of the charge of the tidal and levelling party. Thus the super-
vision of the calculations for the reduction of the principal
triangulation and the astronomical observations mainly devolved
on Colonel Branfill, who, having brought ail the work to a satis-
factory completion and handed it over to Mr. Hennessey, at the
computing office of the great trigonometrical survey in Dehra Dun,
proceeded to Hurope on furlough. The triangulation parties were
then broken wp, most of the officers being transferred to topogra-
phical surveys, while the native establishments were reduced and
transferred to the new secondary triangulation party and the Nepal
Boundary survey.

The chain of principal triangles known as the Eastern Frontier
Series had thus been brought down from Assam through Arakan

58 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

and British Burma into Tenasserim, and closed on to a base-line of
verification in Mergui, near the southern extremity of the British
territory east of the Bay of Bengal. Thus the principal triangula-
tion of all India had been completed on the lines originally marked
out by Colonel Everest and sanctioned by the Honourable Court of
Directors of the Hast India Company. A brief retrospect of the
history of this great undertaking, epitomized from General Walker's
excellent account thereof, may be here given.

The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India originated in a
so-called ‘‘mathematical and geographical survey,’ which was
commenced in Southern India, in the year 1800, by Major Lambton
of H.M.’s 38rd Regiment of Foot, on the recommendation of the
Honourable Colonel Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. Its
object was, in Major Lambton’s words, to ‘‘ determine the exact
** positions of all the great objects that appeared best calculated
“ to become permanent geographical marks, to be hereafter guides
“ for facilitating a general survey of the peninsula;” and as at
that time the elements of the figure of the earth were not known
with sufficient approximation to enable the latitudes and longitudes
of the ‘‘ great objects” to be computed with accuracy from the data
of the triangulation, Major Lambton pointed out that his intended
survey would, in the interests “of general science involve many
* more objects than that immediately appertain to geography,”
and that portions of the triangulation would have to be executed
with the utmost possible precision, and be supplemented by astro-
nomical determination of position, with a view to the requirements
of geodesy.

Between the year 1800 and 1825 the operations consisted of a
network of triangulation over Southern India, grounded on, and
verified by, several chain-measured base-lines, through the middle
of which a principal chain of triangles was carried in a meridional
direction, from Cape Comorin up to Sironj in Central India. This
chain formed the southern portion of what is now known as Lambton
and Everest’s Great Arc. Its angles were measured with greater
eare than those of the collateral network, and at certain of its
stations astronomical observations of the latitude were taken for
the determination of the included minor arcs of amplitude. Colonel
Lambton died in 1823, and was succeeded by Colonel Everest, who
found no difficulty in obtaining carte blanche from the Government

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 59

of India and the Court of Directors for a new instrumental equip-
ment, much superior to what had hitherto been employed. During
his absence from India a small party of surveyors was engaged
in carrying a longitudinal chain of triangles eastwards from the
point reached by the Great Arc in Central India to Calcutta.

On his return from Europe in 1830, Colonel Everest recommended
the abandonment of the network system of triangulation, and the
substitution instead of what he called the “gridiron” system,
consisting of meridional chains which were intended to be constructed
at intervals of about one degree apart, while the longitudinal chains
would follow the parallels of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and
thus run at intervals of from five to six degrees apart. The external
chains of the gridiron were to follow the British frontier lines and
the coast lines. The entire triangulation was to be grounded on
base-lines measured with the Colby apparatus of compensation bars
and microscopes—in terms of a fixed standard of length—which
were to supersede the old base-lines that had been measured with
chains of comparatively rude construction and of uncertain length.
This programme of operations was approved by the Government of
India and the Court of Directors, and it has furnished the guiding
lines on which the principal triangulation has been executed during
a period of almost exactly half a century.

For convenience of treatment in the final reduction, the whole
of the chains situated within the limits of India proper have been
grouped into five sections. Four of these are roughly four-sided in
outline and are respectively called the North-Hast, North-West,
South-Hast, and South-West Quadrilaterals, names in which the
cardinal points have reference to the Kalianpur Observatory in
Central India, which Colonel Everest adopted as the origin of the
operations subsequent to 1832. The fifthis three-sided, and is called
the Southern Trigon, and embrace the southern portion of the
peninsula, below the parallel of Madras. The North-Hast Quadri-
lateral was completed first of all, and here it will be seen, on reference
to the Chart of the Principal Triangulation, that the meridional
chains of triangles lie at intervais of about one degree apart, as
originally designed by Colonel Everest. But in the sections sub-
sequently executed the intervals between the meridional chains were
materially increased, as the minor triangulations which in course
of time came to be executed by the topographical surveys were of
such accuracy that a smaller amount of principal triangulation was

60 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

found to suffice for all geographical requirements, and more was not
wanted for geodetical requirements. Anadditional meridional chain
might have been constructed on the meridian of 84° within the
South-East Quadrilateral, and it doubtless would haye been con-
structed but that before it could be commenced a network of
excellent topographical triangulation had been thrown over the entire
area which is included between the collateral principal chains,
and nothing more was wanted. Similarly in the Southern Trigon,
the execution of a chain of principal triangles along the west coast
from Cape Comorin to Mangalore was desirable for symmetry,
co-ordinately with the chain on the east coast from Cape Comorin
to Madras, but it was not wanted for geodesy. For geographical
purposes the Malabar coast series of secondary triangles was amply
sufficient. It had been mostly executed by Major Lambton, and it
stood connected with the modern operations. Major Lambton had
not, however, attempted to throw his triangulation over the broad
belt of plains on the east coast, which is covered with trees and
obstacles that he had no means of surmounting. Thus a chain
cf principal triangles has been extended of late years over these
plains, and has furnished a base from which a branch chain of
iviangles has been carried across the Paumben straits to the
Island of Ceylon, in order to connect the surveys of India and
Ceylon.

For geodetic purposes the amount of principal triangulation
which has been executed has been pronounced to be ample. The
first measurement of the sections of the Great Arc between Cape
Comorin and Sironj was accomplished with instruments far inferior
in accuracy to those with which the liberality of the Court of
Directors furnished Colonel Everest in subsequent years, and being
dvemed of insufficient accuracy for geodetic requirements, its revi-
son was directed to be undertaken as soon as might be consistent
with the need of triangulation for geographical purposes in other
parts of India. The northern section, from Sironj down to Bidar,
was indeed revised under Colonel Everest’s superimtendence in
1538-39, but the revision of the southern sections — Bidar,
Bangalore, Cape Comorin—was postponed for several years, and
was eventually accomplished during 1869-74.

The longitudinal series, from Sironj to Calcutta, was also revised,
as it was originally executed with very inferior instrumental

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 61

means, and it happens to be the most important of all the great
chains of triangles. because it furnishes bases for no less than
14 meridional chains lying to its north and south. Partial revisions
have been made in other quarters of work executed with inferior
instruments, which it was deemed necessary to raise to a higher
standard of accuracy. Outside the limits of India proper the more
recently completed chain of triangles called the Hastern Frontier
Series is a valuable contribution to geodesy as well as geography.

The whole of the triangulation rests on ten base-lines which have
been measured with the Colby apparatus of compensation bars and
microscopes, which was constructed in England under Colonel
Everest’s superintendence. The relations of the length of the
Indian standard to the principal European standards of length have
been very exactly determined. Considerations of symmetry would
suggest the introduction of an additional base-line near Bombay,
on the same parallel as the Bidar and Vizagapatam base-lines, and
measured with the same apparatus. But it so happened that a
chain base-line had been measured on the Karleh plain, near
Bombay, in the year 1828, by Captaim Shortrede, the calculated
value of which, through the longitudinal series from the Bidar
base-line, agrees very closely with the measured value. It was
commended by Colonel Everest, who, however, some years after-
wards, in 1848, made preliminary arrangements for the measurement
of another line in the neighbourhood with the Colby apparatus, but
he did not carry out this project. Eventually the idea was
abandoned, as the distance from the Bidar base is comparatively
small, and no material advantage at all commensurate with the
labour and expense would be derived from the measurement of a
new base; for-to measure a base-line with the Colby apparatus
occupies two full-strength trigonometrical parties for an entire field
season, unless there happens to be other employment for the survey
officers in the neighbourhood of the base. There is some uncertainty
as regards the unit of length adopted by Captaim Shortrede in
measuring the Karleh base, consequently this base has not been
employed in the final reductions, though no. new base has been
measured.

Thus the great work of the principal triangulation of India
became an accomplished fact. Commenced in 1800, under the
auspices of the Madras Government, it was carried on by Major
Lambton, almost single-handed, until the year 1818, when the

62 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Marquis of Hastings, who was then Governor-General, placed it
under the direct and immediate control of the Supreme Government.
Captain Everest was shortly afterwards appointed assistant to
Major Lambton. In 1882 additional officers were appointed, and
by the year 1840, when the geodetic operations on the northern
sections of the Great Arc were completed, the personnel suticed
for the equipment of six trigonometrical survey parties, and this
number of parties was uniformly maintained from that time
onwards, until it could be gradually diminished on the completion
of the successive chains of triangles. The operations have been
uniformly and consistently supported by the Supreme Government,
with the sanction and approval, first of the Honourable Court of
Directors of the Hast India Company, and afterwards of the
Secretary of State for India. In times of war and financial
embarrassment the scope of the operations has been curtailed and
establishments have been reduced, and some of the military officers
sent to join the armies in the field; occasionally the civilians also
have been sent to the seat of war, to be employed on survey duties.
But whatever the crisis, the operations have never been wholly
suspended. Even during the troubles of 1857-58 they were
carried on in some districts though arrested in cthers. ‘They have
been uninfluenced by changes of personnel in the administration of
the British Indian Empire, each succeeding Governor-General or
Viceroy having honoured them with his support. At the close of the
mutinies, Lord Canning wrote as follows of the principal triangu-
lation and collateral topography in Kashmir to Colonel Waugh,
then Surveyor-General of India :—

“J cannot resist telling you at once with how much satisfaction I have seen those
papers. It isa pleasure to turn from the troubles and anxicties with which India is
still beset, and to find that a gigantic work of permanent peaceful usefulness, and one
which will assuredly take the highest rank as a work of scientific labour and skiil,
has been steadily and rapidly progressing through all the turmoil of the last two
years.”
and up to the last moment, the successive Government have
accorded their support to the operations with equal liberality and
constancy. It may well be doubted whether any similar under-
taking, executed in any other part of the world, has been equally
favoured and supported.

The field operations, viz., the measurements of the base-lines and
angles of the principal triangulation, being completed, the next

GREAT TRIGONOMETRIOAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 63

step was the final reduction and harmonising of the results, giving
to each measurement and observation its proper weight, and
nothing more or less. Strictly speaking, this undertaking should
have been postponed until the completion of the whole of the
operations, and then all the observations should be reduced
simultaneously, because every fact of observation is more or less
dependent on, and connected with, every other fact. But the
simultaneous reduction of the vast number of such facts acquired over
all India, by many individuals and during a period of many years,
was obviously impossible. Thus it became necessary to divide the
triangulation of India proper into five sections, and even then the
simultaneous reduction of the numerous facts of observation
collected together ineach group was a work of enormous labour,
necessitating, as remarked by Colonel Clarke, C.B., of the Ordnance
Survey, one of the most eminent of living geodesists, in his recent
treatise on geodesy, ‘“‘the most elaborate calculations that have
** ever been undertaken for the reduction of triangulation.”’ The
division of the work into sections necessitated the maintenance of
the results determined for the sections first reduced in the
contiguous sections, when they, in turn, came to be reduced and
this necessitated commencement with the section, which in all its
parts was of the highest accuracy. The section of which the field
work was first completed was the North-east Quadrilateral, but as
many of its angles had been measured with instruments of inferior
accuracy to those employed in the sections which were subsequently
completed, the reductions were performed in the following order :—
first, the North-west Quadrilateral ; secondly, the South-east Quadri-
lateral; and thirdly, the North-east Quadrilateral. The reductions
were commenced in the year 1869; the final results of the first
section are given in Volumes II., III., and IV. of the Account of
the Operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, published in
1879; those of the second in Volume VI., published in 1880; and
those of the third in Volumes VII. and VIII. The fourth section
selected for treatment was the Southern Trigon.

The stations of the principal triangulation were 3,665 in number
in 1885. They have been constructed with a view to being as lasting
and permanent as possible. On the plains they take the form of
towers rising from 20 to 40, and even 60 feet above the ground
level, and usually about 16 feet square at base, with an isolated
central pillar—always of masonry-—for the instruments to rest on.

64 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

On hills and mounds the central pillar is raised two to four feet above
the ground level, and is surrounded with a platform of earth and
stones. - Mark-stones engraved with a dot and surrounding circle to
define with precision the point to which the observations are
referred, are inserted on the surface and at the base of each pillar.
The stations are invariably placed under the protection of the local
officials; they are scattered over 33S British districts and Native
states, in each of which some officer is required to submit annual
reports of the condition of the whole of the stations within its
circle; repairs are effected whenever necessary. If the present
system of protection and repairs is maintained by future generations
of officials, the duration of the stations should be coeval with that
of the hills and plains on which they stand, and the great work now
completed will be of lasting utility.

A considerable amount of secondary triangulation has been
executed pari passu with the principal triangulation, partly by
observations from the principal stations to all the most prominent
objects visible from them, as the snowy peaks of the Himalayan
range, and partly by the construction of chains of secondary triangles
resting on the primary chains, such as have been carried to a number
of important towns and cities within the limits of the Empire, and of
late years beyond these limits, to Kandahar and Khelat on the one
side, and to Bangkok on the other. Much secondary triangulation,
however, still remains to be executed. Until recently it was wanted
on the coast lines to furnish fixed points for the marine surveys,
and in localities in the interior at a distance from the nearest prin-
cipal chains, where data may be required for topographical surveys.
But it 1s chiefly wanted outside the limits of India proper, as for
the extension of the Eastern Frontier Series through the Malayan
peninsula down to Singapore, and to furnish a basis for the
geography of Upper Burma. For tlie latter purpose three chains
on the meridians of 94°, 96°, and 98° respectively are Cesirable, the
two first of which would close on the chain of secondary triangula-
tion already completed in the Assam valley, while the third might
be carried still further to the north. Bangkok, the capital of Siam,
having already been connected with the Indian triangulation by a
chain of triangles, which was recently executed with the support of
the Siamese Government.

The requirements of geodesy necessitate astronomical observations
for the determination of the latitude and the azimuth, and electro

GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 65

telegraphic observations for the determination of differential longi-
tudes, at several of the stations of the principal triangulation. These
have already been completed to a considerable extent. Further
operations of this nature are in progress; they are carried out by
the two small astronomical parties which are attached to the trigono-
metrical or geodetic branch of the Department, and by which all the
operations that are required to render the principal triangulation
fully subservient to geodetic science should be completed in the
course of time. An extensive series of pendulum observations for
investigations of variations of gravity and the figure of the earth,
taken chiefly at stations of the principal triangulation, has been
completed and connected with the groups of corresponding observa-
tions in other parts of the globe. Long lines of spirit-levels have
been carried on in connexion with the principal triangulation, from
the sea to the base-lines in the interior, and from sea to sea across
the peninsula; they rest on determinations of the mean sea-level
which have been made at the tidal stations on the coasts.*

On tke conclusion of the measurement of the Mergui base-line,
Mr. J. McGill and Mr. C. D. Potter were deputed in 1882-3 to carry
a chain of secondary triangulation along the east coast, chiefly for
the purpose of setting up beacons for the use of the marine surveys.
These operations extended between Ichapur, in Ganjam, to the town
of Pooree, the seat of the Jaganath temple. The country is generally
well populated and prosperous, including seaports and large towns,
but subject to unhealthy malarious influences. The Chilka lake
fell within the area of the work; it is a vast sheet of salt water,
covering 350 sguare miles, with numerous islands, and fed by
freshets of the Mahanadi river and numerous small streams descending
from the Hastern Ghats; it has one outlet into the sea by a small
breach in the said ridge, and a canal connects with the port of
Ganjam. During 1883-84 the measurements were carried northward
along the coast of Orissa from Pooree to Balasor by Mr. A. D’Souza,
and the opportunity was taken to look up the old stations of Major
Saxton and Captain Depree’s survey in 1858-59. In 1884-85
Mr. D’Souza worked southwards, and carried the old triangulation of
the Madras Coast Series, which had stopped at Coringa, to the mouth
of the Godavari. Some interesting notes on the principal coast
towns and rivers of the Ganjam, Vizagapatam, and Godavari
districts accompany his report on the operations. The following

* From the Surveyor General’s Report for 1881-82.
i Y 20321. 1D)

66 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Seasons saw the operations advance both northwards and southwards,
and in 1887-88 the entire coast triangulation from False Point to
Point Calimere, in the Tanjore district, was completed. Mr. Ryall,
who had assumed charge in 1885-86, had hoped to close his work on
to the station of the Negapatam Minor Series, but these were found
to be so inconyeniently situated and so hemmed in by gardens and
trees, that a carefully executed traverse, 60 miles in length, was
executed, and a junction effected with stations of the Great
Trigonometrical Survey.

The triangulation along the Madras coast having been thus
completed in 1887-88, the following year saw the party transferred
to Lower Burma for the purpose of carrying out similar work there
and fixing artificial beacons, as well as natural landmarks, at con-
venient intervals within sight of the sea for the Marine Surveyors
to base their work upon. One hundred and fifty-seven miles of
triangulation of this description were completed in 1888-89, reaching
from Cape Negrais to Sandoway, and about 170 miles in the
following season. A commencement was also made of the principal
triangulation for Upper Burma on the meridian of 97°. The series
emanated from a side of the Hastern Frontier Series near Toungoo,
and is destined to proceed northwards as far as Mandalay in the first
instance. Owing to climatic and other difficulties, the progress
during the past season was limited to the selection of two figures
and the building of the observing stations at the angles, but the
work was carried for 50 miles further in 1889-90, and six new
principal stations were fixed. For the Marine Surveys, 35 points
were fixed during the same year along a distance of 170 miles
from Kutabdia light-house off the coast of Chittagong, Bengal,
to Akyab, in Burma.

The series of secondary triangles emanating from the Great
Indus Series and running along the parallel of 30° N. latitude,
which had been commenced in the previous year to furnish a basis
for future work in Baluchistan was continued for a direct distance
of 115 miles to Quetta. Observations at four stations still remained
to carry the series to the Khwaja Amran range.

In this province and in the other new province of Upper Burma
a large field still awaits the exertions of the Indian triangulation
parties.

VE
TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

The Topographical and Revenue Surveys serve to furnish the
details required for filling up the outline supplied by the fixed points
of the triangulation, the former being confined mainly to the Native
States, and non-regulation British districts, of small importance from
a revenue point of view, while the Revenue Surveys deal with the
more productive and valuable tracts. As has been appropriately said,
it is their function to supply flesh and blood to the skeleton provided
by the triangulators. But while the Trigonometrical Survey has
had to be conducted regularly throughout on a fixed plan, both the
Topographical and Revenue operations have to be taken up on
varying scales to suit local requirements and conditions. The
standard scale of the Topographical Survey is 1 inch to the mile,
but where the work has to be executed very quickly the scale is
reduced to 4 or to + of an inch to the mile, as in trans-frontier
regions; on the other hand, in British territory it is sometimes
increased to 2 inches, and generally to 4 inches for Forest Surveys.
The Revenue Surveys are on scales of 4, 16, and 32 inches to the
mile, and sometimes larger scales. ‘These two classes of operations
have covered the greater portion of the expanse of British India
and the Native States, which have thus been, or are being, practically
mapped out on the scale and in the manner most appropriate to
the general purposes of administration. The accuracy of the
work has necessarily varied greatly according to circumstances.
Some of the earlier topographical surveys partook more of the
nature of rough and hasty geographical reconnaissances, but the
more recent surveys have been carried out on more rigorous
principles, and with greater regard for completeness and precision.
Since the close of the Punjab war in 1847, and the publication
of the “Manual of Surveying for India” a few years later, by
Captains Smyth and Thuillier, there has been an ever-increasing

E 2

68 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

efficiency in the methods and procedure of the surveys, and in the
completeness and trustworthiness of the resulting maps.

At the close of the period dealt with in the last edition of the
“Memoir,” the primary topography of the larger part of India,
as shown by the index map attached to General Thuiliier’s topo-
graphical report, had been completed, the most conspicuous blanks
still remaining being the western half of Rajputana, the greater part
of the North-West Provinces, the Konkans, and nearly all the Madras
Presidency. ‘The old maps of nearly all these regions had supplied
material for published sheets of the Indian Atlas on the scale of
four miles to the inch, but much of it was imcomplete and unsatis-
factory, and the re-survey and re-engraving of the less-accurately
mapped tracts have consequently had to be taken up as financial and
other considerations permitted. The most recent index map of the
Indian Atlas shows that the Punjab, Sind, the Berars, part of
Rajputana, most of the western and southern portion of the Bombay
Presidency, Haidarabad, and nearly all Southern India, as well as the
North-West and Lower Provinces, must be re-engraved before the
Indian Atlas sheets exhibiting those regions can be held to be up to
the level of accuracy befitting the standard map of India. And as
in many of these tracts fresh and better surveys must precede the
preparation of fresh plates, itis clear that there is abundance of
employment still awaiting the Indian Topographical and Revenue
Survey parties.

During the season 1876-77 nine separate parties of the Topo-
graphical Survey were at work in different parts of India. The
area allotted to the operations of the Gwalior and Central India
Survey covers an extensive portion of country east and south
of the Rajputana desert. One of its principal duties in 1876-77
was the construction of large scale surveys of the fortress of
Gwalior, the cantonments of Morar, the native city, and the Resi-
dency lands and surrounding country for the military authorities.
These were superintended by Captain Charles Strahan, R.E., chief
of the party, while Lieutenant J. R. Hobday carried on the one-inch
work towards the west in the Native States Udaipur, Dungarpur,
and ‘lonk in the Rajputana Agency. Part of Captain Strahan’s
operations lay near the great water-patting of the rivers draining
east into the Bay of Bengal and those flowing into the Gulf of
Cambay on the west, and the difference here observable is most
remarkable, the north-east portion being very flat and quite open,

bet aa

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 69

with several large towns and villages and fairly well cultivated; it
forms part of the plateau of Rajputana, and is on the average about
1,600 feet above the sea; while, after crossing the water-shed the
change is quite abrupt: the ground is intersected by watercourses
which gradually deepen into narrow valleys, and the general fall of
the face of the country shows a drop of 950 feet.

In 1877-78 the work of the party lay in the vicinity of Udaipur
and east of the Aravalli mountains, a region part of which is inha-
bited by the notorious Bhils.* Lieutenant Hobday penetrated into
one * pal” or settlement (liter. “‘ the embankment of a tank ”), where
no one except Captain Conolly of the Bhil Corps nad ever dared to
venture. He, however, trusted the people, and was well received.
The Bhil Corps appears from the accounts of Captain Strahan and
his assistants to be doing excellent work among the wild denizens of
these parts. Before the organization of the corps, the Bhils trusted
no one, looked on all intruders as enemies, and were so incredulous
of the good faith of the British that they had to be paid daily,
simply because they could not believe that if they remained they
would really receive their pay at the end of the month. Now there
are always a number of young men waiting for vacancies to be
enlisted in the regiment. Desertion is still frequent, but this is
partly due to their love of home and the distances to be traversed,
it being no uncommon thing for a sepoy to walk 15 or 2() miles to
his home after his day’s work and be hack in time for parade in the
morning. A great deal of topographical information respecting
this country was amassed by Captain Strahan, including a detailed
description of the great fort of Chitorgarh.+

During this season the party was deprived of one of its most
highly-valued members by the death of Mr. H. J. Bolst, who suc-
cumbed to typhoid fever after a long illness. He had been 27 years
in the Department, 17 years of which had been spent in this party,
where he had rendered most useful service.

The programme for 1878-79 involved a partial diversion from the
ordinary work, and included a survey of the Pachpadra salt fields
(described by Captain C. Strahan in the appendix) on the 4-inch scale,
and of the land adjoining the Luni River on the l-inch scale, both

* Some interesting details respecting the Bhils by Sub-surveyor Abdul Sobhan will
be found at page 43 of the Topographical Survey Report for 1876-77.

7 Sce page 101, et seq., of Surveyor General’s Report for 1877-78. Also pages 41
and 42 of Topographical Survey Report for 1876-77.

70 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

being in the Jodhpur State, for the requirements of the Indian
Customs Department. The regular work of the party consisted of a
detail survey of the city of Udaipur* and environs on the 12-inch
scale, and detail survey of the neighbouring district on the l-inch
scale. A comparatively small out-turn of work was effected in the
following season, but this was mainly due to the intricate character
of the ground, which was likened by Major EH. H. Steel (who took
charge during absence on furlough of Captain Strahan) to “a petrified
stormy sea.’ The ground to the north, whither the operations were
moved in 1880-81, proved stiil more intricate and difficult, and the
attitude of the Bhils was very threatening, insomuch so _ that
Mr. Templeton, one of the surveyors, was warned not to return to
one of the Bhil villages if he valued his life. In. 1881-82 the
region about Mount Abu fell within the area of triangulation, while
the topography ranged over the three Rajput States of Marwar,
Mewar, and Sirohi. The transfer of No. 7 topographical party from
Rajputana to Burma led to its uncompleted ground being allotted to
No. 1 party, which in consequence assumed the designation of the
Central India and the Rajputana Survey party. In the three years
1882-85 portions of the country south-west of EKrinpura as well as
of the desert west of Bikanir and parts of the Sirohi, Palanpur,
and Jodhpur States were mapped in detail, as well as_ special
surveys of the Sunda and Dorra ranges of hills, and large scale
surveys of Ajmere, Jaipur, Amer or Amber. In 1885-86 the
triangulation was carried down to the margin of the Rann of Cutch
mentioned below (see p. 85), while the detail survey was carried on
in portions of Jodhpur and tracts adjacent to the Luni river. But
at the close of that season the Rajputana party was ordered to be
transferred to Baluchistan, so a large tract of this important province
of British India remains unsurveyed, with no definite arrangements
for its completion. The number of standard sheets unsurveyed are
fifty out of a total of ninety-seven, covering nearly all the western
half of the province.

The Khandesh and Bombay Native States Survey worked in two
detachments in 1876-77, one being employed on the ordinary one-
inch scale in the Native hilly states north of the Narbada, and the
second, under Mr. H. Horst, the officer in charge, on the more

* A good description of the city will be found from the pen of Lieutenant J. R.
Hobday at pages 42 and 43 of the Topographical Survey Report for 1875-76.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 71

important two-inch survey of the revenue-paying portion of the
plains of Khandesh. While surveying in the Tapti valley,
Mr. Graham, Assistant Surveyor, witnessed some extraordinary
examples of “sorcery ’’ among the Bhils, such as walking through
and treading on live coals barefoot without sustaining the slightest
apparent injury.* Mr. Horst was assured it was a common practice,
and frequently adopted by village punchayets as an ordeal in trials for
theftand murder. The work was continued during the two following
seasons, the plane-tabling including part of the Western Satpuras and
the vailey of the Tapti. Great obstacles were encountered by the
surveyors, partly from the high and rugged character of the hills,
but chiefly from the difficulty in getting supplies and the general
inhospitable nature of the country. The only water available for
drinking was of the most unwholesome description, to which may
be attributed the constant attacks of fever to which the assistants who
surveyed the worst parts were subjected. The culminating portion
of the Satpura range ‘“ Astamba,’ 4,346 feet above sea-level, came
into the season’s work. About 900 square miles on the two inch
scale were surveyed between the town of Dhula and the Tapti
river, this tract consisting mainly of undulating revenue-paying
districts. An attempt was made, on the whole successfully, to
incorporate the village boundaries from the Bombay Revenue
Survey maps. Captain W. J. Heaviside, who took charge of the
party in 1879-80, furnishes some picturesque descriptions of the trap
formation of the Deccan, which in Khandesh assumes the form of
erand black precipices surmounted by massive basaltic columns
rising to three or four thousand feet above sea-level. Two con-
spicuous basaltic hills, known as Mangya ‘angya, on a spur of the
Sahyadri hills, are of remarkable appearance, resembling monoliths
rising from pyramidical bases, in which numerous steps have been
cut. Some Buddhist temples, hewn out of the solid rock, are also to
be seen here. The following season saw the detail survey carried
forward in the south-western portion of the area allotted to the
party, where it abuts on Berar and the Nizam’s dominions. The
inhabitants of this part mostly speak Mahrati, and are rather addicted
to drink and theatricals, which latter entertainment affords a means
of support to a class of strolling actors.

The Khandesh and Bombay Native States Survey was finally
brought to a conclusion by Major TI. T. Carter in 1882-83. It had

* See page 47 of Topographical Survey Report for 1876-77.

72 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

been started in 1871, and comprised an area of 18,133 square miles,
including Khandesh and some of its outlying villages in the Nizam’s
territory. Of the total area about 10,532 square miles have been
surveyed and published on the one-inch scale, and the remaining
7,601 square miles have been surveyed on the two-inch scale, but
published on the one-inch scale. The first-named part comprises the
rugged and hilly tracts lying between the Tapti and Narbada
rivers, forming portion of the Satpura range and the tract of country
lying above the Ghats of the Satmala hills; that surveyed on the
two-inch scale consists of the alluvial valleys of the Tapti river and
its tributaries, where the country is richer and productive. In these
parts the valleys are numerous, well cultivated, and connected by
good roads, and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway traverses it
from south-west to north-east.

The Bhopal and Maiwa Survey party was originally organized in
1862 for the survey of Rewa and Bundelkhand, and on the
completion of that work was transferred in 1871 to Bhopal and
Malwa, to deal with all the country north of the Narbada river in
the Central India and Rajputana Agencies between the parallels of
22° 15’ and 24°, and bounded on the east by Saugor and on the
west by Mahi Kanta and Rewa Kantha. The survey lies inter-
mediate between the operations of the Gwalior and Central India
party to the north and the Khandesh and Bombay Native States
party to the suuth. Up to 1877 the out-turn of topography in
Bhopal and Malwa had been a little over 16,000 square miles. The
work of 1876-77 saw the practical completion of the topography
of the Vindhya range, which runs generally east and west through
the area of the survey. Between the towns of Dhar and Amjhera
there runs a low ridge extending northward some 30 miles, and the
point where this ridge issues from the Vindhya range is the water-
shed* of three of the river-systems of India, viz., 1st, the Narbada,
which lies to the southward and flows westward into the Gulf of
Cambay, 2nd, the Mahi, which rises to the north-west and discharges
into the same gulf after a circuitous course, and, 3rd, the Chambal
and Chamli rivers, which, rising to north-east, unite near Barnagar
and join the Jumna. During 1877-78 fever prevailed in almost
every camp, but a fair out-turn of work was nevertheless attained,
while in the following season large scale surveys of Indore and

* The height of the water-shed is apparently 1,883 feet. See Cuptain Wilmer’s
Narrative, Surveyor-General’s Report for 1875-79, page 13 of Appendix.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. ie

Dewas were completed in addition to the ordinary mapping. The
ereater part of the ground covered by the surveyors of this party
proved tedious and intricate to the plane-tablers. Major J. R.
Wilmer, who was in charge, mentions a peculiar custom that the
Bhils have here of branding their male children on the arms above
the wrist with burning cotton dipped in oil, so as to enable them
to be identified as true Bhils. This custom appears to have been
unknown to previous writers. At the close of the season 1881-82 it
was arranged that the bulk of this party should be transferred to the
Mirzapur district, while the few remaining sheets of the Malwa
survey were entrusted to the Khandesh and Bombay Native States
(No. 2) party, who had completed their work in the season 1882-83,
and assumed in consequence the designation of the Bhopal and Malwa
Survey party. The latter work was brought to a termination in
1884-85, the entire out-turn of the 15 seasons having amounted to
29,262 square miles, comprising 59 standard sheets, all surveyed on
the one-inch scale. In addition, large scale surveys were made and
mapped of 13 cities and cantonments, representing an area of
127 square miles. The survey had been commenced in 1870-71 by
Major Riddell, R.H., and carried on by that officer till 1873-74,
when the charge of the party devolved on Lieutenant-Colonel
Wilmer, by whom the work was continued till 1882-83, when the
party was transferred to Mirzapur. The late Khandesh (afterwards
re-named the Malwa) party, under Major Carter, R.H., then resumed
this work and did a full season’s area in 1883-84, and in the
following season the charge of the survey was entrusted to
Mr. Patterson, by whom the work was brought to a completion.
While working in the Udaipur State some sensational stories were
circulated respecting the poles erected as signals to mark the trigono-
metrical stations, which the natives were convinced were intended for
the immolation of the men and women. Another rumour circulated
was that the survey party had come to weigh all the married men
and women, and that of those found of unequal weight there would be
a redistribution, thus disturbing their marriage ties. The Udaipur
Durbar, in consequence of these rumours, desired the survey party
to retire as soon as possible, but Mr. Patterson took the occasion to
invite the Bhils to the camp and encouraged them to dance and
sing and shoot at a target with their bows and arrows, afterwards
dismissing them with doucewrs. A description by Mr. G. P. Tate
of the town of Bhinmal and surrounding country will be found

74 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

in the Appendix to the Report of the Surveyor-General for 1884-85,
page xxx.

Central Provinces, §c.—Turning now to the operations which had
been progressing in the east of the Peninsula, we find that the season
1876-77 was signalised by the completion of the Central Provinces
and Vizagapatam Agency Survey, embracing altogether 72,144
square miles. ‘The difficulty and unkealthiness of work in this
region had been almost proverbial from its commencement, and its
successful termination was a matter of genuine congratulation ;
the previous operations were mainly associated with the name of
Colonel Saxton, who is frequently mentioned in the “ Memoir”:
to Captain Holdich belonged the credit of completing the work,
though this was not done without much cost and suffering to all
the members. of the party, some of whom were so prostrated
by jungle fever that they were with difficulty removed from the
field on the conclusion of the work. The characteristic features of
the country where the concluding operations lay were extensive
plateaux of from 1,800 to 2,000 feet above sea-level, surmounted by
masses of flat-topped hills. These high lands are a continuation
of the great plateau system of Central India, which decreasing in
elevation by a succession of steppes finally breaks to the west
into the low-lying plains forming the basin of the Godavari. The
geological structure of this part of the country is mixed, being
composed of trap and varieties of sandstone and slate; the first
occurs in the higher flat masses, while the two latter predominate
in the lower hills, and are distinctly separate one from another, a
circumstance producing bold, rugged, and ever-changing scenery,
but always the same endless monotony of forest from the plains
to the highest peaks. The Pertabpur taluk on the right bank of
the Kotri abounds in tigers, and sometimes whole villages are
deserted through their depredations.

Another survey also brought to a conclusion in the same season
was that of No. 4 party, N.E. Division, Central Provinces Suryey,
which had originally been organized by Colonel De Prée in 1856,
and during the 22 years of its existence had triangulated and
mapped on the one-inch scale a tract of country extending from the
Bay of Bengal at Balasor to a point nine miles east of Jabalpur.
This tract extends over nine degrees of longitude, and on an
average two degrees of latitude, and its area amounts to nearly
25,000 square miles. The difficulties overcome here were of no

——-

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 75

ordinary nature, for the country is a continuation of the Vindhya
range, which crosses India from Bombay on the west towards
Calcutta on the east and then turns southwards to Madras, forming
everywhere the water-shed between the great river-system draining
into the Bay of Bengal, and that towards the west into the Indian
Ocean. The landis almost entirely a series of plateaux of one uniform
height between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea-level, and of a wild,
hilly, and inaccessible character, destitute of roads, and inhabited
by an original population of Kols and Gonds, as well as minor
tribes. In addition to the ordinary survey, 11 Government reserved
forests were mapped on the four-inch scale. Alphabetical lists were
compiled of each State, the areas computed, the houses counted,
and the whole arranged in a compendious form as a gazetteer for
each of the standard sheets. The Chota Nagpur Division of the
Central Provinces covers 75 sheets, of 30’ longitude by 15’ of lati-
tude, and the North-Hastern Division, 42 sheets.

Assam.—The desultory and detached nature of the frontier surveys
and explorations on which the Khasia, Garo and Naga Hills party
(No. 6) had been for some years engaged, necessitated its being
broken in 1876-77 into three distinct sections or detachments.
Major Badgley, the officer in charge of the party, undertook the
revision of certain work in the vicinity of Shillong; Lieutenant
R. G. Woodthorpe, R.E., and Mr. M. J. Ogle were detached to
explore a wild part of the Lakhimpur district at the extreme head
of the Assam valley, south-east of Sadiya, and close to the Burma
frontier ; while the other two assistants were deputed on the Khasi,
Kamrup, and Garo Boundary Survey. Under these circumstances
the cost of the work was necessarily higher than usual, while dense
forest, swamps, want of good drinking water, venomous insects,
and fever seriously impeded the progress of Lieutenant Woodthorpe
and Mr. Ogle’s work. Both these officers contributed some in-
teresting descriptions of the country and of the manners and
customs of the Singphos, Kamtis, Nagas, and other tribes met
with.

The next season (1877-78) saw Major Badgley again engaged
in the revision of the survey work between Gauhati and Shillong,
(which had been done under unfavourable circumstances, necessitating
a re-examination of the ground), and also in triangulation in Sylhet,
where the swampy and malarious character of the place, and the

76 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

cowardly and malignant behaviour of the inhabitants, whom Major
Badgley found to be a particularly obnoxious and untrustworthy
lot, proved awkward obstacles to progress.

Lieutenant Woodthorpe was deputed with an assistant in the
first instance to accompany Lieutenant Harman to the Miri hills,
as already mentioned on page 52. On his return, Lieutenant Wood-
thorpe proceeded to Sadiya, and without waiting for his Mishmi
carriers, who had failed to put in an appearance, he ascended a
range of hills rising about 9,000 feet high, and overlooking the main
valley of the Dibong, and succeeded in acquiring the following :—
(1) a fairly accurate knowledge of the sources of the Dibong, and
the course of its main stream in the hills; (2) an accurate know-
ledge of its course in the plains, and of about 1,000 square miles
of the hills bordering it; and (8) an approximate knowledge of an
additional 1,100 square miles in the hills. The Dikrang, Diphu,
and Digaru rivers were also mapped.

This party had been engaged for several years in surveying the
hills south of the Brahmaputra river, the greater portion on the
half-inch scale, when in 1878 Major Badgley was instructed to
undertake a full topographical survey on the larger scale of
two inches to the mile of all the land on the south of the Sylhet
district left unsurveyed by the Revenue Survey, and afterwards
to make a detailed survey of the boundaries of tea grants and
estates. The want of accurate surveys was believed to be costing
Government heavily in fraudulent zemindari claims. With the
assistance of some surveyors lent from the Revenue Survey Branch
this work was taken in hand. Much difficulty was experienced in
triangulating, the stations being in most cases platforms supported
by bamboo scaffolding round trees, the tops of which were cut off
and the levelled stump used as a stand for the theodolite. Great
care had to be taken not to touch the tree, as once set swaying 1t
took some time to come to rest, and the wind for the same reason
sometimes put a stop to observations. Major Badgley says of the
Tipperahs that they are active fellows, and excellent hands at
jungle cutting, but their fondness for burning the forests makes
them undesirable cultivators. The Manipuris he describes as
pleasant-spoken, independent, and good hands at a bargain, but
in matters concerning land as often victimised by the Sylhetias, who
are strong, cowardly, morose, and quite uncompromising in their
hatred of Europeans.

—

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. ih

During 1879-SO and 1880-81 Major Badgley found it very
difficult to get coolies, while work was further retarded by the
dificult ground, consisting principally of hills, forest, and swamp.
One of these swamps called Hakaluki Howhar is about 20 miles
long by 9 miles broad during the rains. Major Badgley says that
he had to cross it once during winter, and was up to his waist in
water and weeds in it from eight o'clock in the morning till past
10 at night. In the following season the country under survey lay
further to the west, about the lower spurs of the Tipperah hills,
running northwards past the British boundary into the plains of
South Sylhet, as well as the isolated groups of low hills lying
between Fenchugunj and the Manu river. These tracts of country
up to that time described on the maps as “hills covered with
** jmpenetrable jungle” were rapidly becoming very valuable, as they
were being taken up and opened out for tea cultivation. Lieutenant-
Colonel Woodthorpe, who was in charge of the party, remarks on
the beauty of South Sylhet. The following graphic description
from his penis worth quoting :—

“ At four o’clock in the afternoon I am standing on a cleared hill just above a large
tea garden. The air is beautifully soft and balmy, and looking to the east I see below
me the gentle undulations and flat ground under tea cultivation, the rich dark green
bushes standing out in bold contrast on the red-brown soil. Among the bushes the
busy coolies are at work, the women adding brightness to the scene with their
brilliantly coloured robes. In the midst of the cultivation on the banks of a clear
stream, in a small, well-kept enclosure with a pretty tank, stands the manager’s
bungalow, a large commodious house, with white-washed walls and lofty thatched roof,
slightly hidden by tall plaintain trees. Rose bushes and other shrubs flourish in the
garden, in which from my elevated standpoint I can see that the useful is not over-
looked in the culture of the beautiful, as testified by a corner where many tempting-
looking vegetables are growing. With the orange glow of the afternoon sun upon
it, the bungalow, with its garden, looks, as indeed I find it, a very haven of rest,
comfort, and hospitality. I hear voices behind the bungalow near some large, neat
tea-houses, and, looking, I see an excellent tennis court, where an exciting contest is
being carried on between the young planters of this and a neighbouring garden.
Beyond, the view due south is closed by the virgin forest of dark trees and feathery
bamboos, the greater portion of which will soon, by the enterprise of the planters
and the extension of the tea gardens, disappear. To the south-west and west the eye
wanders over the plains of South Sylhet, bounded on the south by the jungle-clad
hills of Tipperah, purple now and indistinct. The flat green fields, above which, as
the sun sinks, soft mist wreaths float, are broken up by frequent clumps of mighty
bamboos or fine old banian trees, amid whose dark recesses a few glimpses of reddish
roofs and the light blue smoke curling upwards denote the presence of villages.
Beyond these to the west and north lie open expanses of what at this season is dry,
or at the worst, only damp ground, but which a few of the March and April storms

78 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

will speedily convert into swamps, and even lakes. A thin dark line appearing here
and there marks the course of a river, its waters now very low and hidden by the high
banks, above which the masts of country boats and the smoke from the funnel of a
steamer, just about to anchor for the night, are visible. Far away to the north
beyond the plain, the trees, the villages, and the station of Sylhet itself, rises the
long, level outline of the Khasia hills, faintly glowing in the sunset. A hum of
voices ascends from the villages below, cows wend their way homewards through the
deepening gloom, and as the sun sinks in the brown obscurity of the distant horizon,
I shut up my theodolite, and running down the hillside, soon find myself at the
bungalow, where a hearty welcome and an excellent dinner await me.”

Colonel Woodthorpe takes occasion to record in his report the
very great assistance and hospitality rendered to him and to his
followers by the planters, who in several places are making good
roads themselves, and so actively helping to open up the country.

Mr. A. W. Chennell, an energetic and valued member of this
party, died in Bombay Harbour on the 5th October 1883. The
disease to which he succumbed had originated in an accident he
met with during the previous season while traversing a stream in
the Tipperah hills. He had always been mentioned in the highest
terms by the officers under whom he served during the 19 years
he had been in the Department, and he was one of the surveyors who
were specially selected for service in Afghanistan during the late war.

The season of 1883-84 was to have been occupied in the
survey of the Noa Dihing valley and the hitherto unexplored
portions of the Patkoi range on the extreme north-eastern frontier
of Assam, but owing to the Aka raid on Balipur, the work was
postponed, and the survey party, in accordance with the wishes of
the Chief Commissioner of Assam, was ordered to accompany the
military force which was sent into the hills to rescue British
captives. The topographical results appear to have been meagre,
as the military authorities did not permit Colonel Woodthorpe to
visit much of the Aka country. He and Mr. Ogle subsequently
explored some of the Daphla hills, discovering in the course of
their work a branch of the Bhoroli named Kameng, of which large
stream no one had ever heard. The weather was, however,
exceptionally bad, and Colonel Woodthorpe considers that on the
north bank of the Brahmaputra the higher ranges are seldom free
from cloud and rain after November. ;

The season 1884-85 was devoted to work on the extreme north-
eastern frontier of Assam, where a knowledge of the mountainous
region between the head of the Assam valley and the upper waters

a. =. =

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 79

of the Irawadi is even now (1891) very important, as the esta-
blishment of a direct means of communication between the two
countries will be a great administrative and commercial gain, and
help towards opening up this part of Upper Burma. No. 6 survey
party. consisting of Colonel Woodthorpe, Mr. Ogle, and Mr. Ewing,
with an escort of the 44th Gurkha Light Infantry, and some
Frontier Police under the command of Major C. R. Macgregor,
explored this tract in 1884-85, ascending the Noa Dihing river
from Sudiya, and crossed the Chankau pass (8,400 feet) over the
dividing range. From an adjoining mountain, Mokoshat, the
Brahmaputra and Irawadi rivers can both be descried on a clear
day. The inhabitants of this part of the Upper Irawadi are
Kamtis or Shans, and Buddhists by religion; Major Macgregor
believes them to be of Siamese stock. The reception they gave the
English was friendly, and they appeared to be particularly honest.
The furthest points reached by the surveyors were Langdao and
Padao (the capital) on the M’Li-kha river (one of the affluents
of the Irawadi), a little south of Lieutenant Wilcox’s furthest,
after which the party returned and crossed the mountains at an
altitude of 5,500 feet into the head waters of the Kyendwen,
re-crossing eventually by the Patkoi pass (2,860 feet) into Assam.*

Part of the region to the south-west, intermediate between the
Naga hills and the Hukong valley, was explored in 1888 by an
expedition under Mr. J. F. Needham, Assistant Political Officer at
Sadiya, Mr. Ogle being again attached thereto as surveyor. The
starting point was Margherita, the terminus of the Assam Railway,
which was left on the 4th January, and to which the expedition
returned on the 28th February, having failed to reach their objective
point in the Hukong valley owing to difficulties in obtaining
carriage, the lateness of the season, and other causes, but having
demonstrated the practicability of reaching the Hukong valley by
two routes, viz., lst, by the Nongyong lake, and 2nd, by the Naga
hills route, which goes through the mountains south of Margherita.
The pass over the Patkoi on the outward journey was found to be
4.147 feet, while that on the return was 7,192 feet above sea-level.
About 1,500 square miles of entirely new country lying south of
the Patkoi range (up to which the surveys of 1873-74 had been
carried) was surveyed by Mr. Ogle, who hag established a reputation

* See also Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 1885, pp. 541 and 751,

80 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

by his successful work in these regions, and the new work was
connected with that done further eastward in 1884-85. The Nagas
met with south of the Patkoi have some cruel characteristics,
and are addicted to human sacrifices; but they nevertheless were
friendly disposed towards our troops, and gave useful assistance in
various ways.

This piece of exploration was the last accomplished by No. 6
party, which was finally dissolved on the 16th July 1885. A
retrospect of its history since its formation in 1863 is given by
Mr. Ogle at page viii of the Appendix to the Report of the Surveyor-
General for 1884-85.

The important survey of Sikkim which was carried out by
Lieut. Harman after completion of his work im Northern Assam is
described at pages 126 and 127, infra.

Rajputana and Simla—This party (No. 7) was divided in two
detachments in 1876-77, Lieutenant HE. P. Leach, R.E., bemg
engaged on an elaborately contoured survey of the Observatory hill,
Simla, and Mr. R. Todd in prosecuting the detail survey in the
desert portions of the Marwar (Jodhpur), Shekawati, and Bikanir
States in Rajputana,as well as a large scale survey of the city
and environs of Jodhpur and 50 linear miles of forest reserve
boundaries in Ajmere and Merwara. On the return of the party
to recess quarters the triangulation for the survey of the
approaches to Simla and of the several military cantonments
between Simla and the plains was taken in hand and carried over
120 miles.

Owing to the failure next year of the rains in Central and
Southern India, it was not feasible to send more than a small
portion of the Rajputana party to that province, so the remainder
were employed in the neighbourhood of Simla, where a total area of
104 square mijes of roads and adjacent strips of country was
surveyed on the 6-inch scale, together with plans of Subathu and
Kasauli cantonments. The system of topography employed by
Colonel De Prée for the hills in these surveys was the same as
employed by Lieutenant E. P. Leach in the previous season, 1.¢., a
combination of contour lines, sketched by eye, with other contour
lines which had been accurately determined by water level, care-
fully followed in succession by the topographers and accurately
delineated on the plane-table. Thus on the 6-inch maps the true

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. Sl

contour lines represent vertical intervals of 250 feet between which
were drawn nine eye contours at about 25 feet apart, while in the
cantonment maps on the 24-inch scale the true contour lines ran
at vertical intervals of 50 feet between which there were four eye
contours. This method of contouring proved valuable, enabling,
as it did, native surveyors with no aptitude for hill sketching to
produce accurate maps of difficult hill country, and reducing the
delineation thereof to a comparatively mechanical operation.

Operations in 1878-79 were resumed in the Bikanir desert, where
the ground was characterised by the regular sand waves formed
by the prevalent south-west wind, and a general paucity of
vegetation. The country, however, may be said to be culturable,
for it only requires for the sand to be scratched up, seed to be
sown, and the rainfall does the rest. Jt is said that when the rain-
fall has been good and the locusts do not destroy the standing
crops one year's harvest will feed the peopie for three years. By
December the crops are all off the ground, and after that, till the
next rains, the Bikanir cultivators remain idle in their houses. The
ground traversed during the following season was of the same rather
uninteresting description, being varied only by the salt works at
Sar and the sandstone quarries at Khari. In the former a coarse
salt is produced by solar evaporation, and in the latter a stone
of good colour and of compact texture, of which the stratum is
horizontal and close to the surface.

During the following year, as the work moved gradually to the
north and west, the country became even more desert-like than
before; but in the Jodhpur State a welcome change ensued, the
usual rolling sand hills and ridges of the desert being replaced by
extensive plains composed of sandy clay, all more or less fertile,
varied by clumps of rocky hills. ‘he wells in this part of the
country are of great depth, one measured by Mr. McGill, who was
in charge of the party in 1881-82, being 480 feet deep, and the
average depth being 270 feet.

At the close of the season the Rajputana party was transferred
to Burma and merged into the Burma Topographical party, the
Rajputana work being handed over to No. 1 topographical party,
as mentioned above (see page 70).

Mysore.—The important survey of the Native State of Mysore* had
been commenced in 1874-75, and good progress had been made during

* See Memoirs on the Indian Surveys, 2nd ed., p. 175.
x Y 20321. F

82 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

the season. But in 1876-77 a serious famine overspread the
greater part of Madras, and survey work in Mysore had con-
sequently to be restricted to those tracts in the Nandidrug and
Nagar divisions where it was easier to obtain water, provisions, and
forage. This seriously lessened the out-turn of work of the two
parties (Nos. 8 and 9), and at the close of the season, as so many
members of these parties had been necessarily deputed to famine relief
duties, it was deemed better to amalgamate the remaining survey
officers into one party under Major H. R. Thuillier, R.E. (now Sur-
veyor-General of India). On taking the field next year the prospects
were better than could have been expected, considering the disasters
to which the province had been subjected. The tanks were well
filled, pasturage was abundant, and but for the deserted look of the
villages a stranger could not have imagined that famine and
drought had so lately been devastating the country. Nevertheless
the season was particularly unhealthy. Fever of a virulent type
broke out early in the field season in many parts, and all the
European members of the party, except the officer in charge, were
laid up, while the meniai establishment, without a single exception,
suffered more or less. During 1878-79 seven surveyors, assistants,
and sub-surveyors rejoimed the party after being temporarily
employed on famine relief duties, so that it became practicable to
split the party again into two detachments. One of these detachments

yas engaged in triangulating the western part of the State, pre-
paratory to a detail survey of the tracts between Mysore and South
Kanara, so as to aid in the settlement of the long-debated frontier
survey, while the other detachment was occupied in the detail survey
of part of the Nandidrug division. In the Malnad, as the country
over which the triangulation extended is called, the principal feature
is the Western Ghats, rising to a height of over 6,000 feet, covered
for the most part with magnificent virgin forest, and forming the
source of numerous rivers. The western face of this range is
extremely precipitous, so as to be nearly inaccessible from that side,
but from the eastern face numerous spurs branch out in all direc-
tions, and form more or less continuous chains of hills, which with
innumerable undulations overspread the greater part of the State.
The Malnad is essentially the country of rain and fog, and two or
three months immediately after the monsoon season it is looked
upon as most unhealthy for these not acclimatised to it. Its staple
products are coffee, betel-nut, cardamoms, and pepper, and the
trade is mainly effected by means of pack-cattle, locomotion being

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 83

difficult except along the roads, which are few aud far between.
Great efforts were made to complete the mapping of the Mysore-
Kanara frontier during the following season (1879-80), but fever
and sickness attacked the party, and at the close of the season two
small gaps, aggregating about 25 miles in length, were unavoidably
left. Owing to the difficulty of the country the ordinary method of
working with the plane-table was in many cases utterly imprac-
ticable, and resort was had to special methods, particularly that
known as plane-table traversing, in which the plane-table supphes
the place of an angular instrument and the measurements are made
by chain, a process slow at all times, but especially so when the
chain lines, as in this case, had to be cleared through dense forest.
The same procedure had to be adopted in 1880-81 in the survey of
the western part of the province. The Assistant Superintendent,
Captain J. R. McCullagh, R.E., accompanied the Boundary Commis-
sicners in their work of demarcation, and inserted on the maps the
position of the various marks erected by them. The general work of
the party was much impeded by fever, from which all its members
suffered more or less; one valued officer, Mr. R. Chew, Senior
Surveyor, succumbed to a severe form of malarious fever contracted
in the Bhadra valley. He had been 25 years in the Department,
and had gained high commendation for his professional skill and
steady attention to his duties.

A large out-turn of topographical work was rendered in 1881-82,
this being due partly to the fact that so much triangulation had
been accomplished in previous years that sufficient ground had been
thereby prepared for the season’s detail survey, and partly to the
good health enjoyed by the party. Asin former years, part of the
work Jay in the Malnad, where progress was necessarily slow, and
part in the easier and more open Maidan country. The former part of
the survey lay on the extreme western edge of the province, and
included the famous Falls of Gersoppa, which are said to be the
most picturesque falls in India. The Sheravati flowing over a very
rocky bed about 250 yards wide here reaches a tremendous chasm
960 feet in depth, down which it is precipitated in four striking
cascades. The Falls are graphically described in the ‘‘ Mysore
Gazetteer.’’*

During the seasons 1883-84 and 1884-85 the mapping of Mysore
was steadily pushed forward under Major Thuillier. In the latter
“5 ; * Volume II., pages 386-390.

F 2

84 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

year the country was exceptionally difficult, fully half of the area
censisting of interminable forest and jungle, very sparsely populated
even when villages existed at all. The most ordinary supplies (in-
cluding water) were obtained only with great difficulty ; the heat was
intense, severe and continuous physical exertion had to be maintained,
the detachments were constantly molested by wild elephants and other
beasts, and the unhealthy season prostrated several members of the
party and a large number of the menial establishment. The entire
survey was finally completed by Major McCullagh, R.E., in the
middie of April 1886, and the whole of the records brought to a satis-
factory termination by the lst of October the same year. The area
of the Mysore State proved to be 29,305 square miles, which was
over 2,000 square miles in excess of the estimated area. A strip
of the country was also surveyed outside and all round the state
boundary. The Mysore Survey was based on portions of the three
principal series of triangles known as the “Great Arc Meridional,”
the ‘Mangalore Meridional,’ and the ‘Madras Longitudinal.”
At the time of its commencement, in addition to the strictly
topographical work on the scale of one inch to one mile, special
surveys on a large scale of the various State forests within the
province were contemplated, but after three of these forests, viz.,
Bilikal, Nandidrug, and Dwarayadurga had been completed, it
was decided that no more should be undertaken. The mapping of
the state is contained in 70 standard sheets, 4 sheets of Reserved
Forest Surveys, and 19 sheets of Cantonments and City Surveys,
chief among which were the surveys of Bangalore and Mysore
towns. The survey was originally commenced in November 1875,
and thus took 11 years to complete. The cost was entirely borne
by the revenues of the State of Mysore.

On the conclusion of the Mysore Survey the party was transferred
to the Madura and Tinnevelli districts of the Madras Presidency,
it having been arranged between the Governments of India and
Madras that the topographical work remaining to be done in the
Presidency, aggregating about 12,400 square miles, should be
surveyed on the l-inch and the forests on the 4-inch scale by
the professional Survey Department instead of by the Madras
Revenue authorities. The adjoining Native States of Travancore
and Cochin were also to be surveyed on the 1-inch scale, the old
maps of the mountainous tracts of these States being very deficient.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 85

The area plane-tabled during the season 1886-87 consisted of a
block of hills from four to eight thousand feet in height, including
the south-west corner of the Palnis and parts of Madura and
Travancore. It is for the most part bare and exceedingly rugged,
some of the precipices being tremendous, so that a body falling
therefrom with a slight impetus would touch nothing for a quarter
of a mile. The following season (1887-88) was exceptionally
unhealthy, hardly a man escaped illness, and there were 12 deaths
out of a comparatively small establishment. The operations of
the triangulation included the locale of the Periyar project, an
important and bold undertaking, which has greatly changed the
character of the country, once the home of sambhar and of
herds of wild elephants, but now swarming with troops of
dusky coolies busied in excavating or raising embankments.
The project consisis in building a gigantic concrete dam, 160
feet high, across the Periyar river and cutting a tunnel 2,000
yards long, through which the imprisoned water will flow into the
channel of a small stream that rushes down the face of the Ghat
into thousands of thirsty acres in ithe Cumbum valley. The cost
amounts to about 70 lakhs of rupees.*

During 1888-89 and 1889-90, the party were engaged exclusively
on forest surveys in the Salem, Madura, and Tinnevelli districts, a
class of work of increasing importance, which is already absorbing
four parties in the Central Provinces, Bombay and Madras Presi-
dencies, as well as a detachment in Orissa.

Kathiawar and Cutch.—The topographical survey of Kathiawar
described at page 134 0f the ‘‘ Memoir” was brought to a conclusion
by Major A. Pullan in 1879-80. It is an elaborate and important
piece of work, surveyed on the 2-inch for reduction to the 1-inch
scale, and consisting of 61 sheets. On its completion the operations
of the party were extended into Cutch, and in 1880-81] the Great
Rann or Runn was surveyed on the $-inch scale. This remarkable
tract, marked so conspicuously on the maps, consists of sandy waste
and salt beds separating Cutch from the province of Sind, During
the south-west monsoon the Rann is a shallow inland sea, but during
the cold and beginning of the hot season a few roads cross it;
at first oozy salt slime and water overlies it in patches, but as the

* The general appearance and character of the country are capitally aud picturesquely
described by Mr. R. W. Senior, p. iv. of “Survey Report for 1887-88.”

86 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

warm weather approaches the hot winds blaze across the Rann like
the blast of a furnace, clouds of dust render it impossible to advance,
and travelling ‘is safe only at night, the whole length of the road
being marked out by the bones of the cattle and camels which have
died from exhaustion en route ; a heavy fall of rain closes the road
for days. and camels caught therein have but little chance of
escape. Before 1819 the river passing through the Rann was
crowded with boats carrying the produce of Sind down to Lakpat,
but in that year an earthquake closed the river and destroyed
several villages.*

During the following seasons the Cutch survey was continued by
Colonel Pullan. On one occasion while out surveying he was
attacked by a panther and a good deal mauled about; these brutes,
together with lions, haunt the Gir mountains of Kathiawar, and the
former are said to be not unfrequent in Cutch. The survey was
finally brought to a conclusion by Colonel Pullan in 1886.

Gujrat.—The Gujrat survey was organized for the purpose of dealing
with a large strip of country extending along the western confines of
the Bombay Presidency from the Rann of Cutch in the north to Nasik
in the south. From the first Colonel Walker devoted his hest
efforts to utilize the mapping work of the Bombay Revenue
surveyors who had already gone over all the cultivated tracts
for settlement purposes. But the combination of the two surveys
proved a difficult task; so during the rainy season in 1875 a
conference was held at Poona with the view of settling (1) the scale
on which the new Topographical Survey maps should be drawn,
and (ii) the extent to which the older Bombay Revenue Survey
maps could be incorporated and utilised. The Committee were
also particularly asked to consider whether the 4-inch scale adopted
by Major Haig in Gujrat, or the 2-inch scale adopted by Major
Tanner and Captain Samuells in the Deccan and Nasik was
preferable. Colonel W.C. Anderson was president, and the other
members were Lieut.-Cclonel Taverner, Lieut.-Colonel Macdonald,
Major Tanner, Captain Samuells, Major Haig, Major-General Bell,
and Colonel Merriman. The last two were engineers, all the others
were Survey officers.

* Sir Bartle Frere wrote an interesting paper on the Rann of Cutch for the
Royal Geographical Society. Sce R. G. S. Journal, xl, p. 181. Mr. W. T. Blanford
also discussed the former existence of a sea covering the Rann, Journal Asiatic Soc.,
Beng., xlv., p. ii,, 1876,

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 87

Unfortunately, the Conference did not agree upon a report; no
reply was given to the first question put, and great differences of
opinion were manifested in regard to the best scale to be adopted.

The Government of India, being thus inops consilii, fell in with
the middle course suggested by the Bombay Government ; they
decided that the 2-inch scale should be prescribed for the Topo-
eraphical surveys, and that the Bombay revenue sheets should be
utilised wherever they could be used with advantage. At the same
time. the Bombay officers were directed to supply in future such
additional topographical details as might be required.*

The Topographical party in 1876-77 was under the care of Colonel
C. T. Haig, who in March made over the charge to Lieutenant J. EH.
Gibbs, R.E. A good amount of topographical work was turned out, the
greater portion being in the Native State of Baroda, which occupies
a central position in the area allotted to the survey. Lieutenant Gibbs
was, however, attacked with cholera on the resumption of the
field work, and unfortunately died on the 21st November 1877.
Though quite young he was one of the most promising officers
of the Department, his abilities were of no mean order, and his
descriptions of the Dangs} and other localities surveyed by him
showed considerable power of observation. The native establishment
of the survey also suffered a good deal in health from the effects
of the famine. Lieutenant, Gibbs was succeeded by Lieutenant
St. G. C. Gore, who was transferred from the neighbouring Bhopal
and Maiwa survey, and who surveyed €8 square miles of the
Dangs Forest tract on the 4-inch scale. The maps of British
territory published on the 2-inch scale included, in addition to the
details of the ordinary l-inch scale maps, minor roads, and com-
munications, and so many of the field boundary, triple junctions,
and other points on the village maps drawn up by the Bombay
Revenue Survey that would facilitate the further incorporation of all
the details of those maps, if required for the purposes of any new
road, canal, or other engineering work. For this work the Bombay
Government supplied a special auxiliary agency, consisting of an
assistant superintendent from the Bombay Revenue Survey and a
native establishment, at a cost of Rs. 500 per mensem. The same
Government also contributed Rs. 30,000 towards the extra cost of

* Letters from A. O. Hume, C.B., Secretary to the Government of India, Nos. 134
and 136, dated 9th February 1876.

{ In the Appendices to the G. T. S. Reports for 1873-74 and 1874-75, pp. 32a and
36a, respectively.

88 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

the Dangs survey, this being divided into four annual instalments,
and the Baroda Government contributed Rs. 5,500 per annum
towards the expenses of surveying their State, on the condition
of 550 square miles per annum being surveyed until completion of
the whole. In April 1881 Colonel Haig, who had had charge of the
party for some years, was deputed to the Geographical Congress
at Venice.” and the command devolved first on Captain Hobday and
then on Lieutenant-Colonel Leach, V.C., R.H. The survey in the
Dangs Forest, which in previous years had been found to be attended
with much malarious fever, had by this time reached a more open
country, and it was thought the field work might be safely com-
menced early in the season; unfortunately the ground is then
covered with high dense grass, and all the surveyors, European
and native, with a single exception fell ill, thus the experiment
failed and the season’s out-turn of work fell below what had been
expected. During the same year (1880-81) Mr. Le Mesurier and
the native establishment of the Bombay Revenue and Settlement
Department were re-transferred to their own department after
having been attached to the Gujrat Survey for eight years, during
which time they had done good service in map-drawing and
incorporating the details from the Bombay Revenue Survey maps
into those of the professional survey party. In 1881-82 the plane-
table work included the northern part of the Baroda State which is
watered by the Saraswati river, and to which much historic interest
attaches. Patan, one of the chief towns in that locality, is built
on part of the site of Anhilwada, the old capital of Gujrat before
Ahmadabad was built. Anhilwada is said to have been i8 miles m
circumference, and the heaps of old ruins to be found for miles
round Patan seem to corroborate the statement. Patan and Sidhpur
are both situated on the Saraswati river, which is venerated as a
goddess, and the latter town (Sidhpur) is a noted place of pilgrimage,
the remains of the Rudra Mala Temple of Shiva being an object of
considerable archeological interest. Another remarkable feature
of the season’s survey was the hot sulphur spring of Unai on the
boundary between the Baroda and Bansda States, into which at
certain seasons crowds of people rush and bathe without cessation
for two or three daystogether. The water as tested by Colonel Haig
was of the temperature of 138° Fahrenheit, but this is probably

* 'Two medals were awarded at this Congress to meritorious Indian native explorers,
one being assigned to M 5 (see page 142) and the other to A-—- K——

(p. 156).

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS, 89

lowered by the continuous stream of human bathers, who are further
encouraged and fortified by doses of intoxicating bhang.

The survey of the Dangs forests was completed in 1882-83, and
a survey of the Panch Mahals, incorporating the fiscal details of the
Revenue Survey village maps and including forest boundaries, on
the 4-inch scale was commenced in the same year. Colonel Haig
caused a special survey to be made (so far as the scale permitted)
of the hill of Pawagarh, which with the remains of the old city of
Champaner atits base, forms an object of considerable historical
and archeological interest, and of which no previous map existed.
It abounds with old Jain temples, more recent Muhammadan
fortifications, mosques, buildings, and tanks, and still more recent
Hindu temples. Colonel Badgley took charge of the survey in
1884-85, and the work during that season consisted practically
of nothing but 2-inch scale work. Late rains increased the natural
unhealthiness of the country, so that nearly one-fifth of the working
season was lost through sickness. The detail survey of Baroda city
was finished in 1885-86, and an exceptionally large area of topography
was covered during the same season, much of the ground consisting
of open plain. The operations were in charge of Mr. J. Newland
during the greater part of the time, owing to the paucity of available
officers of the senior division. In the next season the party was
divided into two sections, one proceeding to Surat and Palanpur
to carry on the topographical survey of Gujrat on the 2-inch scale,
and the second to Kalyan taluka to commence surveys on the
8-inch scale of the Forest Reserves in the Thana district which
had been requested by the Bombay Government. The surveyors
employed on this work suffered much from fever, which is specially
prevalent in those tracts between November and January (both
months inclusive). In 1887-88 the 2-inch scale work lay within
two of the northernmost sheets of the area of the survey close to
the limit of the Gwalior and Central India Survey, one of which
sheets includes the cave temple of Menaknath, which lies embedded
in the side of a hill seven miles south-east of Danta. It is said to be
capable of accommodating 2,000 persons, and is a sacred place
of pilgrimage for Hindus. A large scale survey of Disa cantonment
and environs was also completed.

In consequence of the Bombay Government having proposed the
organization of a special Forest Survey Branch for the future conduct
of forest surveys in that presidency, a conference was held at Poona

90 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

in July 1888, at which the Secretary to the Government of India in
the Revenue and Agricultural Department, the Surveyor-General,
and the Deputy Surveyor-General attended and discussed the matter.
A general scheme was arranged, the following being the principal
points :—

(1.) One party of the topographical survey of India to be placed
fully equipped and manned at the disposal of the Bombay
Government for the purposes of forest surveys in that
presidency, to be utilised in such manner as that Govern-
ment may think fit.

(2.) The cost of the party to be debited to forests, by which half
the cost will be borne by imperial and half by provincial
revenues.

(3.) The normal scale for the Forest Survey maps to be four inches
to the mile instead of eight inches.

(4.) The officer in charge of the party to be under the control and
supervision of the Survey and Settlement Commissioners,
supervision over his work being also maintained by the
Surveyor-General of India.

These conditions haying been accepted by the Government of
India, the Gujrat party with slight modifications as to personnel
(the topographical section having been withdrawn and the forest
section from No. 10 party added) was placed at the disposal cf the
Bombay authorities, and the programme for 1888-89 arranged
by that Government. The work of the northern circle lay principally
on the ridges and spurs of the Ghats, on the low hills of the
Konkans, and on the plateaux of the Northern Ghats, while the
forests of the southern circle, from the dense nature of the under-
growth, were most tedious and unhealthy to map out.

The area remaining for topographical survey in Gujrat, Rajputana,
and the Southern Maratha country was entrusted to the old party,
which also worked: in two sections under Colonel Hutchinson.
Part of the frontier of the Nizam’s dominions was mapped, durmg
which an assault was made on the surveyors by some villagers,
who mistook them for excise officials. The ringleaders were
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000 each.
The survey and settlement of a large tract of disputed country
between Mewar and Marwar were also undertaken.

Kohat —On tke withdrawal of the British forces from Northern
Afghauistan in 1880 it was arranged that some of the survey officers

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 91

who had returned to India should be employed in making a standard
topographical survey of the Kohat district, to supersede the prelimti-
nary reconnaissance survey which had been made in 1849-51 imme-
diately after the annexation of the Punjab, and to complete the gaps
remaining to be filled in on the frontier line up to the recent surveys
in the Kuram valley and other contiguous portions of Afghanistan.
The time was limited, but some useful work was done. Mr. McNair
was deputed early in the season 1880-81 to effect amore satisfactory
junction than had been possible during the progress of the military
operations between Major Woodthorpe’s triangulation in the Kuram
valley and the old Kohat secondary triangles, fixed thirty years ago.
He also undertook the topography of the Miranzai valley, through
which the highway from Kohat to Kabul, by way of the Kuram
valley, passes, and of which a good map was much required by the
local officials. Major Holdich joined the party about the middle
of February, but soon after his services were needed with the force
under Brigadier-General Gordon, U.B., which proceeded from Bannu
to operate against the Mahsud Waziris. An area of 2,000 square
miles was covered by the Kohat triangulation, and 398 square miles
were topographically surveyed on the 1-inch scale in the Miranzai
valley, besides rough reconnaissances in the Urakzai, Tirah, and
Bam valleys. A native explorer made a reconnaissance of the
Zhob valley, and afterwards did good service with the Waziri
expedition.

During the recess the party were engaged in making a standard
topographical survey of the Kohat district on the l-inch scale, and
also on the final mapping of the surveys in Northern Afghanistan.
The Kohat field work was continued by Major Holdich and
Mr. McNair in 1881-82. The latter officer also succeeded in making
friends with one of the Waziri chiefs, and was taken under tribal
protection to make a reconnaissance of the tract of independent
territory lymg east of the Kuram river and immediately north of
Bannu, which is inhabited by the Daresh Khel Waziris, and embraces
the well-known range of hills culminating in the Kafir Kot, which
Mr. McNair is the first Hurcpean to have visited. The general
aspect of the country is wild, and there is very little cultivation. In
winter and spring as many as 6,000 fighting men are estimated to
occupy the hills, but during the hot months scarcely 500 remain
behind. The reputation of these gentry as highwaymen is great,
and they are a source of considerable anxiety to the Deputy

92 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

Commissioners of Kohat and Bannu; they are, however, men of
splendid physique, inured to all weathers and of great endurance,
and it isa great pity that they do not accept employment under
our Government.

Mr. Claudius surveyed a small area of ground, including Kohat
itself, and the hill sanitarium of Mirkhwaili. He states that the
whole of Tirah is well supplied with Sniders, and a number of men
carry good Martini rifles. They boast that these weapons are
plunder, secured during the recent campaigns in the Khaibar and
Kuram routes. For the Sniders they have such an abundance
of ammunition that cartridges are actually bought from Tirah by
our men cheaper than in India. The manufacture of cartridges
for the Martinis is even said to have been commenced by them
with success.

The survey was finally brought to a conclusion in 1882-83, and
a large scale plan of Kohat city and cantonment was completed
the same year. The efforts made to reconnoitre the adjacent
frontier under the protection of the tribes proved very successful,
and thanks in great measure to the interest taken in the work by
Major Holdich, the results were to supply reliable maps of the whole
strip of territory extending from the Kabul river on the north to
the Gumal on the south, the only exception being a small tract of
country near the Gumal pass. With the assistance of No. 5 Topo-
graphical and No. 3 Revenue parties, Major Holdich was enabled
during the recess to complete for publication the whole nine standard
sheets of the survey of the Kohat district. The work being
completed, the party was broken up, and Major Holdich with most
of his assistants were transferred to the Baluchistan Survey.

Baluchistan.—In September 1879 Major R. Beavan was directed to
proceed from Kandahar to Quetta to survey the country between and
around Quetta and Sibi. On arrival at Quetta, finding that an expe-
dition was about to start to explore the route to Sibi, via the Hanna
or Hamra pass, he accompanied them, arriving at Sibi on the
12th January 1880, just in time to see the opening of this part of
the railway and the arrival of the first railway train. He subse-
quently visited Khost in the Dargi valley, and then ‘Tal, from
which place he subsequently accompanied military expeditions
towards Chotiali and to Baghao and Smalan on the north-east.
Major Beavan’s reconnaissance ou the +-inch scale covered about
2,500 square miles, and extended from Quetta to Tal, Chotiali, and

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 93

down to Sibi. It proved of great use afterwards to the engineers
employed in laying out the new line of railway. Some valuable
survey work around Sibi, Mitri, and Dadur, was done by Messrs.
Coxen and Corkery, assistant surveyors, who showed great tact in
dealing with the Pathan and Baluchi inhabitants of the country.
The obstacies in the way of survey work in Baluchistan were
altogether exceptionally great. The local means of carriage were
monopolised for the service of the troops, and the camel owners
realised such enormous profits by carrying Government stores at so
much a maund that they refused to take service by the month.
Dust storms and haze were very persistent at times and prevented any
satisfactory observations from being taken, water was often terribly
scarce or almost unfit to drink, and as a natural result of bad water
and an unequable climate, sickness was rife among both Huropeans
and natives. Another great drawback in Baluchistan is the
extremes of temperature experienced. From March to November
the low country is intensely hot, and from November to March the
highlands between Quetta and Khelat are intensely cold, while
during June, July, and August thick haze prevails.

By an order of the 12th July 1880 the party under Major
Beavan’s orders was organized as a regular party for the survey of
Southern Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and the adjacent country under
the designation of the “ Baluchistan Topographical party.”

During October, November, and December 1880 Major Beavan
accompanied the expedition into the Marri country, but the unsettled
state of the country rendered it impossible to leave the line of
march in order to ascend any commanding heights. A. survey of
the actual line of route with bearings and paces was taken by
Captain W. Gill, R.E.

The work of Major Beavan’s party was described by him as a
geographical reconnaissance on the +-inch scale of Sewestan and the
Marri hills, and a more elaborate survey on the 43-inch scale of
the territories subject to the Khan of Khelat. In a geographical
point of view Major Beayan applies the name Sewestan to the
district drained by the Nari river and its affluents, one of rugged
broken ranges of hills running mostly east and west. Huge cracks
or crevices have been formed across the line of hills, and through
these the drainage of the country makes its way, presenting the
enomalous condition of parallel valleys with rivers running at right
angles to them. In many parts the sandstone rocks lie broken and

94 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

mixed up in magnificent confusion, lending an appearance of truth
to the old legend that after the creation of the world the spare
rubbish was shot down here. Major Beavan says it is impossible
to give on the map an adequate idea of such a country.

During the winter of 1881-82 the survey of the country lying
between Quetta and Khelat was continued, the season’s work com-
prising more especially that part adjacent to the Bolan and Rodbar
passes. Major Beavan himself accompanied a military expedition
under Brigadier-General H. C. Wilkinson to open out the routes
between ‘'al-Chotiali and Dera Ghazi Khan. In addition to
making a plane-table reconnaissance of the previously unsurveyed
portions of the route which lay via Mandai, Tal, and Chamalang,
Major Beavan took observations for the purpose of completing
the Sewestan triangulation, and subsequently, accompanied by
Mr. Corkery, and under the protection of an escort of Marris,
made some useful additions to the survey of that country.

In the following season the work mainly consisted of triangula-
t'on, originating from stations of the Great Indus Series and carried
over the Suliman range, the Khetran country, and a portion of the
Marri hills, and closing on to the triangulation previously executed.
A series of triangles was also commenced over the hill country
between Khelat and the Kach Gandaya plain. The season’s topo-
graphy was carried on in the hilly country east of Khelat during the
autumn and again in the spring months, and during the cold months
in the low country at the foot of the hills and also in the lower hills
north of Sibi. In all an area of 1,844 square miles was finally
mapped. <A rapid reconnaissance was carried out by Mr. Coxen
from Khelat to Nushki with a view to selecting stations for an
extension of the triangulation in that direction, and also fixing the
position of Nushki, which had been till then doubtful. In 1883-84
the party was divided into three sections, the one under Major
troldich, R.E., was employed on the 'Takht-i-Suliman expedition
(sve page 147), the second under Lieutenant Talbot, R.E., accom-
panied Sir Robert Sandeman’s mission in South-west Baluchistan,
whilst the third, under Mr. Claudius, took up the regular detail
survey, and was further strengthened, after the Takht-1-Suliman
expedition, by the arrival of Mr. Coxen and Sub-Surveyor Hira
Sing. There was a large out-turn of triangulation, as well as a
very creditable amount of topography on the $-inch scale in the
''al-Chotiali territory and the Kachi desert.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 95

Sir R. Sandeman’s political mission to the distant town of Kharan
in the Baluchistan desert in November 1883 afforded an opportunity
for fixing the position of an outlying point of some importance in its
relation to the Indian western frontier. The mission started from
Khelat in November 1883. Lieutenant Talbot, who, with Lieutenant
Wahab, was attached as surveyor to the party, carried his triangula-
tion first southerly and then south-westerly, while Lieutenant Wahab
worked at first westerly and then in a southerly direction. They
met again at Garok, one march eastward of Kharan. Beyond the
latter place Lieutenant Talbot extended the triangulation to Washuk,
but from thence to Panjgur* the haze made it difficult to see objects
five miles off, and a gap of-130 miles occurred in the triangles.
'hrough the plane-tabling, however, a satisfactory junction was
elfected.

The requirements of the Afghan Boundary Commission, which
was being organized at that time and to which Major Holdich and
Lieutenant Talbot were attached, occasioned a considerable reduction
in the personnel of the Baluchistan party in 1884-85, in addition
to which Lieutenant Wahab, Mr. Scott, and Yusuf Sharif, who had
been attached to the Zhob Valley expedition, did not return till the
17th December 1884. Mr. Claudius laid out a series of triangles
45 miles in length closing on stations of the Baluchistan Survey
east of Knelat, and Yusuf Sharif established a connexion with the
Zhob expedition triangulation and the G.T.S. points fixed from the
Great Indus Series on the Suliman range. The out-turn of topo-
graphy included an important bit of hitherto unexplored country
stretching from the lower part of the Harnai valley northwards,
and the survey proved of great value in determining the best route
for the railway through this difficult country. Portions of the
Bugti country, the Derajat frontier, the Kachi plain around
Gandava, and the hilly country to the west were also surveyed in
detail. Generally. speaking, the operations of the party were
extended over a very wide area of country, from the Suliman range
on the east to the Khelat hills on the west, consisting for the most
part of barren rocky hills and equally barren valleys sparsely popu-
lated by Baluch and Pathan tribes. Most of the ground west of

* There is a good deal of information about Panjgur and the Khan of Kharan in the
late Sir Charies Macgregor’s “ Wanderings in Balochistan” (Allen & Co.), 1882.
Panjgur was also visited by Sir Robert Sandeman in 1890-91, in his exploration of
the old kafila route between Lus Beyla and Southern Persia.

96 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

the passes is tolerably elevated, and the surveyors’ camps were often
over 5,060 feet, but on the whole the country was easy to survey.
The Kachi plain was the only tract differing essentially from this
description, and that corresponds more in climate and general
conditions to the adjacent Sind plain.

The party sustained a loss in the death of Mr. G. R. Copping, a
young surveyor of great promise, who had served six years with the
party. He was suddenly taken ill, apparently with fever, in one of
the most desolate spots on the frontier, and was carried by his
khalassies into Sibi to die.

An interesting description of the Marri country, with its three
settlements, Kahan, Mamand, and Kolu, as well as of the Kachi and
Harnai valley, was supplied by Captain Wahab, and will be found
in the Appendix to the Report of the Surveyor General for 1884—85.*

During the next season the command devolved on Colonel Wilmer
and the operations consisted almost entirely of special surveys for
military purposes, viz.:—(i.) A survey on the 2-inch scale of the
Khwaja-Amran range, towards Kandahar; (i1.) A survey on the
2-inch scale of the country surrounding Quetta; (ii1.) An explora-
tion of the routes between Registan and the Baluchistan frontier.

The triangulation in advance of the detail operations of the season
was carried by Mr. Claudius southwards from Gulistan and generally
along the meridian of 66° over Southern Pishin, the fertile valley of
Shorawak, and the Shorarud hills. This triangulation connected the
Kandahar, Khelat, and south-west Baluchistan Series, and furnished
good bases for further extension westwards. Mr. Claudius wrote an
interesting description of the country traversed, which has been
printed separately.

The explorations under (iii.) were carried out by Sub-Surveyors
Ahmed Ali and Sheikh Mohidin. The former started from Nushki,
succeeded in making a reconnaissance survey with the plane-table of
nearly 20,000 square miles, mostly on the {-inch seaie. His explora-
tion extended up to the Persian frontier, embracing country well to
the north and south of the route followed by the Boundary Com-
mission in 1884, including 360 miles of the course of the Helmund
river, with its numerous villages on both banks. The country
explored by Sheikh Mohidin was the portion of Registan immediately
west of the Khwaja-Amran range. His piane-tabling covered an

Sp scki.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 97

area of about 10,000 square miles on the {-inch scale, chiefly desert,
throngh which all the important routes were laid down.

The general survey was continued by Captain l. B. Long, R.E.,
and Mr. Claudius in 1886-87, the country triangulated comprising
parts of the districts of Khurasan and Jalawan between Khelat and
the Sind frontier, while the topographical work lay in portions of
the Bugti and Marri hills, the Khetrani hills, the Kachi near Sibi. the
Bori valley, and the Luni Pathan country in the north, and the
juniper forests about Ziarat. The Bueti, Marri, and Khetrani hills
are extremely intricate, and great difficulties were experienced in
procurine water and supplies, while the heat in April and May is
described as almost unbearable. To the north the country is much
less complicated, the valleys are wider and comparatively well
inhabited, and the hill ranges running approximately east and west
are well marked and easily delineated.

The same season saw the transfer of the Rajputana and Central
India party to Baluchistan (see p.70 supra), and Captain Wahab,R.E.,
who had been temporarily attached to the Himalaya party during
the absence of Colonel Tanner with the Tibet mission, was placed in
charge a short time prior to the party taking the field. The work
included a detail survey on the 6-inch scale of about 27 square miles
of country in the neighbourhood of Quetta, a 2-inch survey of the
eastern portion of the Pishin plain and the Surkhab, Gwal, and Kach
valleys, and the extension southwards of the 2-inch survey of
the Khwaja-Amran range. The Baluchistan Survey had hy this
time (1887) unavoidably assumed such large proportions as to
demand a rigorous trigonometrical basis, and it was therefore decided
to carry two chains of triangles emanating from the Great Indus
Series, one along the parallel of 30° N. latitude, and the other
approximately to the meridian of 67° H. longitude, both to meet at
Quetta. The latter part of the work was entrusted to Mr. Claudius,
who successfully carried it out in a series of quadrilaterals com-
prising 19 stations, and spanning a direct distance of about 150
miles. The minor triangulation preliminary to detail survey on the
41-inch scale was extended over sheet 23 N.W., which lies east of
Kuhak and south of Kharan.

The severity of the winter and the difficulties in the matter of
carriage and supplies were found particularly trying both to the
surveyors employed on the triangulation and to those engaged in
detail surveying, but nevertheless over 7,500 square miles of topo-
graphy were surveyed on the 34-inch scale. For the ensuing season

1 Y¥ 20321. G

98 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS.

it was decided that only one party should be employed in Baluchistan,
and that operations should be confined to the extension of the 2-inch
survey in the neighbourhood of Quetta and Pishin, and in revising
the survey of the country about the Bolan and Harnai routes.

The field work of the other Baluchistan party (No. 16) included
the extension of the general survey of Baluchistan on the scale
of half an inch to the mile, and a survey of the town and canton-
ment of Quetta on the 16-inch scale, with a record of all
properties on the cadastral system. Minor triangulation prepara-
tory to further extension of the }-inch survey was carried on
towards Kharan, and of the 2-inch survey south-west of Quetta. <A
series of secondary triangles was also extended by Mr. McNair from
the Great Indus Series, near Dehra Ghazi Khan, along the parallel of
30° latitude up to Quetta, where it will join the Kalat Series. He
carried out his work under trying circumstances with great care and
accuracy. ‘I'he exposure which this energetic and enterprising
officer endured tried his constitution severely, and he unfortunately
fell a victim to typhoid fever, and died at Mussoorie in the summer
of 1889. Mr. McNair had joimed the Department in 1867, and had
served for 12 years in Rajputana and Mysore. From the first he
displayed special aptitude for survey work, and during the Afghan
War he had mapped out a good deal of new country, including the
Lughman valley and other parts of the Upper Kabul valley. At the
close of the war he was employed in the risky work of mapping
the frontier lime from Kohat to Bannu. But his most conspicuous
achievement was his adventurous journey into Kafiristan, which
gained for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal Geographical
Society.* He was an able observer; he had readiness of resource,
and a marked aptitude for gaining personal influence over the
frontier tribesmen with whom he came in contact.

The country topographically surveyed by the party on the $-inch
scale in 1887-88 lies south and south-west of Khelat, and includes the
Inghest part of the Brahui mountain system, which forms the water-
parting between the Indus basin and the rivers that flow to the west.
A large scale map of Quetta was completed during the recess. During
January 1888, Captain Wahab and a sub-surveyor were told off to
accompany an expedition under the Deputy Commissiouer of Dera
Ismail Khan for exploration in the Gumal pass. Unfortunately
little or no additional geography was obtained, as Captain Wahab
was unable to ascend any commanding hill beyond Kajuri Kach (up

* See page 149.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 99

to which point the pass had been surveyed in 1883-84 by Surveyor
Yusuf Sharif), but he obtained the heights of a number of points
along the pass and of several hill peaks, which will be useful in future
operations.

In Octcber 1888 an important reduction was made by Government
in the number of topographical parties, which were thereby brought.
down to three in lieu of six. This involved the breaking up of
No. 16 party employed in Baluchistan, and a corresponding reduc-
tion in the amount of work tarned out by No. 15 party, on whom
the entire duty of mapping out this important agency thus devolved.
Colonel Holdich took charge, and the equipment and stock were
brought from Mussourie to Quetta, which thus became the head-
quarters of the Baluchistan Survey. In addition to the regular
work, Sub-Surveyor Ahmed Ali made an important and plucky
reconnaissance in Western Baluchistan, adding 19,000 square miles
of geographical information to our maps, and practically completing
all that remained to be done in that direction. Lieatenant Mac-
kenzie, R.E.,and Sub-Surveyor Imam Sharif, K.B., accompanied Sir
H. Prendergast during his tour in Zhob and Eastern ‘Toba in July
1889, and surveyed about 1,100 square miles, and Assistant Surveyor
Yusuf Sharif, K.B., mapped a very large area of unknown country
in Persia for the Intelligence Branch of the Quartermaster General’s
Department. On all three of these pieces of exploration separate
reports were submitted. In 1889-90, besides the regular topography
of Baluchistan, an area of 4,500 square miles was surveyed by
Colonel Holdich and Lieutenant Mackenzie while attached to Sir R.
Sandeman’s expedition to the Zhob valley, and surveys were effected
in Western Makran and the Perso-Baluch frontier.

Himalayas—Since 1885 the party formerly employed in the
Darjeeling Survey, under Colonel Tanner, has been deputed to take
up the topography of the Hill States about Simla, and of the
Kangra district, on the 4-inch and 2-inch scales. The very
high mountainous regions. of which a fair proportion falls within
the area of operations, are dealt with on the l-inch scale. A few
soldiers were attached to the party, to be trained in surveying, and
Colonel Tanner reported that the experiment answered well, four
men having acquired sufficient training in 1886 and 1887 to make,
under supervision, a fairly accurate map of any country they might
be called upon to survey.

Q
bo

100

REVENUE SURVEYS.

The Revenue Surveys of India form the principal basis on which
the whole fiscal administration of the country rests. In India the
Government is the chief landowner, hence the determination of the
area of the fields of the cultivators or of the zemindars,* with whom,
as the case may be, the Government “ settlement” is made, is a
matter of prime necessity to the State. The ideal survey, as truly
remarked in the * Memoir on the Indian Surveys,” while furnishing
complete information for settlement purposes, should be executed
throughout on accurate principles and supply at the same time
materials for compiling trustworthy maps for general use. A good
revenue survey should also supply such agricultural statistics as will
give a statesman knowledge to enable him to improve the condition
of the people, to increase their means of subsistence, to avert
famines, to add to the wealth of the country, and adjust taxation.

Although revenue surveys have been conducted on different
principles in various provinces of India, the introduction and
spread during the last 18 years of the cadastral? system indicates
that the advantages of the best and most accurate principles
of surveying, as understood by the chief Continental nations, are
recognised more and more in India. The chapters in the
‘‘Memoir” have dealt with the development of the older system
and the inauguration of the cadastral method up to the period
just preceding the amalgamation of the three branches of the
Indian Survey.

In 1876-77 the Revenue Surveys were conducted under the
general supervision of General D. C. Vanrenen, Superintendent,
by 14 parties, which were thus distributed, viz., two in the Punjab,

* Landowners.

{ More than one derivation has been assigned to the word cadastral. The
““Pictionnaire des Dictionnaires” derives it from the medizval Latin word capitastrum,
but the “ Recueil des Lois et Instructions sur les contributions directes” defines it as
a plan (probably from cadrer, to square) from which the area of land may be computed,
and from which its revenue may be valued.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 101

three in the North-West Provinces, six in Bengal, two in Bombay,
and one in Assam. Of these 11 were regular survey divisions,
and three smaller parties employed on special work distinct from the
regular divisions. The total area surveyed and completed in detail
was 12,544 square miles, of which 5,424 square miles were muzawar
or village by village survey, at a cost of about 50 Rs. per square
mile. The cadastral operations introduced into the North-West
Provinces in 1871-72 had entailed very considerable labour in the
publication of the maps, so it was arranged that about 5,000 of the
sheets should be lithographed at Allahabad under the orders of
the Board of Revenue, while an equal number were dealt with at
the Surveyor-General’s Photographic Branch. The Soane Irriga-
tion maps, which were on a still larger scale, were most of them
handed to a Calcutta firm for reproduction.

About this juncture an important question arose as to the success
of the Survey Department operations in the Lower Provinces of
Bengal, and the Board of Revenue expressed their opinion that the
surveys necessary for settlement purposes might be done at far less
cost by non-professional agency. ‘his opinion Jed to the prepara-
tion of an elaborate statement by General J. T. Walker, the following
extracts from which will give a good general idea of the three
classes of operations :—

1. The Topographical Survey, on the 1-inch scale.

“This survey is constructed by the method of plane-tabling, on a trigonometrical
basis, in such a manner as to exhibit the positions of towns and villages, the courses
of rivers, the general features of the ground, and as much detail as the scale will
admit of, with a sufficient degree of accuracy for the requirements of a general topo-
graphical map on the l-inch scale. The surveyor goes over the ground with his
plane-table, which he sets up at a sufficient number of points to enable him to ‘ cut in’
all the most prominent objects and to sketch the general features of the country ; the
number of these points, called ‘ plane-table stations,’ will vary with the nature of
the ground, being few where it is flat and open and numerous when it is hilly and
rugged. In all cases the plane-tabler actually goes over only a comparatively small
portion of the ground, the greater part being sketched in from his stations. He
surveys no village boundaries, but only the principal boundaries, viz., those of the
British districts and the Native States and their sub-divisions when they have been
demarcated beforehand.”

The plane-tabling executed during the 10 years 1867-68 to
1876-77 was performed at the average speed of 55°8 square miles
per mensem for each surveyor employed on that class of work, and
the total cost of the surveys during the same period, including

102 REVENUE SURVEYS.

triangulation, calculation, mapping, and supervision, averaged
Rs. 21-12 per square mile. The agency employed was mixed
European and Native, the former element shghtly predominating
and taking the greater share of the plane-tabling in hill districts
and difficult ground and the lesser share in the plains.

2. The Village or Muzawar Survey, on the 4-inch scale.

“This survey is also constructed by the method of plane-tabling, but on a basis
formed by carrying traverses (with theodolites and chains) round the boundaries of
villages, instead of on a triangulated basis. The usual details of the ground are laid
down by the plane-tabler, who is also required to delineate the limits of the land
which happen to be respectively cultivated, fallow or waste at the time of survey.
For this reason and because of the larger scales of survey, the plane-tabler has to go
over the ground very much more closely than in the Topographical Survey, and his
rate of progress is proportionally slower.”

The total cost of the survey during the 10 years above mentioned
averaged Rs. 53 per square mile. As a rule the whole of the plane-
tabling was done by the natives, the Europeans (who were in
the proportion of one European surveyor to about four natives)
being employed on the traverses and calculations and in supervising
and checking the natives.

3. The Cadastral Survey, on the 16-inch scale.

This survey is described at pages 182 and 183 of the “ Memoir
on the Indian Surveys.” It is constructed on the basis of the
traversed boundaries of the villages, but the whole of the interior
details of the fields are obtained not by plane-tabling, as in the
previous instances, but by systematic chaining, which is duly
recorded in field books, and is thus available for future reference
whenever it may be wanted. The agency consisted of about one
European surveyor to four Native surveyors, in addition to 17
measuring amins. The Europeans were wholly employed on the
traverses and calculations and in supervising the natives and
testing their work by running check lines over it. The rate of
progress was very variable, depending mainly on the average size
of the fields, which in certain districts was one acre and in others
two acres.

The work was comparatively new to the Department, having
been commenced in 1871-72. ‘Thus, in 1878, only six years’ figures
were available for purposes of comparison, and as during the first
part of the time the surveyors were learning their work, the rates,
which gave a general average of Rs. 165 per square mile, were

REVENUE SURVEYS. 103

scarcely a fair criterion. It may be observed, however, that even
these rates are almost identical with the average rate of the cadastral
surveys under the Madras Government which averaged Rs. 162
during the nine years 1864 to 1872.

The relative intrinsic value of the three classes of survey.

Comparing the foregoing processes, it 1s seen that the rates in
1878 were Rs. 22 for the topographical l-inch, Rs. 53 for the
village or mouzawar 4-inch, and Rs. 165 for the cadastral 16-inch
survey. Fora cheap and fairly accurate first survey of India the
first-named is best, and as a basis for the engraved general Atlas of
India nothing could be more admirable. The muzawar or village
survey affords a careful record of the village boundaries and a valuable
check on the field measurements by the amins. But the cadastral
survey, though it costs about three times as much as the second
and seven and a half times as much as the first, has been pronounced
by the Surveyor-General to be the cheapest of all considering the
amount of information it gives. In the above rates the cost of
publication was not included, and as this was so seriously heavy in
the case of the cadastral surveys, a special branch, at a cost of
Rs. 30,000 per annum, was added to the Photo-zincographic Office
to meet the requirements of the 16-inch North-West Provinces
surveys. In Bengal, on the other hand! (where extensive tracts of
country had been brought under irrigation by the Soane and other
canals, necessitating fresh surveys for water assessment purposes),
the fields were found to be generally so much smaller than in the
North-West that it was necessary to increase the scale in some
districts to 32 inches to the mile, a step which involved the
production of four times as many maps for a given area as in the
North-West Provinces, and an addition of Rs. 20 per square
miles to the cost. In the Government estate of Khurdah, in the
province of Orissa, the average size of the fields first surveyed was
even smaller than in the Soane irrigation tracts, or only one-
seventh of an acre. This and other causes raised the cost of
settlement and surveying together to an amount equal to about
Six years’ accumulation of revenue.

In 1877-78 the number of revenue parties was reduced to 11 full

strength and two small parties, who worked in the following
provinces, two muzawar parties in the Punjab, four cadastral in the

104 REVENUE SURVEYS.

North-West Provinces, four in Bengal, two in Bombay, and one in
Assam.

On the 31st December 1878 Major-General Vanrenen retired from
the post of Superintendent of Revenue Surveys, after 39 years’
service under Government, of which 32 had been passed in the
Revenue Survey Department. When that branch of the survey was
separated into two circles in 1866 he was appointed Superintendent
of the Lower Circle, and subsequently on their re-amalgamation in
1876 he became Superintendent of Revenue Surveys. He left behind
him many evidences of valuable work which had been carried out
under his supervision, first as an executive officer, and afterwards as
administrator of a large department. He was succeeded by Major

J. Sconce, 8.C.

The Punjab.—The Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, and Rawal Pindi
Districts Revenue or Muzawar Survey on the 4-inch scale was
continued by Major-General Johnstone, C.B., up to the close of
the season 1877-78, when he retired after 35 years’ service, during
23 years of which he had been in charge of a party. General
Johnstone is mentioned as a talented and able officer, with con-
siderable experience of the frontier and the tribes inhabiting the
same.

Two surveyors belonging to this party, Messrs. G. B. Scott and
A. J. Gibson, were attached to the expeditionary columns under
General Keyes and Ross into the Jowaki country, and with the
exception of about 50 square miles of the hills oceupied by the
Hassan Khels (being the easternmost portion contiguous to British
territory) the whole of this country was surveyed on the 4-inch scale.
Captain Beavan and Mr. Scott also made a rough but fairly accurate
map of the Kohat pass, with the hills, villages, and other adjacent
features. In the following year the Bannu district was completed
under Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonald, and the survey of the military
camps near Murree was undertaken, in addition to the ordinary
work, in 1881. In 1882-83 the Thal country of Muzaffargarh
district, at the extreme south of the area of work, was taken in hand
by one section of the party while the other surveyed the Kala Chitta
Pahar, a wild gloomy tract in the north of the Rawal Pindi district,
which a quarter of a century ago had a bad reputation as a place of
refuge for robbers and murderers, but which has since settled down
under the quieting effects of British rule.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 105

This completed the work in the three districts of Dera Ismail
Khan, Muzaffargarh, and Rawal Pindi, and in October 1882
Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonald and his party were transferred to the
Hissar district of the Punjab. Here it was arranged that the
survey should be on the 2-inch in heu of the 4-inch scale, but
including the survey of village boundaries and the determination of
village areas. A special feature was the inclusion by traversing of
points (to be marked permanently) in the interior of village lands
at a distance of about half a mile one from another, so as to serve
as a basis of a cadastral survey to be carried out by patwaris* under
the Settlement Department. This is something like the system of
marks placed in the case of the British Burma cadastral surveys at
selected stations where extensions of cultivation are likely to occur,
but in Burma the marking has not been done in the same regular
and systematic manner as in Hissar. Two sets of topographical
maps were arranged to be drawn, one showing all the details as
surveyed for reproduction on the 2-inch scale; the second set with
the details somewhat generalised for reduction to the 1-inch scale.
Village boundaries were to be shown on both sets of maps. The
theodolite stations, after a good deal of discussion, were finally
arranged to be marked by concrete blocks, which Colonel Macdonald
caused to be manufactured under his own personal supervision. <A
receipt was taken from the patwari in every village for the number
of blocks used in his village. The Hissar operations were completed
on the 10th April 1884.

In the season 1884-85 the operations of the party (now in charge
of Lieutenant-Colonel F. Coddington) were greatly modified. The
objects of the survey were (1) to furnish a basis for and a check on
the patwari measurements under progress in the Sub-Himalayan
districts of the Punjab; (2) to obtain a new and revised series
of the existing topographical maps, which were very old and
deficient in details, by utilising the settlement maps prepared by the
patwaris; (8) the survey of all the riverain tracts subject to
fluvial action. ‘To these ends the following procedure was agreed
upon, viz., (a) that in the districts which had been recently surveyed
by the patwari agency an attempt should be made to construct
topographical maps on the 2-inch scale from the patwari maps on
the basis of the old professional survey traverse data; (b) that in
districts mm which the patwari survey had not yet been made,

* Village accountants who keep the land records of the village.

106 REVENUE SURVEYS.

skeleton traverses should be run, fixing asa minimum two points
in each village to serve as checks on the patwari measurements, and
as a basis on which the topographical maps could be framed from
the patwari maps when constructed; (c) that the topographical
maps so compiled should be locally tested and the details corrected -
and completed when necessary. The work lay in the districts
of Firozpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Umballa, and in the
Kapurthala State, and the result of the year’s experience was to
show that the patwari maps of the settlement survey were capable
of being utilised for the construction of topographical maps on a
small scale when based on a scientific framework comprising all the
trijunction marks of villages. The errors of survey were not greater
than such as became eliminated in the process of reduction.

In 1885-86 work was pushed forward in each of the above-
mentioned districts, as well as in Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. The
reductions from the settlement survey maps when tested were found
to be very correct representations of the ordinary topographical
features, and only a few omissions had to be supphed by new
surveys. During this and the following seasons up to 1888 the
nature of the detailed work was thus described :—

(1.) The skeleton traversing of villages for the purpose of
determining the co-ordinate distances of trijunction
points, and the projection of maps of the trijunctions on
the scale of two inches to the mile.

(2.) The insertion of topographical details on these maps by
reduction from the settlement survey village maps.

(3.) The testing and correcting (where necessary) the reduced
maps by examination in the field.

(4.) The drawing of fair maps on the 2-inch scale.

(5.) The re-drawing of the old 1-inch maps of the Sikh States to
complete the portions of those territories falling within the
present continuous series of standard maps.

Reductions to the scale of the Atlas of India have been drawn from
all the standard-sized sheets compiled, covering a total area of
11,880 square miles, and furnishing materials for the revision of six
of the engraved plates of the atlas.

Captain E. H. Steel’s party (No. 2 Revenue), completed the 4-inch
village survey of Rohtak in 1876-77, and continued that of Sirsa in
that and the following season, rendering an excellent out-turn in
1877-78. The cultivated tracts close to the rivers were often

REVENUE SURVEYS. 107

difficult to distinguish, for land which to an ordinary traveller would
appear nothing but a sandy waste is often a mass of cultivation, and
barley may be seen forcing its way up through several inches of
drift sand. In the following season the survey of Sirsa was com-
pleted, and the party abolished in accordance with the reductions
then determined on.

On the completion of the Ganges Dearah Survey, Major Wilkins’s
party was transferred to the district of Saharanpur, in the North-
West Provinces, for the purpose of re-surveying it on the 2-inch
scale (in connexion with other districts of the North-West Provinces),
so as to show the pargana or fiscal boundaries, the village trijunction
masonry platforms being used as theodolite stations for the traverse
survey, and the village boundaries being inserted from the settle-
ment maps. As the survey was for topographical purposes and not
as a check upon settlement operations, it was held unnecessary to
crowd in minute details of cultivation, culturable waste, or jungle
lands, and it was arranged that the survey should include large
patches of waste, barren as well as culturable, the general outlines
of cultivation, tracts of jungle, limits of forest reserves, roads,
drainage in all its ramifications, tanks, village sites, temples,
embankments, &c. In short the same details as those required in
the usual village by village 4-inch muzawar survey, but generalised.
The Government forest lands having been elaborately surveyed by
the Forest Survey Branch on the 4-inch scale from the Siwaliks to
the base of the hills, there was no necessity for going over this
ground. The details of the two surveys where they met agreed on
the whole very well. The traverse survey was connected with four
priucipal and nine minor stations of the Great Arc Series, these
being all that could be identified, a matter which could cause but
little surprise, considermg that 50 years had elapsed since the
triangulations took place. EHndeavours were made to use the
azimuths of the sides of the principal triangles, but the heliotrope
flashes could not be seen, the probable reason being that the view
was intercepted by trees that have grown up during the last 50
years.

During 1878-79 the survey of the Muzaffarnagar district was
commenced, and that of Saharanpur district was completed with the
exception of the village boundaries on the Jumna and Ganges
rivers, which were adjusted and mapped during the following year.
A 4-inch survey of the riparian villages in the Umballa district was

108 REVENUE SURVEYS.

also undertaken, so as to supply accurate maps of the alluvial valleys
adjoinne some of the ijarger rivers, which would show village
boundaries and the course of the stream, with the accretion and
decretion of lands since the iast surveys were made. The Muzaff-
arnagar district was completed during 1879-80, and the special
survey on the 4-inch scale of the villages subject to fluvial action
was extended so far as the Jumna forms the common boundary of
the Karnal district of the Punjab and the Meerut district of the
North-West Provinces.

The success of the system of transferring the village boundaries
from the settlement field maps to the survey maps was found to
depend entirely on the accurate identification of the points adopted as
trijunctions of village boundaries by the settlement survey. In
1880-81 the topographical survey operations were continued in the
Meerut district as well as the 4-inch survey of the line of villages
on both banks of the Jumna river. In the followmg year Major
Wilkins was transferred to Burma, and, after a brief interval, Mr. H.
JT. S. Johnson assumed charge. The work was continued on the
same lines as in previous seasons, and areas were traversed in districts
Bulandshahr and Aligarh, in preparation for the next year’s topo-
graphy. Mr. Johnson retired on the 29th April 1883, after a lengthy
and useful service under Government. After Aligarh, Etah district
was next undertaken, but at the close of the season the work was
suspended, as the Gcvernment arrived at the conclusion that the
existing revenue settlement maps, in spite of their imperfections,
would answer all revenue requirements, and that surveys in other
provinces were more urgently required. The party was therefore
withdrawn from the Etah district, and it was arranged that they
should be employed in the ensuing season on the Ajmir-Merwara
district boundary survey.

North-West Provinces——The revenue survey of Moradabad in 1876-
77 was on the cadastral system, which is described at pages 182 and
183 of Mr. Markham’s ‘*‘ Memoir on the Indian Surveys” (2nd
edition}. The scale was 16 inches to the mile, and the work was
connected with the fixed points of the Great Trigonometrical Survey.
The operations were also extended into District Budaun, but here
the scale was reduced to four inches to the mile, and the survey was
of the ordinary muzawar or village by village character. The
cadastral measurements in Moradabad were completed in 1877, and
the village survey of Budaun in the ensuing year. Ghazipur was the

REVENUE SURVEYS. 109

next district taken in hand, but here it was decided that the 16-inch
cadastral scale should be reverted to. Various improvements in the
procedure were devised, one being a change in the scale of the
general maps reduced from the cadrastral surveys, from four inches to
two inches to the mile, and an alteration in the style in which they were
drawn, admitting of their being further reduced to the 1-inch scale
in the photographic office at Calcutta, without the necessity of being
drafted afresh. Another improvement effected was that no field
books of field measurements were prepared, the measurements
bemg plotted stead on the original plans at once in the field,
while the Settlement Officer, instead of bemg supplied, as for-
merly, with skeleton khusras, or field registers, was supplied with
copies of the field area calculation books, which required no
additional labour in their preparation, as they are made in
duplicate. It was calculated that from these two simplifications,
viz., doing away with the field books of measurements and the khusras,
about 100 additional square miles were surveyed during that season,
and the cost of the work was reduced by 30 rupees per square mile.
In 1882 Ghazipur was completed and Ballia (commenced in the
previous season) was continued, but in the case of some of the
villages in the latter district, the small size of the fields necessitated
an increase in the scale to 32 inches to the mile. A 4-inch survey
of a line of villages in the Shahabad and Sarun districts of Bengal,
on the banks of the Ganges, and Gogra, opposite to Ghazipur and
Ballia, was also put in hand, the Government of Bengal having taken
advantage of the presence of the survey officers to have a reliable
map of the low-lying country lable to inundation, with full details
of the village and estate boundaries, in one series of maps for both
provinces.

In 1882-83 the operations had reached the Benares district, and
here a very important change was introduced, in that the field
surveyors, who hitherto had prepared maps only, had now the duty
assigned to them of also writing the khusras or field registers,
including the names and record of rights of the proprietors and
tenants. The additional work of khusra writing had already been
given during the preceding season to the cadastral party employed in
the Mirzapur district, but there the system differed somewhat from
that adopted for Benares. In Mirzapur the khusra-writing and
nothing more was done during the season of survey, the jamabandt*

* Reut-rolls showing the numbers of the fields belonging to each tenant, and the rents.

110 REVENUE SURVEYS.

slips being compiled from the khusras during the ensuing recess, and
both khusras and slips being then completed by having the field areas
entered in them. The papers were then ready to be handed to the
settlement staff, who took the field the following season to attest the
jemabandi entries, and complete all other papers connected with the |
record of rights. ‘The Benares system was for the settlement staff
to take the field along with the survey staff, and for the two depart-
ments to work in co-operation, so that all the papers could be
prepared in one season. Briefly stated the system was :—-Ist, the
settlement staff supplied the survey amis with such information as
would enable the entries in the khusras, regarding the shares of the
proprietors and the occupancy rights of the cultivators, to be correctly
recorded. 2nd, the village patwari accompanied the amin during
the survey, and wrote a copy of the khusra exactly similar to the
amin’s copy (except that it was in the Nagri instead of in the Persian
character), writing also concurrently in the yamabandi slips, which
had been previously distributed to each cultivator, the “ numbers ”
of the fields as they were surveyed. 38rd, the patwari’s copy of the
/husra and the jamabandi slips were at once made over to the settle-
ment staff, with a manuscript tracing of the village map to allow of
any disputes being settled. 4th, the computations of field areas were
then carried out in the survey office, so as to complete the Persian
copy of the khusra, which was then made over to the settlement
staff, who in due course transcribed the areas on the yamabandi slips,
and thus prepared these for final attestation. ‘he exact procedure is
explained in a joint memorandum drawn up by Mr. F. W. Porter,
Settlement Officer, and Major W. Barron, Deputy Superintendent of
Survey, which is given at page 88 of the appendix to the Surveyor
General’s Report for 1882-83.

After six months’ trial of the system, these two officers submitted
ieports on its working, showing conclusively that very great
ulvantages ensued from the jomt inter-working of the settlement
znd survey staffs, while the additional duty of khusra-writing did
vot add to the cost of the survey.

In 1883-84 Basti district came into the field of operations, and
Major W. Barron, who had conducted the work for several years
with great zeal and ability, was granted furlough to Europe through
il!-health, Mr. G. H. Cooke, first, and Major 8. H. Cowan, next,
assuming charge. In 1884-85 certain modifications were introduced

REVENUE SURVEYS. WIL

into the Benares system, and the entire preparation of the rough
record, including the Hindi portion, and all such assessment statistics
as could be compiled with sufficient accuracy previous to attestation,
were made over to the Survey Department. The settlement decided
to retain, however, a staff of settlement munsarims* to check the soil
demarcations and the records of certain villages as they were being
written, and to submit special reports on the accuracy of the
khanapurt.+

The cadastral survey of the Basti district was completed in 1888,
having been begun in 1883-84. The total number of villages was
7,615, the area in square miles was 2,815, and the number of fields
5,260,420. Regarding the value of the village papers prepared by
the survey party during previous seasons, the Settlement Officer of
Basti, in illustration of the satisfactory manner in which the rights
of the occupancy tenants were safeguarded on this occasion against
the designs of the zamindars, prepared a table for five parganas,
viz.. Amonha, Nagar West, Nagar Hast, Basti West, and Basti Hast.
The tabular statement of the total areas for these five parganas
recorded in the papers of different “ Fasli” years were as follows :—

AREAS HELD By Occupancy ‘TENANTS.

According to Survey
Records after Attestation
by Settiement.

According to Annual Statements prepared in the Office of District
Sadar Kanungo.

F, Year 1289. F. Year 1290. F. Year 1291. F. Year 1292.

53,766. 67,180. 44,650. 100,199.

|
|

From the above it will be seen that the total area was far less in
the year 1291 (the year before survey) than in previous years, which
shows that the zamindars had got the patwaris to enter a number of
occupancy tenants as “‘ non-occupancy ” tenants, in the hope that they
would be similarly recorded by the survey. The figures for 1292
show how eminently successful the new and accurate system of
survey was in defeating this fraudulent attempt.

* Inspectors.
{ Filling up the columns of the khusra.

112 REVENUE SURVEYS.

Besides the Basti operations, cadastral and topographical surveys
by three sections of the same party were carried on in Mirzapur
district. The patwaris were here trained and partially employed
under professional supervision, so that they might be capable of
measuring the fluctuating cultivation year by year or as might be
necessary.

Under the supervision of Colonel F. C. Anderson, No. 5 Revenue
Survey party was engaged in 1876-77 on the cadastral survey of the
Mathura and Banda districts of the North-West Provinces. During
the following seasons the permanently settled district of Mirzapur
as well as portions of the Terai were also surveyed by the same party
up to 1883, when Colonel Anderson retired. He had been connected
with the Department for 31 years, and had held charge of No. 5
party for 27 years, during which he had conducted the 4-inch
surveys of districts Leiah, Muzaffargarh, and Shahpur in the Punjab,
and districts Partabgarh, Rai Bareilly, Sultanpur, Sitapur, Kheri,
and Gonda in Oudh; and had been connected with the departmental
cadastral surveys since their introduction in 1871-72. In 1860
Colonel Anderson was appointed one of two British Commissioners
for the settlement and demarcation of the boundary between Oudh
and the territory ceded to Nepal, and received the thanks of the
Government of India for his services on that occasion.

The party was then transferred to Gorakhpur district, North-West
Provinces, where Major J. E. Sandeman assumed charge, the system
of survey and record writing being generally that followed in
Benares, with this important modification, that—

(1.) The Survey Department completed the records and was

responsible for their accuracy.

(2.) The attestation was made after the completed records had

been lodged,

Tt was felt that it was a defect in the Benares system that the
attestation of the records had to be done before the areas were
entered. This was remedied in the Gorakhpur system, while there
was a great check on bribery and corruption from the fact that the
patwari prepared a duplicate record on the spot for every field and
a duplicate of the dispute list. These modifications were devised by
Mr. J. D. La Touche, Settlement Officer, and Major Sandeman. The
classification of the natural soils was undertaken for the first time
by the Survey Department, who had also to compile the statistics

REVENUE SURVEYS. 113

for assessment purposes comprising the soils, irrigated and dry ;
the details of soils under cultivation; the tenures of the holdings ;
the culturable and barren areas; the areas under different crops;
the cultivators, showing the numbers in each caste and the
areas cultivated by each caste, and all agricultural statistics with
respect to wells, ploughs, cattle, we. The duties and responsibilities
of the survey officers were muck increased by these arrangements,
but there was every prospect of an increase in the accuracy of the
records and eventual economy. The boundary disputes were very
numerous during the following season (1884-85), no less than 1,800
of the villages surveyed being affected thereby. These disputes
appeared to be due to the old defective field maps, which when
adjacent invariably overlapped each other, so that the same ground
appeared in both, and much litigation and ill-feeling was thereby
caused among neighbouring zamindars.

The total cost of the operations done by the Survey Department
amounted in 1884—85 to 4 annas 3 pies per acre, a rate which com-
pared very favourably with the old rate for field survey alone. This
was not due to larger fields, for the average size of those in Gorakhpur.
was only half an acre, but it proved what survey officers have always
urged, that the work would be done not only better but more cheaply
if the Survey Department recorded the rights of proprietors and
tenants at the time of survey, for it has been conclusively proved
that correct field boundaries cannot be obtained otherwise, as the
people will not attend unless they know that their rights are being
recorded. ‘he expenditure of the Settlement Department was
exceptionally high, due to complicated tenures, minute holdings and
numerous disputes, and this served to raise the cost of the complete
operations to Rs 410 per square mile.

The survey was continued on the same lines in i885-86, bi in
1886-87 an endeavour was made to employ the district kanwngos* i
place of the survey munsarims; the experiment however pele a as
the men were found to be too ignorant for the purpose. Here, again,
in the case of one tahsil,+ the survey operations resulted in the dis-
covery of twice as many occupancy tenants as had been returned by
the kanungos four years previously, the fact being that the presence
of Huropean surveyors encouraged the tenants to assert their rights
more fearlessly than they could otherwise have done. The survey of

* Revenue official under the tahsildar.
{ Portion of a district divided off for revenue purposes.

£ ¥620321. H

114 REVENUE SURVEYS.

Gorakhpur was completed in 1887-88 after five seasons’ work,
and a further grant was sanctioned by the North-West Provinces
Government which it was expected would enable the cadastral and
topographical survey of the Tarai district, already commenced, to be
finished during the next season. A scheme, submitted by Colonel
Sandeman, was also approved for the reconstruction of maps and
revision of records of the Jhansi district, entirely through the agency
of patwaris, who, it was anticipated, would carry out the survey and
write the records, each in his own circle, in two years. The cost was
estimated at Rs. 40 per square mile.

Bengal.—T he Eastern Soane Irrigation cadastral survey in the Gaya
and Patna districts was practically all but completed by Mr. E. T. 8.
Johnson in 1876-77, and the party transferred to the North-West
Provinces to take up the cadastral survey of the Jaunpur district,
beginning at its south-western extremity, bordering on Oudh and
Allahabad. Operations were continued through four seasons, and
finally concluded in 1881. 'The general maps of the district reduced
from the cadastral sheets consist of 23 standard-sized maps on the
2-inch scale.

A part of the establishment previously employed on the Jaunpur
cadastral survey was deputed to Sylhet for the purpose of testing
the accuracy of the old mahalwar* maps, prepared by a local
establishment in 1862-64. Three blocks of villages in different
parts of Sylhet were selected, the test consisting of a complete
cadastral or field survey, while the surveyors were required to
prepare at the same time the village registers or khasras. The old
surveys had been laid off by magnetic bearings, taken at each bend
of the thakbust or village boundary, a system which often resulted
in errors. so that the polygon would not close, while contiguous
mahals* either overlapped or would not meet on the map. It was
evident from the comparisons that a large amount of careful and
laborious work had been done during the mahalwar survey, but
there were also numerous and large discrepancies brought to
hight.

A cadastral survey of ithe Khurdah estate in the Pooree district
of the Lower Provinces, on the scale of 32 inches to the mile, was
commenced in 1876-77. The cost was high owing to the small
size and intricate nature of the fields, and the difficulty in inducing

* Mahal, a separate estate.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 115

the Ooriyas or men of the country to act as amins. ‘Tho operations
were in charge of Mr. R. B. Smart, an officer of considerable
experience. In 1878-79, however, the Bengal Board of Revenue,
on account of the high cost of the operations, advocated a new
system, under which a large portion of the work hitherto performed
by the professional party would be undertaken in future by the
Settlement Department. A meeting of civil and survey officers
consequently assembled at Cuttack in February 1879, and after
consideration a still larger transfer of duties to the Settlement
Department than at first contemplated was decided upon, it being
arranged that for the remaining villages of the Khurdah estate
the professional party should execute a traverse survey of the
village boundaries and prepare skeleton maps of villages. These
skeleton maps were to be made over to the Settlement Department
to enable them to carry out all interior measurements. But any
hills falling within the villages were to be surveyed by the
professional party on the 4-inch scale. The chief tract remaining
for survey in 1879-80—the mals or forest lands of Banpur—was
known to be at all times unhealthy, and during that season everyone
who entered the jungles was sooner or later struck down with fever.
These mals had never before been demarcated, and the inhabitants
of the scattered hamlets had hitherto cultivated the open patches
of land without let or hindrance, escaping all taxation. It was not
surprising, therefore, that they looked upon the survey as an
innovation, and as far as possible avoided giving help, but thanks
to the efforts of the Collector all difficulties as to supplies, &c. were
surmounted. The whole of the Khurdah estate was completed during
the season of 1879-80, the general maps on the 4-inch scale being
65 in number, of which 48 were surveyed by the Department and
19 by the Settlement Department.

The 8th or Western Soane Irrigation party was engaged in-
1876-77 on cadastral surveys in the Shahabad district. It was
supposed that the entire irrigable area of the district would be
surveyed, but during October 1877 the programme was changed,
and the area in Shahabad was greatly reduced. Major Sconce was
in charge of the party as well as of a section left to complete the
cadastral survey of Patna district, and under his general supervision
the work in both districts was completed.

Major 8. H. Cowan, who had assisted Major Sconce, was deputed
during the following season (1878-79) to raise a small party for

H 2

116 REVENUE SURVEYS.

the survey of Cachar, and with the nucleus of some men from the
Western Soane party this was done. The operations in Cachar
had become necessary on account of the pending re-settlement of
the district, but owing to the old boundaries not having been
permanently marked they could not be identified on the ground.
Consequently a settlement establishment had to precede the pro-
fessional survey party, demarcate the mehal boundaries, and prepare
maps of the boundaries by aid of the compass and chain for
comparison with the maps of the cadastral survey. Under these
circumstances the out-turn was not large, and after a conference
at Shillong it was decided that in future the professional basis of
the village boundaries of the cadastral maps should be continued
through the agency of a small professional detachment under the
orders of the Settlement Officer.

In the Midnapur district a 4-inch survey muzawar was
progressing in 1876-77 under Mr. W. Lane, who retired early in
the season after a useful and lengthy service of nearly 40 years,
and was succeeded by Captain W. H. Wilkins. At the close of the
season a very small area in the jungle Mehal hills was all that
remained to complete the district, and this was assigned to
Mr. J. Todd for the next year, the rest of the party being
reconstituted for a cadastral survey of the irrigable lands of Cuttack
in the vicinity of the Mahanadi river. The survey was undertaken
for the Irrigation Branch of the Public Works Department to
facilitate the collection of canal water rates, and the entire expense
was defrayed by that Department. Captam D. C. Andrew was
placed in charge till he was mvalided by a sun-stroke and succeeded
by Mr. E. C. Barrett. Operations were much delayed by the fact
that the demarcation had not been pushed forward and disputes
had not been adjusted in advance, but the survey was finished in
1879, the greater part of the work being on the 32-inch scale.

In November 1879 a cadastral 16-inch survey of the Bassein
district of British Burma was started under the superintendence
of Major D. C. Andrew. The country is largely intersected with
creeks, all communication is necessarily carried on by water, and
boundary lines had to be very frequently cleared through dense
jungle. Major Steel, who had charge in the following season,
reported promisingly of the Burman and Kareni surveyors, but
this favourable opinion was not endorsed by Majors Wilkins and
Hutchinson iz the succeeding years, as they found them slower than

REVENUE SURVEYS. Oy;

Hindustanis, and without much ambition to become useful. A
school for the trainng of Burmans as surveyors was established,
and 89 youths qualified themselves by field training in the principles
of fillmg in cadastral survey details, the British Burma Government
having made the possession of this certificate a sine quad non to civil
employment, but Major Hutchinson did not come across a case
of a Burman desiring to make field surveying a means of livelihood.
In 1882-83 the survey of the town of Bassein on the 64-inch scale,
at the expense of the municipality, was undertaken, and in the
following season operations were extended into the Henzada district,
the surveys of both districts being brought to a close in 1885, The
party was then transferred to Behar to imaugurate an experimental
cadastral survey of the Muzaffarpur district under Lieutenant-
Colonel Barron, Major Hutchinson being transferred to Akyab.

The cadastral survey of Muzaffarpur in Bengal, with preparation
of a record of rights, was undertaken experimentally under the
Bengal Tenancy Act, and as the operations were of considerable
importance, involving as they did the great question of a thorough
statistical and geographical survey throughout the permanently
settled districts of Bengal, a brief account of the circumstances
which led to the institution of the survey is here desirable.

The Indian Famine Commission, who reported in 1880, had laid
special stress on the necessity of appointing village accountants in
Bengal, and of instituting cadastral or field surveys in the same
province.* This weighty matter, closely connected as it was with
the question of the relations between landlord and tenant in Bengal,
very soon branched off from the more general recommendations
of the Commission, regarding the establishment of Agricultural
Departments and the organisation of famine relief, and became the

* “We recommend that the body of village accountants should everywhere be put
on a sound and satisfactory footing as responsible public officers, with a clearly defined
set of duties, but with due consideration to the importance of their permanent con-
nexion with their own villages, and that whereas in parts of Bengal and Sindh the
class has ceased to exist through long desuetude it should be resuscitated. . . 2...
The field survey, which supplies the basis of all agricultural statistics, should be
pushed on in the provinces where it is now in progress, and should be set on foot in
Bengal, where hitherto it has not been introduced. In that province the expenditure, or
the major part of it, should be borne by the landholders, who alone derive advantage
from the increasing value of the land, and who cannot without such a survey properly
perform the duties imposed on them by their position.” (Command Paper C.-2891,

1880, p. 40.)

118 REVENUE SURVEYS.

subject of an important and lengthy correspondence spread over
several years between the Government of India and the Secretary
of State. The experiment of a cadastral survey and of the esta-
blishment of village records in the Patna division of Behar was
sanctioned by Lord Hartington in 1882,* but pending the larger
question of the amendment of the Bengal Rent Law, nothing was
done to give effect to that sanction. In 1884, Mr. Reynolds, one of
the members of the Bengal Board of Revenue, submitted a full
explanatory memorandum (based largely on a note of Mr. Bernard)
describing the proposed survey and record of rights, and also the
proposed maintenance of the survey and records by introducing into
Bebar the North-west Provinces system of patwaris and kanungos.
For this purpose a Patwari Bill was brought into the Bengal
Legislative Council, and the survey and record operations were
started in the district of Muzaffarpur. But in 1886, Lord Randolph
Churchill, who was then Secretary of State, in reviewing the whole
situation, expressed his opiniony that the cost of survey and record
operations in Muzaffarpur should be borne wholly by the Govern-
ment, on the ground that “as the measure at present is purely
“ experimental it would not be right to lay any part of the expense
* on the people.” At the same time, Lord Randolph made a reser-
vation as regarded the cost of the patwaris, which he had no
objection to see defrayed from local funds if there were found any
“existing customary source’ capable of bemg made fairly available
for the payment of the new class of village accountants. The
Government of India, however, in their reply plainly objected to this
new idea of defraying the expense from general revenues, so that
Lord Kimberley, who had in the meantime taken office, thought
that there was no choice left but to abandon the survey, which was
accordingly done. tf

The stoppage of the survey gave rise to much general regret.
Jt had been desirable, in the first instance, to test the feelings
of the people in Behar with regard both to mapping the holdings
and to the concurrent inquiries into occupancy rights, as well as to
ascertain the probable cost of the operations with the view of

* Despatch No. 54 (Revenue), dated 17th August, p. 190 of volume of Selections
from Despatches for 1882.

+ In his Despatch No. 1 (Legislative), dated 7th January 1886.

t Despatch to Government of India (Legislative), No. 21, dated 15th July 1886.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 119

their being extended, if matters should be found favourable, to
other permanently settled districts of the Lower Provinces of
Bengal. The result of the experiment, so far as the temper of the
people was concerned, had been in every way satisfactory. The land-
lords offered no opposition, as had been feared they might have done,
through their regarding the formal recording of the rights of the
tenants as a restriction of their proprietary rights. The tenants
did not object, as had been partly expected, to the measuring of
their fields, through apprehension of an increase of rents, though
it was also evident that they were still ignorant of the great
advantages accruing to them from the accurate record which was
being made of their holdings. Generally they were found to be
passively indifferent to the operations. The cost of the survey had
been at the total rate of Rs. 269 per square mile, being Rs. 140 for
survey proper and Rs. 129 for writing and compiling the records.
These rates, however, were exceptionally high, owing to the opera-
tions being new, and several of the hands untrained. For the
ensuing season it was confidently expected that the cost would have
been reduced to less than Rs. 200 per square mile, or below 5 annas
per acre.

But so useful and important a measure was not destined to be
permanently abandoned, and the subject soon came to the front
again. The Government of India, on inquiry into all the circum-
stances, arrived at the same conclusion as that formed by the
Surveyor-General, that the experimental survey in Muzaffarpur had
really been a success and deserved to be extended.* And when the
matter came before Lord Cross, as Secretary of State, he accepted
this favourable opinion, and finally reversed the decision of Lord
Randolph Churchill as to the cost in the following terms: “I fully
agree in your opinion, that if the work is undertaken at all the
“ cost of the survey and of the subsequent maintenance of the
* village record must be kept within the narrowest possible limits
of cost, as the expenses will have to be defrayed by the classes
and localities concerned.”’+
There is therefore every prospect that this survey will be resumed
as soon as the people have recovered from the loss caused by the
scarcity of 1889. A beginning will thus be made with a proper
cadastral and statistical survey of the permanently settled districts

.
oy

a
on

«
"

* Sir E. Buck’s letter to the Government of Bengal, daied 16th June 1888.
{ Despatch to India, No. 66 (Revenue), dated 16th August 1888.

120 REVENUE SURVEYS.

of Bengal, which has been hitherto one of the most urgent prelimi-
nary desiderata for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the resources
of the country, and thus minimizing the devastations of famine.*

The Dearah Survey, on the 4-inch scale, in the districts of
Faridpur and Bakarganj was continued and brought to a close
in the year 1876-77, the operations lying mainly adjacent to the
Megua river, where the country consisted partly of heavy jungle
aud partly of densely populated tracts with bamboo, betel, and
cccoa-nut groves, and innumerable tanks. One of the principal
objects of the survey was to fix and render permanent the village
boundary trijunctions on and adjoining the large sand-banks and
islands, and 536 of these were so fixed during the season. The
weather throughout was unusually wet and stormy, and as the
country under survey consisted of sand-banks and islands intersected
by immense rivers, the crossing of these in small country boats is
a matter of no small risk. Captain Samuelis, who was in charge,
stated that the zemindars obstructed the survey as much as they
couid by refusing to attend or point out their boundaries until
summoned to do so. The process of summoning caused a delay of
15 days, when an agent would be sent to attend, who either pointed
out a wrong boundary or professed entire ignorance and finally
told the surveyor to put down any boundary he pleased.

It was arranged that the party should undertake, during tne
following season, the topographical survey of district Sakaranpur,
one of the 21 districts of the North-West Provinces, of which most
of the records were destroyed in the Mutiny. The scale of survey
was to be two instead of four inches to a mile. Village boundaries
were to be omitted, but parganay and thanat boundaries were to be
surveyed and mapped.

In 1888-89 no fewer than seven parties and one detachment were
altogether employed on cadastral surveys. Of these six continued
the operations of the previous year in the Bilaspur district of the

* Compare the paper on Indian Agriculture, read by Mr. C. R. Markham, C.B., before
the Society of Arts, on the 21st May 1875 :—‘* When we find the cultivators well off in
* one district, depressed by poverty and want in another, or on the verge of starva-
* tion in s third, we may feel sure that these differences are to a great extent due to
“ want of exact knowledge on the part of the rulers.” And Mr. Markham goes on to
point out very clearly that a cadastral survey is the only satisfactory basis for acquiring
such knowledge.

} Subdivision of a district for revenue purposes.

t Subdivision of a district for police purposes.

REVENUE SURVEYS. I

Central Provinces (where the work was brought to a conclusion), in
Bengal, the North-West Provinces, Assam, and Burma, while the
seventh party was transferred from the North-West Provinces to
start the survey of Jalpaiguri in Bengal. A small detachment was
alsu formed for the commencement of the survey of Chittagong.

Traverse surveys in the Punjab and Central Provinces were also
carried on by six parties, those in the former being occupied in the
construction of topographical maps by reduction from the village
maps of the settlement surveys, and those in the latter in furnishing
skeleton plots of villages for field surveys by patwaris working
under settlement officers. Four parties were also engaged in forest
surveys in the Central Provinces in the Bombay and Madras
Presidencies and in Lower Burma respectively, as well as a detach-
ment in Bengal working in conjunction with the cadastral party
engaged in the survey of Angul in Orissa.

Hugli River and Calcutta. —The want of a reliable survey of
the Hugli river had been long felt, and had been pointed out by
the Torpedo Committee in 1871, by the Bengal Chamber of
Commerce in 1872, by the Port Commissioners in 1875, and finally
by the Port Officer of Calcutta, who had shown in 1881 that an
exact triangulation and topographical survey of the banks of the
river were also much needed as a basis for new river charts, and
that the co-operation of the Survey Department was desirable.
The Surveyor-General of India accordingly took advantage of the
completion of the cadastral survey of Jaunpur district to depute
the party to take up the work on the Hugh. The tract to be
surveyed on either bank varied from a quarter of a mile to a mile
or more in width, and extended from about the 23rd parallel, near
Kanchrapara Station of the Eastern Bengal Railway, to close on
22° 30’, or about the latitude of Saugor lighthouse. Calcutta and
its suburbs as well as the whole of Saugor island were included in
the area. From Atchipur southwards the scale adopted was
six inches, while above Atchipur it was 16 inches to the mile. The
river soundings which did not extend above Calcutta were supplied
by the Marine Survey Department under the supervision of
Lieutenant Petley, R.N. The Hugli survey was completed during
the season of 1882-83 by Major 8. H. Cowan, the 16-inch portion
being contained in 115 sections of uniform size, including one
minute of Jatitude by one minute of longitude, and the 6-inch series
comprising 14 maps.

122 REVENUE SURVEYS.

In consequence of the growth of the capital, a re-survey of
Calcutta had become necessary, the former plan, executed in 1847,
by Mr. F. W. Simms, C.E., haying been on too small a scale, and
having since become quite out of date. In 1851 a survey of the
boundary of holdings was commenced by Mr. W. Heysham, whose
work lasted four years, and who converted Mr. Simms’s topographical
maps into maps showing the holdings, with index numbers referring
to a register of owners and areas. These, however, in process of
time, had become useless through changes in proprietorship, but a
newer and more correct set of registers had been begun in 1877.

The “Calcutta Survey Act, 1887,’ became law on the 15th
January in that year. The Deputy Superintendent in charge of the
operations was empowered to inquire into and lay down boundaries.
The scale adopted was 50 feet to 1 inch, surface features being
shown with the greatest minuteness, and the underground lines of
sewers, gas, and water pipes being subsequently added. There has
been a great deal of delay caused by the failure of proprietors to
attend when their boundaries were being laid down, and there is
still a good deal of work remaining to be done, including the house
to house inquiry as to names of proprietors and )oundaries of
buildings, and the drawing of the fair sheets. The principal field work
has been completed, but owing to the great difficulty in getting
proprietors to attend, when the boundaries are bemg laid down, it is
almost impossible to say when the last sheet will be published.

Bombay.—Owing to the famine the operations in 1876-77 of Major
H. C. B. Tanner’s party in the Poona and Satara districts had to be
diverted to a part of the country which was quite unprepared for
survey, and where no triangulation had been done in advance, and
this resulted in a smaller out-turn than usual. The nature of the
survey was, as before, topographical, on the scale of two inches to a
mile, based on triangulation and traverse. The levels and charts
carried out by the irrigation officers were incorporated into the
survey sheets, and all the heights were connected with those brought
up from the coast by Captain Baird’s Tidal and Levelling party, so
that the true heights above mean sea-level were ascertained in each
case. Every effort was made to utilise the maps of the Bombay
Government Revenue Surveys, but as the work in this year happened
to lie in hilly ground, where these maps were found to be, as a rule,

REVENUE SURVEYS. 2s

defective, the efforts were unsuccessful, though good use was made
of them in the succeeding season. In 1878-79 Major Tanner was
employed with the Khaibar column of the Afghanistan Field Force
and Major H.S. Hutchinson took charge of the South Deccan party.
For one of the southernmost. sheets (54) the scale of survey was
increased to four inches to the mile; but in other parts the old 2-inch
scale was adhered to.

Major Hutchinson found it impracticable to utilise the topo-
eraphy of the Bombay maps, owing to the drainage and other items
being imperfect and varying much in quality in different localities,
according to the time at which it was done and the officer who did
it. In 1880-81 the opportunity was taken by Major Andrew, who
had assumed charge, to survey some western portions of the Nizam’s
dominions which adjoined the area of the party, as no maps were
forthcoming of the tract among the records of the old Haidarabad
Survey. The general work was steadily continued up to 1886, when
the South Deccan party was withdrawn from the Bombay Presi-
deney and transferred to the Central Provinces to carry on a
traverse survey there in aid of a settlement survey. It had been
employed in the Bombay Presidency since October 1872, and during
the 14 seasons of its employment had surveyed in all, under suc-
cessive officers, a total area of 24,867 square miles, leaving about
11,953 square miles incompleted.

The 10th or Nasik, Poona, and Ahmadnagar party, under Major
Macdonald, was occupied in 1877 in topographical survey in Ahmad-
nagar district, the eastern part of which adjoined Haidarabad territory.
The country was generally flat and open, though here and there inter-
sected by a network of large and small streams. In the west the
ground was broken and undulating, while in the immediate vicinity of
the Ghats it was a mass of hills, some very rugged and precipitous.
The skeleton survey was a combination of triangulation and
traversing, by which the country was first covered by a network of
triangles having sides averaging 10 miles in length; the distances
between the triangulated points were then traversed with the chain,
thus enclosing main circuits, of which the bearings and co-ordinates
obtained by traverse were corrected to agree with the values of the
points derived from the triangulation. The city of Ahmadnagar
was mapped on the scale of 66 feet or one chain to the inch for the
municipality, by whom the extra cost was defrayed. An excellent

124 REVENUE SURVEYS.

descriptive report of the Deccan, its appearance, physical geography
geological structure, chief towns, ports, manufactures, &c., 18
attached to the Surveyor-General’s Report for 1877-78.*

The area allotted to this party having been nearly completed, the
survey of the Konkan or country between the Western Ghats and the
sea was assigned to them in January 1879. The system and scale of
survey (2-inch) were the same as those adopted for the Deccan
topographical survey, and the triangulation was based on the South
Konkan Meridional Series of the Great Trigonometrical Survey.
Triangulation was carried on under great difficulties, as the agri-
culturists burn the village refuse to supply ashes for the rice
fields. The smoke of the fires added to the dense atmosphere near
the sea coast covered the tops of the hills with a dense haze, and
after 10 in the morning even the luminous signals were not visible
for over six or eight miles. The Deccan dacoits too roamed about
the country cutting down signals and destroying marks.

Captain E. W. Samuells was in charge of this party up to the
11th September 1878, when he availed himself of two months’
privilege leave to recruit his health. Before the termination of his
leave the Afghan war had commenced, and he and Major Tanner
had to accompany the Khaibar column. Captain Samuells, after
narrowly escaping from the enemy’s artillery fire while surveying
during the battle of Al Musjid, fell a victim to fever on the
21st December 1878. He had entered the Department in December
1863, and had held charge of different parties for about six years
altogether. He had served in Bengal, Assam, the Deccan, and on a
special boundary survey of the Oudh and Nepal frontier, and was
an energetic and zealous officer.

Yn 1879-80 the North Deccan party was divided into two sections,
one being engaged in completing the portion of the Deccan allotted
to the party, with which was included the Asnti taluk of the
Nizam’s dominions, as it is surrounded by Deccan country. The
second section commenced the topographical survey of the Konkan,
where preliminary triangulation had been done during the previous
season. The 2-inch scale was continued as in the Deccan, but the
village boundaries were obtained by direct survey, as it was found
that the transfer of the boundaries in such hilly country from the
Bombay Revenue Survey maps would not have been satisfactory.

* Appendix, p. 129.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 125

A picturesque description of the Konkan, from the pen of Colonel
J. Macdonald, finds place in the Surveyor-General’s Report for
1879-80.* Colonel Macdonald remarks on the few remains of fine
buildings throughout the Konkan, showing the traces of Muhammadan
occupation, and he observes that, considering the importance they
attached to the trade and intercourse with Egypt, Persia, and Arabia,
and that they were supreme in power from the fourteenth to the close
of the sixteenth century, it is strange there are not more traces of a
governing race which built like giants and finished like jewellers.
Of the Marathas, who date from the middle of the seventeenth
century, the great hill forts are the most characteristic structures.
All these are constructed on the same principle, the top of the fortified
hill being surrounded by a bastioned wall, and any necessary outwork
being connected by an excavated passage with the main work. Some
of these forts show stupendous labour in rock-cutting. The eastern
districts are terribly denuded of forest trees. Every effort is made
to promote jungle growth, but Colonel Macdonald considers that
centuries must elapse ere the injury to agriculture caused by the
folly and greed of one unthinking generation can be quite forgiven
by nature, and that the rainfall in the upper basin of the Godavari
and Kistna rivers will be most precarious for many years to come.

The progress was slow in the following year owing to the high
and difficult hills covered with forest or marshy flat country cut up
by tidal creeks, about which the work lay. The suburbs of Bombay
were very intricate, and the hill sanitarium of Matheran and Bombay
harbour also proved difficult pieces of work. The fort and city
were not surveyed, but mapped from a photographic reduction of
Colonel Laughton’s survey in 1874. Major Lees Smith, who had
taken over charge from Colonel Macdonald, unfortunately succumbed
to feyer in 1882. He was an officer possessed of ecnsiderable mathe-
matical talent, and his loss was much regretted. During 1882 and
1883 the scale of survey in the Thana collectorate was raised from
two to four inches to meet the requirements of the Forest Department,
and the country alternated between dificult mountainous jungle-
covered districts and flat and marshy tracts along the seacoast, both
of which proved very unhealthy to the party. The portions of the
Konkan allotted to the party were completed in 1885, and a com-
mencement was made of the topographical survey of the Southern
Maratha country, the object being to undertake a topographical
2-inch survey of Bombay territory south of the parallel of 16° N.

* See Appendix, p. 10.

126 REVENUE SURVEYS.

atitude, together with a skeleton traverse survey of the forests,
to serve as a basis for the construction of working plans by forest
officers. The chief place of importance falling within the season’s
work was Belgaum, with its cantonment and fort. During the
ensuing years the work was carried on by two separate sections, but
in 1887-88 the Bombay Government represented that the skeleton
boundary maps gave very meagre results compared with their cost,
so after a conference at Poona between the Secretary to the Govern-
ment of India, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay,
the Surveyor-General, and officers of the Forest and Survey Depart-
ments, the procedure was altered, and one entire party for forest
topography was formed out of the forest sections of Nos. 10 and 17
parties, while the second party was to be employed exclusively on
general topography.*

Assam and Sikkim.—In Assam a small party under Mr. W. H.
Patterson had been deputed in 1877 to ascertain the areas of plots of
land held by the lakhirajdars} preparatory to adjusting their claims
and allotting what they were actually entitled to. The work consisting
of three stages, viz., (1) the professional survey of interior details, (2)
the adjustment of areas and boundary, and (3) the final demarcation
and boundary survey, was carried on until 1878-79, but in that year
the operations, so far as the Indian Survey Department was concerned,
were brought to aclose, as it was considered that the mere calculation
of the areas could be effectually done by ordinary amins under the
Settlement Commissioner.

On completion of Lieut. Harman’s work in 1877-78 in Northern
Assam, that officer’s party was transferred to the Darjeeling district
for the purpose of completing certain miscellaneous surveys required
by the Bengal Government, the most prominent of which were a
large scale survey of Darjeeling station and a survey of the route
leading into Tibet from Rhenok to the Jelep-la pass. In October
1879 Lieutenant Harman started for Northern Sikkim and Mr. Robert
for Western Sikkim to undertake a geographical survey of that
State}, while the remaining surveyors, European and Native, were
left to complete the field work in the Darjeeling district. The result,
however, was unfortunate in various respects, for Lieutenant Harman
was badly frosthitten in his feet, and the surveyors at Darjeeling
were called upon to perform a variety of pressing duties in the

* See page 90.
T Holders of land rent free.
= See footnote on following page.

REVENUE SURVEYS. 127

neighbourhood as soon as their presence became known to the local
officers and tea-planters. This comprised a large amount of survey
work in the station of Darjeeling, in the Hope Town estates, and
Government Khas lands, in the lands east of the Teesta river required
for tea cultivation, and other places. The blocks of land newly
taken up for chinchona cultivation in Sittong were also surveyed.

For the survey of Sikkim Lieutenant Harman undertook in
person the whole of the country lying east of the range running
south-east from Kanchanjanga, assigning the country to the west to
Mr. Robert. He proceeded in the first instance to the snowy ranges
on the frontier between Sikkim and Tibet, hoping to survey them
during the brief interval between the cessation of the rains and the
setting in of the winter with its heavy snowfalls. On ascending the
Donkia-la pass, on the boundary, his feet were badly frostbitten,
and he eventually lost four and a half of his toes, but with great
persistence and energy he bravely continued his work, going about
as best he could on coolies’ backs, ponies, or crutches. He also
visited the Kangra Lama pass, which lies north-west of the Donkia-la,
and penetrated into parts of Sikkim which no European had pre-
viously explored. He was in Sikkim about three and a half months,
during which he surveyed an area of over 1,000 square miles on the
z-inch scale. Mr. Robert succeeded in surveying about 600 square
miles on the same scale in Western Sikkim, including the boundary
with Nepal. From the numerous commanding points on this
mountain frontier he could see most of that part of Nepal which
lies east of the southern spurs of Mount Everest, and sketched an
area of about 900 square miles there besides fixing a large number
of points on the surrounding hill ranges and in Sikkim. Mr. Robert’s
work was found to combine very well with that of Dr. Hooker.*

Lieut. Harman was an officer of immense enterprise and energy
and untiring self-devotion; he greatly overtaxed himself in his
arduous work, and at last his health broke down. and he had to
retire from the service. He lived to join his family in Italy, but
died soon afterwards.

* The survey of Sikkim was not sanctioned withouta good deal of preliminary
discussion, the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal being at first opposed to the under-
taking. ‘The papers on the subject contain some interesting information regarding
Sikkim and Tibet, especially in connexion with Mr. Ware EHdgar’s researches. See
Proceedings of the Government of India (Surveys), September 1879. It is needless
almost to say that the survey subsequently proved of the greatest importance and use
at the time of the Sikkim zmbroglio with ‘Tibet.

128

Walle
GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

There is no department of the Indian Surveys in which more
progress has been made during the last fifteen years than in the
exploration and gradual opening up of the regions adjoining the
periphery of British India. The admirable plan of training natives
for surveying wild and unsettled countries, where a British officer
would haye but. little chance of escaping molestation, has been
greatly developed and crowned with the most complete success, while
the hostilities in which we have unfortunately been involved with
Afghanistan, Burma, and other powers have nevertheless been
accompanied with a great development in our topographical,
scientific, and general knowledge of these important countries.
Finally, our political negotiations with Russia over the question of
the northern frontier of Afghanistan, have resulted in a substantial
enlargement of our stores of information respecting that region.
Although a complete account of the Afghan Boundary Commission,
and the multifarious inquiries and researches pursued in connexion
therewith, has yet to be written, nevertheless, a great many
scattered reports, scientific papers, and other contributions to the
literature of the day have been published by the officers who took
part init. The summary of results given in the following pages
will show that the information amassed by the British and Native
members of the Commission probably ranks as the most important
data ever collected respecting the Indian trans-frontier regions.

The extension of our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan,
and the rectification of the hurried surveys which had been made
curing the first Afghan war but had never been properly combined
together, had long been desiderata of great importance. So long,
however, as it was considered the safest and best policy to prevent
any attempt being made to survey beyond the British frontier, in
order to avoid risk of collision with the independent tribes beyond,
it was impossible for the survey officers to do more than fix all the
most prominent points on the hill ranges beyond, which were visible
from within the frontier, and to fill up the details of the country
from native information or by the secret agency of native explorers.

GEOGRAPHICAL 8URVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 129

But on the declaration of war with the Amir in 1878 it became
necessary to attach surveyors to each of the four columns invading
Afghanistan. To review, however, their geographical operations, it
1S more convenient to divide them into three groups, viz., lst, those
in Southern Afghanistan with the columns under the command of
Generals Stewart and Biddulph; 2nd, those in the Kuram valley
and generally to the south of the Safed-Koh range with the column
under General Roberts; and 3rd, those in the Kabul valley and to
the north of the Safed-Koh range with the column under General
Browne.

Seven officers proceeded to rendezvous at Quetta, and much survey
work was forthwith set on foot, the more important being Captain
Beayan’s route survey from Kandahar to Girishk on the Helmand
river, and Captain Rogers’s route survey from Kandahar to Kalat-
1-Gilzai and back by the Arghandab valley. In March 1879
Captains Heayiside and Holdich accompanied the column under
General Biddulph, which was under orders to return to India by
the direct and hitherto unexplored route by the villages of Tal and
Chotiali. The rapidity of the marches made it impossible to carry
a continuous triangulation across the whole breadth of country,
thus, after a while, Captain Holdich had to depend on his plane-
table alone, but the final connexion with the fixed points of the
Indus Series showed that the work was very accurate for a }-inch
survey. It embraced altogether about 5,000 square miles. Lieu-
tenant Gore carried out a survey of the Pishin valley, and Major
Campbell, who was the senior survey officer in Southern Afghanistan,
made a survey through the Shorawak valley (between Pishin and
the great western desert) closing on Quetta. He also surveyed
the Toba plateau, and his report thereon was printed for the
Quartermaster-General’s Department.

Captain Woodthorpe was attached to the Kuram valley column
under General F. Roberts. and for four months was the only Survey
Department officer serving with it. In March 1879 he was joined by
Captain Gerald Martin. Woodthorpe accompanied the first advance
of General Roberts’s force to the Paiwar pass in November 1878, and
took part in the fighting on the 28th November and 2nd and 3rd
December. He had a marvellously narrow escape during the action
of the 2nd, as in the dusk of the morning he went up by mistake to
a breastwork occupied by the enemy, who did not discover his
presence till he was within six yards, when they fired a volley at
him. ‘The stock of his pistol was smashed by a bullet which grazed

1 Y¥ 20321. I

130 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

his side and drove a piece of his clothes into his sketch book, which
was considerably damaged, but he himself escaped unhurt. He
completed a reconnaissance up to the Shutargardan pass, the position
of which proved to be considerably in error on the old maps, and
returned through the Mangal country to Kuram. In January he
accompanied the expedition into the Khost valley, and nearly the
whole of Khost was mapped; subsequently ascents were made of
various prominent peaks, including Sikaram, the highest point of
the Safed-Koh range, and from that commanding position a good
deal of topography was sketched in.

To the Peshawar or northern column, Major Tanner, Captain
Samuells, and Mr. Scott were attached, Captains Leach and Strahan
joining subsequently. Hach of the first three officers took part in
the advance on the fort of Ali Musjid, Captain Samuells distinguish-
ing himself by carrying on his plane-tabling under a heavy fire;
unhappily he caught typhoid fever and died soon after at Peshawar.*
Major Tanner carried a continuous survey from Ali Musjid to
Jalalabad, which was found to be about five miles nearer to Peshawar
than previously accepted.

In May Major Tanner attempted an exploring trip into Kafiristan
through the Kunar valley, and atter several perilous adventures
succeeded in reaching Aret in the Chugani or Kohistan country,
which is on the southern confines of Kafiristan. Overcome with
fatigue and exposure and prostrated with fever he was compelled
to abandon his design and return to Jalalabad. An interesting
account of his journey was read before the Royal Geographical
Society.+ Captain Leach joined the force in January, and during
the two months he was at work surveyed a good portion of the
Bazar valley and the country round Jalalabad, chiefly in the
Shinwari country and on the northern slopes of the Safed-Koh range.
At the end of March he was compelled to withdraw, in consequence of
a severe wound received during an attack on his party by Shinwaris ;
his gallantry on that occasion won him the honoured distinction
of the Victoria Cross. His place was supplied hy Captain Charles
Strahan, who with Mr. Scott did good work along the country south
of the Kabul river. North of the Khaibar pass Mr. Scott happened
to be attacked while surveying by a considerable number of
Momands, and with difficulty made good his retreat to Fort Michni
with a loss of one corporal and one Sepoy killed and wounded. The

* See also Revenue Surveys, chapter, p. 124.
7 On April 11th, 1881. See page 278 of Proceedings, R. G. S.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 131

fight, a hand-to-nand affair, lasted the whole afternoon, and the
safety of the party was due to Mr. Scott’s gallantry.* Later
on Mr. Scott visited the peak Sekh-ram (Sikaram), the highest
point of the Safed-Koh range, where he obtained observations to
numerous distant peaks, including a lofty pyramidical-shaped peak
away to the north overtopping all the surrounding peaks of the
Hindu Kush. The further identification of this important peak is
a task reserved for some future traveller.

While Captain Strahan was surveying near Jugdulluk pass, where
the remnants of the Cabul division made their last desperate stand in
January 1842, he found that his assistant, Akram Khan, was the son
of the man in whose house Captain Souter (father of Sir F. Souter of
Bombay) had been detained as prisoner. Akram Khan remembered
“Souter Sahib” and his teaching him a few English words, and
produced a touching letter written by Captain Souter to Captain
Fenwick at Jalalabad, bearing a postcript in pencil :—“I write this
«as I believe it to be Sunday the 30th January 1842. * * * *
« J have neither seen nor have been able to hold any intercourse
“ with Major Griffiths since the first day I arrived, now nearly three
“« weeks—a long time to wear a bloody shirt.” Captain Souter and
Major Griffiths were eventually taken with the other prisoners
into Lughman by Akbar Khan.

The work completed by the surveyors attached to the northern
column covered altogether an area of about 2,200 square miles,
extending from Forts Michni and Jamrud on the British frontier
near Peshawar to the Surkhab river west of Gundamak, and
including a little of the northern and most of the southern portion of
‘the basin of the Kabul river. Some blanks remained on the northern
slopes of the Safed-Koh in the country of the Shinwaris and
Khugianis, which were unavoidable owing to the conditions under
which the survey in an enemy’s country was conducted. <A good
deal of information was also obtained across the Kabul river in the
Lughman plain and neighbouring tracts.

With respect to the lessons of the campaign, so far as survey
matters were concerned, one of the most difficult proved to be the
question of equipment and men. In a few instances it was possible

* Mr. Scott received a sword of honour and an honorarium from the Government
of the Punjab for his services in 1868. He also received «n honorarium for the
exploit described above.

eS GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

to send men from headquarters fully equipped, but where officers
were summoned from England or distant parts cf India this was
not possible, and some dissatisfaction was expressed, though the
results showed that much excellent work was done by officers who
raced up to the front as fast as they could, picking up men and
instruments, camp equipage, and horses wherever they could find
them on the road, and depending on border natives and even
Afghans to fill up the personnel of the party.

The usefulness of the plane-table for military route surveys during
the advance of the troops was fully proved. It is light, portable,
and enables the ground to be mapped on the spot. If a good plane-
tabler be given a base to start from of which the length and
azimuth are known, with a fair proportion of commanding positions
end hill peaks susceptible of ready identification, he can survey
with great rapidity as he goes along and to a distance much beyond
the positions which he may have reached. When, on the other
hand, the troops march very rapidly and the route lies through a
plain or else a country with hills which are inaccessible, the plane-
table is at a disadvantage compared with a theodolite. In all rapid
surveys occasional checks in the shape of astronomical observations
for latitude and azimuth and longitude observations as well are —
desirable. For this occasion several officers in Afghanistan were
supplied with a 6-inch transit theodolite, an instrument with a
complete vertical circle and an eye-piece fitted with a pair of
“ sub-tense micrometers,’ which are intended to measure small
angles subtended by distant objects in the field of the telescope. It
is described in General Thuillier’s “Manual of Survey for India”
(3rd edition, page 132). also in “ Hints to Travellers” by the Royal
Geographical Society (4th edition, page 33). It may be called a
universal instrument, for it is not only well fitted for astronomical
observations as well as the ordinary measurement of horizontal
angles, but it enables the distances of objects of known length to be
determined very readily with the aid of the sub-tense micrometers,
thus permitting measuring chains to be dispensed with in running
traverses and measuring base-lines. It weighs 31 lbs. when packed in
its box, the stand weighing 10 lbs. more, and is, probably, the lightest
instrument yet constructed capable of such universal application.

On the conclusion of the Treaty of Gandamuk the surveyors were
engaged at Mussoorie, bringing up their calculations and completing
their maps, when the sad intelligence arrived in September 1879 of
the massacre of Sir Louis Cayagnari and the members of the British

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 133

Hmbassy at Kabul. An immediate advance was ordered, and
two survey parties were organized, one under Major Woodthorpe to
proceed under General Sir F. Roberts, the other under Captain
Holdich to join the column under General Bright via Peshawar and
Jalalabad. Hventually both parties met at Kabul, where they made
the most of every upportunity of acquiring a geographical know-
ledge of the adjoming country, and in continuation of the preceding
surveys operated westwards and southwards up to the Pugh-
man range and over almost all the country which is drained by
the Logar, Shiniz, and other affluents of the Kabul river. In
Southern Afghanistan some additional geography was obtained
between Kandahar and Girishk and along the valleys to the west
and north-west of Kandahar. A connexion with the operations in
Northern Afghanistan was also made by the survey of the route
from Kandahar to Ghazni through the Khushk-i-rud, Tarnak, and
Ghazni valleys. In Baluchistan a rough reconnaissance was made
of a considerable portion of the country north of Sibi inhabited by
the Marri tribes, and detailed surveys were commenced in the
plains around Sibi and Dadur.

The party under Major Woodthorpe reached Ali-Khel on the
4th October, a few days after the force under General Sir F. Roberts
had advanced on Kabul. It was not till the end of the month that
they proceeded on to that city, an interval which enabled Major
Woodthorpe to connect the triangulation of the Kuram valley with
that of the Logar and Kabul valleys, and thus establish the
continuity of the series from Thull round by way of Kabul to
Jalalabad. Mr. Ogle, of Major Woodthorpe’s party, was detained
in the Kuram valley, and accompanied General Tytler’s column into
the Zaimukht country, west of Kohat, where he secured topography
to the extent of 880 square miles in country which was very little
known, after which he joined the rest of the party at Kabul, where
Captain T. H. Holdich, R.H., as the senior departmental officer,
had assumed charge of the operations in Northern Afghanistan.

On the occupation of Kabul and partial investment of Sherpur by
Mahomed Jan’s forces in December, the officers of the survey had
to help in the construction of defensive works, but after the defeat of
Mahomed Jan Captain Holdich and Major Woodthorpe accompanied
a brigade to the Koh Daman and mapped a portion of the country
on the +}-inch scale and established two trigonometrical stations
there. The former then joined General Bright’s division in the
Lughman valley, between Kabul and Jellalabad, on the north side of

134 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

the river; on this tract some interesting notes were collected by
Captain Holdich. It is on the summit of the great white peak of
Kund overlooking Lughman from the region of Kafiristan that
Noah’s Ark is said to have rested after the Flood, and the valley
of Dara-i-Nur, which lies on the border of Kafiristan territory,
still bears his name. The famous ziarat or shrine of Lamech
(Michtar Lam) is in the adjoining Alishang valley, and numbers
of pilgrims annually repair thither from Jalalabad. There are
evidences of a former Buddhist population in the caves bordering
the river, both at Deronta and elsewhere. The Lughmanis too
have ever been the connecting link between Kafiristan and the
southern world in the matter of trade, and Kafir slave girls brought
down from the mountains to the Dara-i-Nur were introduced by
Lughmanis through the markets at Jalalabad and Kabul to the
harems of the wealthy.

Captain Holdich then accompanied General Sir F. Roberts on his
march through the Logar valley, taking advantage of the oppor-
tunity to make a leisurely re-suryey of the valley on the 43-inch
scale. ‘The valley is described by Captain Holdich as very beautiful
at times, the white-walled, square-towered villages, each with its
bastioned fort, being literally buried in groves of dark green
mulberries and palm trees. Poplar avenues and wide fields knee-
deep in clover or waving with wheat and fenced off with low mud
walls or hedges of the wild yellow rose, form a pleasant contrast
to the rough background of hills. Near the junction of the Logar
and Kabul rivers there are Buddhist remains in plenty, one minar
conspicuously.erected on the ridge overlooking the Kabul and Khurd
Kabul plains beg 95 feet high and 62 feet in girth at the base.
The Logar valley triangulation was at the same time improved and
extended by Major Woodthorpe, who also fixed a number of points
on the Altimor, Pughman, Deh-i-Sabz, and Karkatcha ranges. The
same officer subsequently accompanied General Ross’s division on
its march towards Ghazni to meet Sir Donald Stewart advancing
from Kandahar, and having extended the triangulation towards the
head of the Logar river, effected a junction at Saidabad with the
work of Lieutenant St. G. C. Gore, who had left Kandahar on
the 30th March.

Amongst other surveys executed in Northern Afghanistan during
the year should be mentioned Captain Martin’s mapping of 700
square miles in the Koh-i-Daman and Kohistan, in the course of
whick he obtained information regarding the course of some of the

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 135

rivers issuing from the Hindu Kush and flowing down through the
Kabul valley. Mr. Claudius completed the topography of the
country from Gundamuk to Kabul on the 3-inch scale, and under
the escort and guidance of a friendly Khan of Tezin he mapped
an important bit of country which borders the route across the
Lataband and Haft-Kotal passes. This part of his work was
executed at considerable personal risk, and he was badly frost-
bitten in carrying it through. Mr. W. W. McNair (who subse-
quently gained much credit for his adventurous journey into
Kafiristan} completed the survey of portions of the Asphan and
Hisarak valleys west of Gundamuk and the Lughman valley,
both on the l-inch scale, and later on he executed a large
amount of excellent topography in the Logar valley on the }-inch
seale. The native sub-surveyors, were found particularly useful
throughout the campaign from the fact of their being able to move
about the country without personal risk, even in disturbed tracts;
their services were also largely utilised in pushing forward the
military survey of the country round Sherpur and Kabul on the
4-inch scale. The “ Munshi” particularly distinguished himself by
mapping the Sherpur cantonments and the adjacent country
during the actual siege and immediately after it, and thus did most
useful topographical work before any European could possibly be
so employed. He also undertook an exploration by way of the
Kunar river into Kafiristan, travelling as a native doctor; there
was every reason to suppose he could have succeeded in reaching
Kafiristan (for he was never suspected at any time) but for an
unfortunate rise of the Safis and Dehgans, which took place most
unexpectedly. Returning to Kabul he was next employed in
mapping (which he accomplished most successfully) a part of the
district adjoimimg Kabul stretching through the Chardeh plain to
the district of Pughman, which had been entirely closed to
European officers and appeared Jikely to remain a blank.

The total area mapped in Northern Afghanistan during the season
was estimated at 10,300 square miles, or adding 880 square miles
of the Zaimukht country, 11,180 square miles, of which 64 square
miles were done on the 4-inch scale, 1,276 on the 1l-inch, and
the remainder on the $-inch and {-inch scales in about equal
proportions.

Southern Afghanistan.—The officers deputed for survey work in
Southern Afghanistan were Captains Rogers, Beavan, Heaviside,
Holdich, and Lieutenants Gore and Hobday. Route surveys were

136 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

carried from a trigonometrical station on the frontier near Kusmore
along the Dera Bugti road, vid the Bolan Pass, Quetta, and Kandahar
to Girishk on the Helmand on the one side, and to Kalat-i-Ghilzai
on the other. Captains Heaviside and Holdich were subsequently
attached to General Biddulph’s column, which was returning to
India by what is often called the Tal-Chotiah route, an important
and direct line of communication between Multan and the Pishin
valley, by which it had been originally intended that the Multan
column should enter Afghanistan, The reconnaissance was a very
rapid one, the average rate of marching being 12 miles a day, but
a fair survey on the }-inch scale was nevertheless secured, embracing
about 5,000 square miles.*

On completion of the survey of Pishin, Lieutenant Gore proceeded
to Kandahar, vid the Barghana route, which had not been previously
surveyed, and mapped that route as well as a good deal of the
surrounding country about Kandahar, and along the banks of the
Argandab and Dori rivers to their junction. He also extended
the triangulation towards the important village of Guirishk, where
the road to Herat crosses the Helmand river. An examination of
part of the Arghastan valley above its junction with the Lora was
also made, and the fact was elicited from natives that the latter
river takes the overflow drainage from Lake Ab-i-istadeh, and on
such occasions becomes very salt.

In the spring of 1880 Lieutenant Gore set out with the Ist Brigade
of Sir Donald Stewart’s force to Kabul, and advanced up the
Tarnak valley. In the valley of the Ghazni river the famous battle
of Ahmed-Khel was fought, and here much inconvenience was
experienced, from a surveyor’s point of view, owing to the difficulty
of obtainmg guides. When the fighting commenced, Lieutenant
Gore’s Hazara guide was with difficulty restrained from making off
to get his share of the plunder. At last a richly-caparisoned horse
trotting past proved too much for his cupidity and he finally
decamped. Up to Shahjui, in lat. 32° 31’, Lieutenant Gore’s work
was based on trigonometrically fixed pots, but beyond he had to
rely on plane-table fixings and traversing until he joined Major
Weodthorpe’s work in the Wardak valley above Ghazni.

Major Leach, who had been invalided to Europe in conscquence
of a wound in the first campaign, was sent to Kandabar on his
return, and executed some useful reconnaissances in the Argandab

* A picturesque description of the country was given by General Sir M. A. Biddulph
before the Royal Geographical Society on the 9tii February 1880. ‘The paper in the
Proceedings (p. 212) is Wustrated with numerous sketches of the country.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 137

and Khakrez valleys, and obtained valuable information concerning
the passes into and across the Hazara country. Unfortunately the
whole of this material, together with some important notes on the
Hazara tribes, was lost during the retreat from Maiwand, and during
the subsequent evacuation of the Kandahar cantonment. But
Lieutenant the Hon. M. G. Talbot, R.H, and Lieutenant F. B. Long,
R.E., replaced the survey portion by a subsequent exploration of
theirs, and Major Leach drew up, mainly from recollection, a reswiné
of the lost notes,* and a sketch map of a country which had been
up to that time a perfect blank. Major Leach accompanied General
Burrows’s force to Girishk on the Helmand, and did good service on
the staff during the disastrous battle of Maiwand and retreat to
Kandahar. He was then appointed Brigade Major of Engineers,
and served in that capacity throughout the defence of Kandahar and
in the subsequent battle of Kandahar, when the enemy, under Ayub
Khan, were defeated by Sir F. Roberts. Lieutenants Talbot and
Long accompanied the General in his memorable march from Kabul
to Kandahar, and were also present at the battle of Kandahar.

During the following year a committee was formed at Kabul,
under the orders of Sir Donald Stewart, for the purpose of consider-
ine the equipment necessary for a survey party in the field. The
committee consisted of Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, of the Guide
Corps, as president, and Major Woodthorpe and Captain Holdich, of
the Survey Department, as members. Their recommendations were
as follows :—

1. A survey party should consist of one officer (who should be both accustomed to
triangulate and to use the plane-table) and of two assistants (one of whom should be

competent to triangulate) as topographers for each column operating on an independent
line in a country where no survey has hitherto been made.

The native establishment for a party of this size should be us follows :—
For 1 officer 7 followers
2 officers 10

The addition of native sub-surveyors must depend entirely on the nature of the
country under survey, but when they are employed, extra public followers, at the rate
of at least one per sub-surveyor, will be necessary.

¥ inclusive of interpreters and permanent guides.
29

2. The instruments for the equipment of such a party will be as follows :—
1 six-inch subtense theodolite with full vertical circle and trijfod stand.
5 plane-tables, viz., one for the officer in charge and two for each assistant.
The two for each assistant should be interchangeable on one stand and should be of
different sizes and portability. ‘The committee are of opinion that the plain deal table,
30” x 26”, has, on the whole, been found to be of the greatest use on account of its

* Will be found in the Survey Proceedings of the Government of India for February
1882. It forms an interesting description of the Hazava country and people.

138 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

superior size aud stability. It can be slung with its stand on a mule or-pony without
difficulty and can be used with cavalry. But each assistant should also be provided with
a lighter, smaller, and more portable table, which can be conveniently slung on a man’s
back; a really portable table of this sort has yet to be devised, as also the best kind of
stand.

Each officer or assistant should also be provided with the following minor instruments
and books, viz. :—

Two trough needles, 1 sight-rule, 1 telescope or binocular, 1 aneroid barometer, 1
prismatic compass and stand, 3 thermometers for determining the boiling point of
water, ordinary air thermometer, 1 Gunter scale, 1 beam compass, 1 small box
instruments, 1 Shortrede’s log tables, 1 Chambers’s log tables, 1 auxiliary tables
for facilitating the computations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey.

The officer in charge should carry in addition—

One Abney’s level, 1 set scales, 1 maximum and minimum thermometer, 1 nautical
almanac, 1 prismatic subtense instrument, 1 parallel ruler, 1 pantagraph,
] manual of surveying, 2 sets measuring tapes (steel), 1 perambulator, lamps
for observing, 1-6” heliotrope, 1 chronometer watch, 1 portable sun-dial, spare
compass and drawing pens.

5. In addition to the usual personal baggage scale, the following will be required for

the headquarters camp—

Office tent - - - - 150 Ibs.
» table - - - 5 YO Sy

Stationery and small instruments = GOR,

Maps and data - = = 450) |,

wa
°
S
az

For public followers 1 sepoy’s pal, holding 17 per. or its equivalent in smaller

tents.

These recommendations were made on the following assumptions
regarding the nature and extent of the work to be undertaken by
the survey officers :—

A.—That a large extent of country, embracing several thousand square miles, may
be either actually visited or sketched from a distance, during the course of a campaign.

}.—That every surveyor should be equipped to act independently, if necessary.

C.—That there may be no opportunities of visiting any portion of the ground twice,
and therefore that all surveying must be done par? passu with the more or less rapid
movements of troops along the main lines of communication.

D.—That maps are to be compiled and traced in the field, so that all the work of the
survey can be put into the hands of the generals concerned as speedily es possible.

¥.—That the topographical operations are not to consist merely of surveys of the
lines of route, but are to embrace as much as possible of the surrounding country, and
must therefore be executed on a trigonometrical basis ; consequently, that the survey ors
must always work together in pairs, one doing the triangulation, the other the topo-
graphical sketching ; for, when the troops are marching rapidly, it is impossible for any
single man to do beth, and each is required to supplement the other.

F.—That the survey office with the army will be the general depét for all maps of
the country which may be published by the Surveyor-General’s Department and be
supplied for distribution as required.

G.—Vhat the sanctioned allowance of baggage and equipment for every officer in the
field who is employed ir transmort, commissariat, or any other duties which oblige him

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 139

to carry his own camp equipage and make it impossible for him to join a mess, is
400 lbs.

The above recommendations were influenced by the protracted
military occupation of Afghanistan; much valuable work in the way
of military survey and reconnaissance may of course be done by
officers equipped more lightly with fewer and smaller instruments ;
indeed in rapid marches through an enemy’s country it would be
necessary to restrict the equipment of each survey officer to what
he and one or two attendants could carry. Much depends on
the character of the surveying to be done: the geographical and
smaller scale survey being more valuable for rapid strategical
movements over a large area of country, while the topographical
survey of the military roads and lines of communication, and of the
ground in the immediate neighbourhood, is usually to aid a general
officer in determining the best disposition of his troops in action or
wherever liable to be attacked by an enemy.

In the first Afghan war a large amount of route surveying was
executed, mostly on the scale of one inch to one mile, and some was of
very good quality, but few, if any, attempts were made to carry
on a general geographical survey of the country part passu with the
military route surveys. Thus when the latter came to be combined
together, large gaps were found to exist, and even what had been
done could not be accurately combined, the result being that Kabul
and Kandahar were shown on the maps as 7 and 15 miles west
of their true positions.

In the next Afghan war (1878-79) the survey officers were
directed to obtain as much information as possible respecting the
country at large, and not merely to operate on the military lines
of communication. For this they were directed more especially
to make general maps of the country on scales of half an inch or
quarter of an inch to the mile, by plane-tabling on a trigonometrical
basis, also to carry route surveys on the 1-inch seale with the most
suitable instruments available over the principal routes traversed
by the troops. It was arranged that larger scale work should be done
by some of the numerous field engineers and staff officers attached
to the army. Such were the general lines and general division of
labour laid down for the Afghan campaign, and the system was
found to work well.

From the invasion of Afghanistan in 1878 the area surveyed
in more or less detail by the officers of the Department amounted to
39,500 square miles, while a further area of 7,000 square miles was

140 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

explored by native agency. In Baluchistan an area of about
7,800 square miles was surveyed.

One of the broad results was to show that the positions of Kabul,
Ghazni, and Kandahar as determined during the first Afghan war
were correct in latitude but erroneous in longitude as mentioned
above. A large number of heights also entered on the old maps turned
out to be considerably in excess of their true values. They appear
to have been mainly derived from barometric observations taken by
Dr. Wilham Griffiths, who was a skilful and accurate observer,
but who unfortunately did not live to reduce his own observations.
The method of reduction adopted did not take account of the
well-known hourly, daily, and monthly variations of barometric
pressure, a neglect which is liable to affect the results very materially.
Thus while certain height determinations proved to be very satis-
factory, others, particularly those in the high lands around Ghazni
and Kabul, were found to be materially erroneous, thus :—

As deduced
Speeare As since from
Positions, determined, Dr. Grithths’s
Observations.

Quetta - = = = | 5.515 | 9,037
Kandahar ~ = - - - 3,400 | 3,484
Mukur, latitude 32° 51’, longitude 67° 47’ - - 6,561 7,091
Obeh, latitude 33° 0’, longitude 67° 56’ : - 6,986 7,325
Ghazni = : = = ~ 7,279 7,726
Shashgao, latitude 33° 45’, longitude 68° 32’ - - | 8,184 | 8,697
Shekhabad, latitude 34° 1’, longitude 68° 45’ - =| 6,884 | 7,473
Kabul - - - - = | 5,780 | 6,395
Butkak, east of Kabul = - - - | 5,980 | 6,248
Khurd Kabul - 3 : : ca 7,500 | 47,466
Gandamak - - - - =| 4,500 4,616
Jalalabad - - - - = || 1,950 1,964
Peshawar : : : - Bal segs 1,068

North-west frontier and adjacent regions—During the year 1876
one of the trained native explorers of the Great Trigonometrical

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 141

survey, named ‘tbe Mullah,” ascended the Indus river from the
point where it enters the plains of the Punjab at Attock to the point
where it is joimed by the Gilgit river. Other portions, of course,
of the Indus from the table lands of Tibet, where it takes its rise,
_ down to the ocean had long since been surveyed, but the part referred
to had been always shown by a dotted line on the maps. The great
river here traverses a tract about 220 miles in length, descending
from a height of about 5,000 to 1,200 feet above sea-level. It flows
tortuously, in a deep narrow-cut gorge, through great mountain
ranges with peaks rising from 15,000 to 26,000 feet in height.
The positions and heights of all the most commanding peaks had
been fixed by Captain Carter’s triangulation, but no Huropean had
penetrated into the region. Very difficult of access from all quarters
it is inhabited by a number of hill tribes, each living independently
in secluded valleys, and suspicious of its neighbours. Hach
community elects its own ruler, and communicates with the outer .
world only through the medium of a few privileged traders. The
Mullah happened to possess the privilege and was thus enabled
to explore the Indus and some of the lateral valleys. This work
done, he proceeded in accordance with his instructions to Yassin,
marching through the Gilgit valley but not surveying it, as the late
Mr. Hayward (who was there murdered) had furnished a good map
of those parts. From Yasin he surveyed the southern road to Mastuj,
through the Ghizar and Sar Laspur valleys, supplying an important
rectification of the topography. At Mastuj he struck upon his
old route from Jalalabad over the Hindu Kush to Wakhan in 1878,
and proceeded in a north-easterly direction back to Yasin, crossing
the Tui or Moshabar pass, which is conjectured to be 16,000 feet in
height. On his return journey he again passed through Sar Laspur,
explored the Tal pass, and traversed the length of the Panjkora
valley, the whole journey having added much to our knowledge
of the Trans-Indus frontier regions.

During the course of his travels in 1876 the Mullah had acquired
much information respecting the regions surrounding the Swat
yalley ; the exploration of the valley itself was undertaken in 1878,
and to facilitate matters and disarm the suspicion of his being in
Government employ, which had arisen during the former journey,
the Mullah placed himself in communication with a trader from
Swat and assumed the part of a timber merchant anxious to make
purchases at Lamuti and Kandia, whence large quantities are annually
floated down to Peshawar and Attock. The Mullah entered the

142 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

Swat valley near its junction with the Panjkora, and then proceeded
up the former valley, making excursions up the principal lateral
glens on the right bank, until he reached Kolam in the Kohistan,
in which the sources of the river are situated. He then surveyed
the route leading over the water-shed into the Panjkora valley at
Lamuti, in order to connect his fresh explorations with the previous
ones, after which he returned to Kolam and ascended the Swat river
until he approached the water-parting of the range running east and
west, and separating the waters of the Gilgit river from the
streams to the south. He then crossed the Palesar pass into
the Kandia valley, one of the tributaries of the Indus, and worked
down to the latter river, where he joined on to his previous route,
and turned southwards, along a route running parallel with the
Indus river, but several miles to the west, crossing the whole of the
lateral valleys on the right bank of that river and acquiring much
supplementary information to add to his original survey. Finally
he crossed over the range to the right and closed his work on to the
line of his survey up the Swat valley. The journey was encompassed
with many hardships,and, lying through a country to which Europeans
have never penetrated, it was one of considerable interest. The
northernmost point reached was the Palesar pass across the great
water-shed separating the Yasinand Gilgit countries from Bashkar,
Darel, and Tangir, near to a point where the range turns to the
southward. It rises abruptly in great scarps from the very banks
of the Indus at Bunji, in the east, with an average height of from
16,000 to 19,000 feet as it approaches the Kunar valley. This
range is a very important geographical feature, for it separates the
rainless tracts of Gilgit, Hunza, and Yasin to the north from the
well-watered countries of Bashkar, Swat, &c. to the south. To the
north the vegetation is limited to a narrow belt of pines, cypresses,
and birch, while to the south the forests are described as magnificent
with a profusion of deodar. In another particular this mountain
range has an importance, for it forms broadly a great boundary line
between the adherents of the Shiah and Sunni religions.

The general route-survey work accomplished by the Mullah fits in
fairly well with the peaks previously fixed by triangulation, and the
detailed narrative is a genuine story, told with touching simplicity,
of perils and privations faced and patiently surmounted.

In 1877 M S——., a native gentleman of the Muhammadan
faith, and of much repute among his co-religionists, was about to
make a journey from Kashmir across the Hindu Kush mountains

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1438

and the Oxus river to Kolab in Badakshan, to visit the shrines of
his ancestors and transact some business of his own, when he
learned from one of his friends that he might obtain employment
in geographical exploration in connexion with the Indian Survey
Department if he would volunteer his services and go through a
course of training. His services were readily accepted, as he was
a man of considerable intelligence and good education, so having
been put through a course of training under the veteran explorer
Pundit Nain Sing, he started for his destination vid Kashmir, Gilgit,
and Yasin, where he arrived on the 14th December 1878. At the
latter place he was detained on one excuse and another till
September 1879, when he was permitted to depart and proceeded
up the Darkot valley and over the Baroghil pass to Sarhad and
Ishkashim. At this point it was his intention to have proceeded
down the valley of the Panj or Oxus to Shignan and Darwaz, but
owing to the feud between the rulers of these two States he was
unable to reach Kolab by that road, and had to proceed wid
Faizabad. His route from thence coincided partly with that of
the Hayildar in 1874, but embraced a far larger area of new
ground. He ascended the Doaba Dara, a tributary of the Yakhsu,
to its source, and followed the great bend of the Upper Oxus or
Ab-i-Panjah river to Varv, where the Havildar had been turned
back, and where he too was stopped on the same plea, that of
hostilities between the people of Darwaz and their neighbours in
Shignan and Roshan. He then retraced his steps to the Dara
Imam, and crossing the Panjah ascended the table-land of Shiva,
a large expanse of country lying within the bend of the river, and
till then wholly unknown. This took him right across the central
regions of Badakshan, and enabled him to complete his survey of
the upper course of the stream. M—— S—— also ascended the
Bartang or Murghabi river to its source in the Sarez Pamir, a
distance of 100 miles. On his return he was laid up for five
months with rheumatism at Kila Bar Panjah, after which he
proceeded to explore the Shakh Dara valley, with the intention of
crossing into Wakhan over the intermediate ranges, but the passes
were found to be blocked with sand and impracticable, conse-
quently he retraced his steps and returned by way of the Ab-i-
Panjah to Ishkashim. He diverged from the route he had followed
on his outward journey to visit the Ghazkol lake, which lies at
the point of convergence of the Muztagh and Hindu Kush ranges,
and which some suppose to have a double outlet into the Ishkaman
and Mastuj rivers, and haying determined its position he closed

144 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

his work at the Darkot pass, having contributed enormously to the
existing geographical knowledge of Badakshan. M S —— was
presented with one of the two medals which were placed at the
disposal of the Surveyor-General of India by the Venice International
Geographical Congress for award to meritorious Native explorers.

At the time that the late Colonel Montgomerie and his assistants
had been employed in surveying on the north-western confines of
Kasbmir, operations had not been extended across the Indus owing
to the unfriendliness of the Gilgit people, but in 1878 matters
were so improved that on his return from Southern Kafiristan
Colonel H. C. B. Tanner was deputed thither with two native
surveyors. His first task was to extend the regular survey over
Gilgit and the vicinity, where he mapped an area of about 2,000
square miles on the +-inch scale. The great ridge referred to
in the preceding paragraph proved to be most difficult to map,
the central backbone being like a huge broken table-land running
up into wave-like ridges, rising but a few hundred feet above the
general level of the range, and practically impossible to distinguish
apart. This, added to the inclemency of the season, snowstorms
being exceptionally frequent, prevented many of the peaks being
satisfactorily identified.

Colonel Tanner was returning to recess quarters to bring up his
mapping and calculations of work done during the summer of 1880,
and had reached Lahore when he was ordered back to Srinagar,
and placed in command of a body of troops in the service of the
Maharajah of Kashmir under instructions to proceed to Gilgit for
the relief of Major Biddulph, the Political Officer stationed there,
who was threatened by a general rising of the surrounding tribes.
This prevented the completion of the mapping, but with the assist-
ance of his native surveyor, Ahmed Ali Khan, he made a survey of
an area of about 2,000 square miles, and extended the limits of the
Gilgit map as far as Astor to the south-east, northwards to the
ereat range separating little Guhjal from Gilgit, southwards to
Chilas, and westwards to the mouth of the Wurshigum river at,
the entrance to the Yasin river. The positions of several distant
peaks on the Hindu Kush range were fixed, among them the
summit of the notable Tiraj (Tirich) Mir north of Chitral, first
brought into prominence by Major Biddulph.* Its height as deduced
by Colonel Tanner from his calculations is 26,425 feet above the sea.

* Major Biddulph is the author of an interesting work, “ The tribes of the Hindoo
Koosh,” containing much valuable information accumulated by him during his sojourn
in those regions.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 145

Colonel Tanner's description* of the wilderness of mountains and
peaks of every possible form by which he was surrounded is
exceedingly graphic, and gives a good idea of the remarkable and
lofty region in which he was working. He was very anxious to
get a near view of the great mountain of Nangaparbat, near Astor,
and after a most perilous passage over a narrow, rugged ridge
surrounded by enormous precipices, which tried his nerves to the
utmost, he found himself confronted by what is probably the most
magnificent snow view on the globe, embracing as it does a slope
of very nearly 24,000 feet (vertical measurement), with glaciers,
snow-fields, ice-cliffs, and jagged needles of naked rock extending
from the summit of this king of mountains dowr to the Indus,
which flows in a deep channel at its base. Colonel Tanner says he
is unable to convey an adequate description of the superb and
impressive view which he contemplated from the edge of a tre-
mendous precipice, whose summit is 16,000 feet above the sea, and
which rises sheer and unbroken from the forests and vineyards of
Gor, situated at an immense depth below.

During the season 1880-81 the survey of Gilgit was completed
by the sub-surveyor Ahmed Ali Khan, who also continued the
map of the Astor country towards the chief passes which lead into
the Indus valley on the one hand, and those leading into Kashmir
on the other. All the passes leading out of the Gilgit valley into
Darel, Chilas, and the adjacent parts of the Indus basin were also
mapped. His work during the following season (1881-82) lay
about the Indus-Kishenganga watershed, and in 1882-83 he com-
pleted the survey of Chilas and fixed the position of the passes
leading from the vailey of the Indus into the Kaghan, Kishenganga,
Astor, and Gilgit basins, as well as the positions of all villages and
forts. His survey of Dardistan, as this region has been sometimes
called, includes an area of about 2,000 square miles, mapped on
the +-inch scale, an out-turn reflecting much credit on Ahmed Ali
Khan, as on several occasions he had to pass the night without.
a tent, on ground buried in snow, at heights from 14,000 to 16,000
feet above the sea. His survey of the upper part of the
Kishenganga valley was completed in the following year (1883-4).

* Appendix to Surveyor-General’s Report for 1879-80, p. 42.

+ An account of Dardistan, the nature of the country, trees, produce, and cattle, the
religion, customs, dress, anus, dwelling - places, and commerce, will be found at
page xxiv. of the Indian Survey Report for 1883-84.

x Y 20321. K

146 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

The withdrawal of the British forces from Afghanistan in
September 1880 brought all surveying operations to a close in that
part of the country. But in March 1881] the conduct of the
Waziris, who inhabit the tracts adjoining the British districts of
Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, and have proved such unruly neigh-
bours since our annexation of the Punjab, necessitated the despatch
of afresh expedition into their country, and this gave opportunity
for additionai survey work. One column under Brigadier-General
Gordon advanced from Bannu up the Khaisar valley towards the
Razmak valley along the northern part of the country, and returned
through the Shikto valley to the plains of Bannu. The other
column under Brigadier-General Kennedy advanced from Tonk into
the southern and western Waziri valleys, and then proceeded vid
Kaniguram to the Razmak plateau, and returned vid Palosin to
Tonk. ‘To the first column Major Holdich and Lieutenant the Hon.
M. G. Talbot were attached as survey officers, and Captain G. W.
Martin accompanied the second column. ‘These three officers, aided
by the native surveyor, lLnam Baksh, who was taken under tribal
protection into tracts closed to Europeans, surveyed an area of
about 1,200 miles in and around Waziristan, and filled up blanks
for portions of the country which had not been visited during
Sir Neville Chamberlain’s expedition in 1860, and which had never
before been seen by Europeans. The plane-tabling by Lieutenant
Talbot of the watershed between the Khaisar and the Dawar Dour
formed a useful continuation of Colonel Woodthorpe’s work in
Khost with Sir F. Roberts’s expedition. The survey officers were
able to ascend several mountains on the western confines of the
country, including the peaks of Pirghal and Shuidar 11,000 feet in
height. Fortunately the atmosphere was generally clear, and points
were fixed as far as 200 miles distant, which in spite of the hurried
character of the movements of the troops combined to give good
results. A valuable reconnaissance of the Zhob valley and the upper
branches of the Gumal valley towards the Ab-i-istadeh lake was
also made by a native explorer. His map covered an area of
7,140 square miles, and though a good deal of this was rough and
only sketched in by the eye, it supplied some important corrections
to the previous geographical knowledge of the country. Some
interesting notes on the tribes and the roads were compiled from
the explorer’s information by Lieutenant Talbot.*

* See Appendix to Surveyor-General’s Report for 1880-81, p. 36.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 147

Generally speaking, the operations in Waziristan had an im-
portant bearing on the Kuram and Khost surveys, and formed a
connecting link between the triangulation in northern and southern
Afghanistan.

The survey arrangements with the Zhob valley expedition were
originally placed in the hands of Major Holdich ; but when he was
suddenly called upon to join the Afghan Boundary Commission the
charge devolved on Lieutenant R. A. Wahab, &.E., who had a short
time previously accompanied Sir R, Sandeman into south-west
Baluchistan and carried a series of triangles towards Panjeur. For
the Zhob valley operations Mr. G. B. Scott and Sub-Surveyor
Muhammad Yusuf Sharif were attached to Lieutenant Wahab’s
survey party. The operations lasted two months, during which about
400 square miles of country were surveyed or reconnoitred on the
z-inch scale, and from 5,000 to 6,000 square miles on the
q-inch scale. The valley was surveyed in detail from its head
to Mena, and the mountainous tract to the north as far as the water-
shed dividing it from the Kwandar valiey was reconnoitred and
sketched. Efforts were made to extend the triangulation into the
Kwandar basin, but this was found impracticable. A large part
of the Bori valley and the country separating it from the Tal
valley was surveyed on the 43-inch scale, and parts of the Musa-
Khel country and the Nalai and Mekhtar valleys.*

In November 1883 an expedition was organized to the Takht-1-
Suliman mountain. west of the town of Dera Ismail Khan. The
object of the survey expedition was to explore the Takht-1-Suliman
mountain and complete as much of the topography as possible of the
Sherani country, keeping up a continuous border survey with that
already completed to the north, which terminated about the line of
the Gumal valley, and to fix points to the west. These objects were
generally secured, though the innumerable lines of hills traversing
the central Afghan plateau were much dwarfed when seen from the
lofty elevation of the Kaisarghar, and no peaks appeared specially
prominent. Many important geographical features in the Birmal
hills, the Gumal and Zhob valleys, and the Musakhel country of the

* Lieutenznt Wahab’s reperts are contained in the Proceedings of the Government
of India, Revenue and Agricultural Department (Surveys), March 1885, Nos. 19
and 20. The Zhob valley has since been mapped by Colonel Holdich.

K 2

148 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

Upper Vihowa (recently explored by the Hakim and the Bozdar)
were easily identified, and the general correctness of the geography
certified. Yusuf Sharif’s survey of the Gumal pass connects the
work with Waziristan on the north,* and a subsequent exploration of
his filled in further details in continuation of the Bozdar’s topo-
eraphy; so with the exception of the Dabua pass the topography
of the country was continuous and complete from Kohat to the
Reminuk pass.; The expedition had enabled the northern and
highest peak of the Takht-i-Suliman group, Kaisarghar (11,300 feet
above the sea), to be scaled, and much of the surrounding togography
to be checked and amplified by Major Holdich and his assistants.
The only opposition encountered was from some hot bloods of the
ix<hiderzai clan, who by means of a flank movement were dispersed
with but little trouble. In this manoeuvre the British force was
guided mainly by the local knowledge of Sub-Surveyor Imam Baksh,
Bozdar, who also completed the largest share of the topography of
the adjoining country.

This distinguished native officer during his 25 years’ active
service took part in eight different campaigns or expeditions, and
besides the Takht-1-Suliman surveys rendered most useful service in
surveys of the Zhob river, the Vihowa basin, and Musakhel country,
and also in Gilgit and Hunza, under Colonel Tanner. He was given
a grant of 250 acres of land in the Dera Ghazi Khan district, and in
1884, on his retirement, the title of “‘ Khan Bahadur” was conferred
on him by the Viceroy.

In the Jowaki hills a tract of country left unsurveyed during
the military expedition of 1877-78 was mapped out by Yusuf
Sharif, with great courage and tact, the neighbouring chiefs being
particularly enraged at the open manner in which he used his plane-
table, and in spite of musket shots insisted on completing the last
bits of the survey soas to fix the position of Musadarra. Further to
the west some useful work was done by Mr. Clandius, who disguised
himself and relying on the protection of the Chiefs, without com-
panions or servants of any kind, but equipped with a small plane-
table, unscrewed and in pieces, advanced up the valley of the Bar

*Captain G. F. Young made some useful contributions to the knowledge of
Waziristan in his Notes on the Shaktu Valley, which had been previously quite
unknown. See Proceedings Royal Geographical Society, p. 537, of 1882.

} Appendix, p. xxxviii., Report of Surveyor-General of India for 1883-84.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 149

Marai and ascended a lofty peak commanding the Urakzai Tirah.
Fraternising with the people, he obtained all the opportunities he
required, and retraced his steps across the border. He then set
cut on a second expedition up the Bizoti and Bara valleys, but his
disguise was detected and he was turned back by armed tribes.
The topography of the border was however extended as far south as
Bannu. The tract extending to the Gumal valley was taken in hand
by Mr. McNair, who sketched the valleys of the Kaitu Kuram, the
Baran, the Tochi, and the Khaisar, the high lands of the Batanis, &c.
This work was rendered especially trying by the orders given that
surveyors were never to camp outside the border; thus men were
often tired out with a long march before the day’s work began.
Behind this strip of frontier survey continuous maps were produced
by uative explorers working bit by bit on one half the scale of the
other surveys. The “ Hakim” brought in a reconnaissance of the
Tochi valley and fixed the position of the Kotanni pass which leads
into the Ghazni basin. The “Syud,’ a weli-known explorer,
traversed the direct route between Bannu and Ghazni, but at the
latter place his disguise was detected, and he was seized and
imprisoned, but eventually was sent to Kabul and taken before the
Amir, who allowed him to return to British territory by the Khyber
route. Unfortunately some of his original documents were lost, but
he brought valuable information regarding the direct route from
India to Ghazni. The veteran the “ Bozdar’”’ was not actively
employed during the season 1882-83, but various opportunities
enabled the accuracy of his work during the previous season, when
he explored the affluents of the Gumal, the Sharan, and the Kandil
rivers, to be confirmed.

In March 1883 Mr. McNair and the “Syud” started on a most
adventurous journey into Kafiristan, the former assuming the dress
and disguise of a hakim or native doctor, for which purpose he shaved
his head and stained his face and hands and wore the dress peculiar to
the Mians or Kaka Khels, a clan who possess influence throughout
this part of Afghanistan and Badakshan. The party consisted of
40 people in all, including muleteers, and 15 baggage animals, and
among the goods a prismatic and magnetic compass, a boiling- point
and aneroid thermometer, and a specially constructed plane-table
were secretly stowed. The latter article was in coustant use
throughout and answered capitally, as m case of surprise the paper
in use was slipped inside and the plane-table became a doctor’s pre-

150 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

scription book. On one occasion while observing on the summit of
the Laram Kotal, Mr. McNair was within an ace of being detected
by the sudden appearance of four men armed with matchlocks, but
in the twinkling of an eye the ruler or sight-vane was run up his
long open sleeve, and the pretended doctor was absorbed in hunting
for roots.

Crossing the Swat valley and passing through Dir the party
advanced over the Lahori pass and up the Kunar valley to Chitral,
where they waited with presents on the Badshah, Aman ul Mulk.
Mr. McNair was allowed to go up and reconnoitre the Dora pass
over the Hindu Kush; he says it is a little over 14,000 feet, the
ascent is very gradual ana quite feasible for laden animals, but
owing to the people of Munjan and the Kafirs of the Bogosta valley,
traders prefer the route vii the more difficult Nuksan pass. Neither
pass is open for more than three months in the year. Mr, McNair
also made an excursion westward of Chitral, by way of Rumbur and
Bamburath over the water-shed into the valley of the Arnawai river,
where he was well received by the Ludhe* villagers. A report was
however spread about by a rival Kakar Khel, Rahat Shah, that two
Europeans had come disguised into the country, and the ruler of
Chitral having sent for Mr. McNair, the latter was compelled to
return and abandon all further attempts at exploration. He returned
to Kashmir by way of Mastuj and Yasin, the route followed by
Major Biddulph. A full account of this journey was given by
Mr. McNair (who has since died) before the Royal Geographical
Society,; and the following year the Society awarded him the
Murchison grant for the same.{

The depredations and unruliness of the tribes about the Black
Mountain on the Hazara border necessitated the despatch of a
punitive expedition m November and December 1888, which was
accompanied by Captain R. A. Wahab, R.E., and two sub-surveyors,
Imam Sharif, K.B., and Ata Mahomed Khan. The last-named
surveyor, however, died at Kotkai, and the work consequently fell

* This is evidently the Lut-dih territory mentioned by Major Raverty, at page 149
(Section III.) of his ‘* Notes on Afghanistan,” &c. The pass leading inio the valley
of the Oxus is called Apaluk by Major Raverty, and is said by the major to be fairly
easy, but I have never seen any other reference to it.

{ On the 10th December 1883, see Proceedings R. G. S. for 1884.

+ Kafiristan has since been visited from the Chitral side by Dr. Robertson and
Mr. Kitchen, Assistant Surveyor, in 1889-90.

ee a

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 151

on Captain Wahab and Imam Sharif, who succeeded in mapping an
area of 423 square miles on the 3-inch scale, including practically
the whole course of the Indus to a point considerably above the
great bend of the river near Thakot, and a good deal of ground
across the Indus adjoining Buner. ‘These operations combined with
the results of the expeditions in 1852-53 and 1868,* and with the
survey of the Mullah (see page 141) enabled a new sketch map of
the Black Mountain district to be compiled on the 1-inch scale.

Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan—The country between Sikkim, Shigatze,
and Chetang was traversed by the explorer L , who started from
Darjeeling in March 1875, with the intention of reaching the Tsanpo
and making a route survey along as much of its course as was practi-
cable. The direct route from Sikkim to Shigatze had not been
previously surveyed, as it crosses a frontier line which is guarded with
much jealousy by the Tibetans. Shortly after crossing the Kangra-
lama La or Lachen pass he was taken prisoner and sent to Shigatze,
where he was kept five months. He was then allowed to join a party
of merchants and travelled eastwards to the Yamdok-tso lake, after
which he turned northwards and followed the river to Chetang, but
was warned that further progress along its banks was useless unless
in company with a strong body of men to protect him from the
robbers and wild tribes, so he turned southwards and tried to return
to India by the route via Tawang taken by Pundit Nain Singh in
1874-75. The authorities at the latter place however, stopped his
further progress and confined him in tle public flour mill. Event-
ually he was enabled to return to Darjeeling vid Giangtse Jong,
Phari, and the Chumbi valley, waned had been partially traversed be
Captain Turner in 1783.

But the most remarkable of the journeys made by any of the
Indian native explorers was that of A -— k in Great Tibet in 1878-
82,in the course of which he traversed the entire breadth of the
Tibetan plateau from its origin in the Himalayas to where its
northernmost spurs die away in the Mongolian deserts, and explored
a large tract of unknown ground on the confines of South-Hastern
Tibet and Western China. ,

A k, whose real name is Krishna or Kishen Singh Milm-wal, is
by caste a Rawat Rajput, and first cousin to the late Nain Singh,
C.1.E., by whom he was trained. The family have been established
for mauy generations in Milam in Kumaun, where they are held in

* See Paget's Record of Expeditions against the N- W. Frontier Tribes ; revised by
Lieutenant A. H. Mason, London (Whiting & (o.), 1884.

152 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

esteem and from whence they derive their designation of ‘ Milm-wal.”
In 1812, when Milam was in Nepalese territory, Messrs. Moorcroft
and Hearsey were travelling in Western Tibet disguised as fakirs, and
under the assumed names of Mayapuri and Hargiri. They visited
Hundes and Gartok, but on their return journey were taken
prisoners and detained at Daba Jong, some 80 miles N.W. of the
Mansarowar lake. Deb Singh and Ber Singh (father and uncle
of Kishen Singh) hastened to proffer their good offices, a kindness
which Moorcroft and Hearsey acknowledged in the following
testimonial :—

“ This certifies that Deb Singh and Ber Singh, sons of Dhamoo, an inhabitant and
man of consequence in the town of Melim in the country of Jovoar, have shown to us
great attention and civility. Under an idea that we were in want of funds they
oifered us a boondee on Sreenuggur for a thousand rupees, to be paid at whatever period
might suit our convenience, and either in money or goods as might be most agrecable
tous. Although the state of our finances rendered the loan unnecessary, we have much
pleasure in recording the circumstance and in giving this testimonial of the goodwill
they bore towards us.

Northern foot of the Himachal mountains, near \ (Signed) W. Moorcrorr.
Daba, in Chinese Tartary. 25th August 1812. = H. J. Hearsry.

A second testimonial signed by Mr. Moorcroft alone, bearing the
same date, recommends that the Honourable Company’s officers will
afford all due facilities to Deb Singh and Ber Singh in enabling them
to dispose of their merchandise on the British side of the frontier.
The release of Messrs. Moorcroft and Hearsey was eventually effected
by the interposition and on the security of Deb Singh and Ber
Singh, but the certificate from Moorcroft giving the particulars of
the incident has unfortunately been lost. The other certificates are
still in the possession of Kishen Singh.

Kishen Singh had made several successful explorations before
undertaking his fourth journey, viz :—

(1.) 1869.—From Milam in Kumaun to Rakas Tal lake in Great

Tibet and thence southward along the Karnali river to
Kathai Ghat in British territory. 400 miles.

(2.) 1871-2.—From Shigatze to the Tengri Nur and thence to
Lhasa, 300 miles.*

(3.) 1873-4-—From Tankse in Ladak to Kashgar and beyond,
thence south-east to Polu and south to Noh in the Pangong
and back to Tankse, 1,250 miles.t

On the occasion of his fourth and greatest journey Kishen Singh
was accompanied by a Bodh fellow-villager called Chambel, who,

* Report of Great Trigonometrical Survey for 1873-74, Appendix 2.
t+ See page 442 of “ Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873.” Calcutta, 1875.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. NOs

though not so highly educated as Kishen Singh, and a good deal older,
displayed the most unswerving fidelity throughout their wanderings.

A k and two companions left Darjeeling on the 24th April
1878, and proceeding as Captain Turner did in 1783 by way of the
Jelep La pass and the Chumbi valley, he passed through Giangtse
and the Yamdok-tso lake, which he described as shaped like a horse-
shoe. The Sanpo was crossed by the famous suspension bridge
north of the lake, and on the 5th September 1878 the party arrived
at Lhasa and replenished their merchandise. During his stay there
A k employed his time in learning the Mongolian language and
in collecting a large amount of information regarding the city, the
people, and their customs. It was not till the 17th September 1879
that A -—k was enabled to join a caravan proceeding to Mongolia.
The party consisted of 105 persons, 60 of whom were Mongolian of
both sexes and the rest Tibetans, including A——-k’s party of six.
Great care had to be exercised to avoid the roaming bands of armed
and mounted robbers, sometimes 300 strong, which infest Northern
Tibet, and this necessitated the adoption of a more westerly route
than the regular line of march to Siming. At the Ma-chu river, one
of the tributaries of the Upper Yangtse-kiang, a caravan proceeding
to Lhasa was met, but it was subsequently turned back by snow, and
A —k’s party fell in with it again on descending from the Angir-
takshia or Kuen Lun mountainst into the Naichi valley. The iast
part of the journey had proved very severe, and several of the beasts
of burden had succumbed. The Naichi valley is several thousand feet
lower, and is covered with rich pasturage, which affords sustenance
to large herds of ponies, thick-tailed sheep, Bactrian came!s and
goats. lt forms part of the Tsaidam depression, the drainage of
which appears to have a general westerly flow, but no outlet into
the Lob basin.* The Mongolian nomad inhabitants proved to be
very hospitable, and they invited the members of the caravan to
lodge with them. At Thingkali the caravan was attacked by 200
mounted robbers; a battle ensued, and after a somewhat desultory
firing the robbers fell upon the party with swords and spears, so
A —k and his friends fled with only their arms and instruments.
At Hoiduthara the party were very kindly treated by a Tibetan
of Giangtse, and remained with him three months. They then

* This I infer from the heights on the late General Prshevalsky’s map.
{ An exhaustive memoir, by Captain G. Kollm, on the Kuen Lun range will be found
in the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society (Band XXVI., 1891, No. 3).

154 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

turned to the north-west through the region traversed by General
Prshevalsky in 1880. In some of the valleys adjoining the Saithang
plain (between 38° and 39° N. latitude) wild men are said to exist
(Prshevalsky mentions haying seen one). A——k states that these
men wear skins and live in cayes and glens and under the shelter of
overhanging rocks. They are ignorant even of the use of arms, and
lie in wait for their prey near pools or springs of water, and are
remarkably swift of foot. They kindle fire with flints and flay the
animals they kill with sharp-edged stones. In this region wild
camels and wild horses are also found.

At Yembi, in Saithang, the party remained three months, but here
M g, one of A k’s companions, treacherously deserted with
150 rupees in coin and five ponies, and this compelled A——k to
take service for five months. Their next important resting place was
Saitu, called Sachu by the Mongolians (Shachau of Marco Polo).
Fruit and vegetables are here abundant; cotton is also cultivated,
and the Chinese Governor has lately established a manufactory for
weaving silk cloth. The climate is generally healthy and like that
of Yarkand, though A——-k was attacked by a peculiar disease in
the legs, said to be due to walking barefoot on a particular kind of
soil. In August 1881] the travellers left Sachu, and retracing their
footsteps crossed the continuation of the Kuen Lun range} by a
more easterly route than that they had previously taken, and found
themselves on the Tibetan plateau, close by the sources of the
Hoang Ho, which were afterwards visited by Prshevalsky on his
last journey in 1884-85. They crossed the Ma-chu, as the upper
waters of the Hoang Ho are here called, and travelled southwards
by a lonely, uninhabited route leading across the Di-chu or Upper
Yangtse-kiang to Kegudo, which is a place of trade. From this
place A ~—--k proceeded almost due 8.E. in company with a trader
for Darchendo or 'l'asienlu, and which was reached after a long
journey on the 5th February 1882.* This city is a market, chiefly
for tea, which is grown in gardens to the east and carried to Lhasa
and to various places in Tibet, and even to Kashmir itself. The
city 18 governed by a Chinese officer, assisted by several subordinate
officials ; there is also a Tibetan officer who possesses a jurisdiction
over the original inhabitants. A——k was kindly received by two

* This part of the journey coincides roughly with that of Mr. Rockhill, formeriy
Secretary to the American Legation in Pekin. (See Proceedings of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society, p. 780 of 1889. Also Mr. R.’s book, published by Longmans, 1891.)

7 See note on previous page.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 11535)

Jesuit Fathers who lived outside the city, and by one of them he
was presented with an introductory letter to his clerical brethren at
Bathang and Darjeeling, and with a small gift of money. The same
priest also apprised the Surveyor-General by letter of A—-—k’s
safety, which was a great relief to General Walker, as some alarming
rumours had reached India in the meantime, owing to the absence of
any precise intelligence.

A: k then set out on his return journey to India, proceeding
due east by the regular official road through Lithang to Bathang.
At the latter place the party diverged in a 8.W. direction, and the
Di Chu (Yang-tse-kiang), Chiamdo Chu (Mekong), and the Giama
Nu Chu (Salwen)* were traversed in succession. The first of these
rivers was crossed by a ferry, the second by a slanting leather rope
to which men and even animals are attached in a sort of sliding
cradle of rope. The Nu Chu, whichis deep and rapid and 200 paces
wide, was crossed by rafts propelled by oars, and prevented from
going down the stream by some of the boatmen holding on to a
rope stretched across the river. The Tila Jia pass westward
(16,100 feet) gave the travellers their first access into the basin of
the great rivers of Bengal, the river Zayul Chu which drains the
valley being the same as Wilcox’s Brahmakund and T. T. Cooper's
Brahmaputra. The latter traveller succeeded in ascending the
stream as far as the village of Prun.; A—~-k descended it as far
as Sama, which is about 20 miles from the Assam boundary, and
which is the place where Krik and Boury, the two French missionaries,
were murdered in 1854. The Zayul district belongs to a distinct
hydrographical basin, and is warmer than any other part of Tibet.
Criminals sentenced to transportation for life are sent thither. The
inhabitants speak a very different language from that of the Tibetans,
which, however, they understand. Many of their customs are more
akin to those of the Hindus, and they raise two crops, harvested in
the autumn and spring respectively.

* This river has been gererally hitherto assumed to be the upper course of the
Salwen river, and this is the view I endeavoured to establish in my letter to the Royal
Geographical Society (see Proceedings for 1883, p. 664). General Walker, however,
thinks that it is more probably the source of the Irawadi; see Procecdings of the
R.G.S. for June 1887.

+ See The Mishmee Hills (London: H.§S. King & Co.), p. 228.

{ See Memorandum by Monseignenr de Mazure in Journal of the Asiatic Society,
Vol. XXX.

156 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

At Sama A k was informed that he would certainly be killed
if he tried to pass through the Mishmi country, consequently he was
reluctantly obliged to return by a northerly and circuitous route to
Lhasa leading over the Neching Gangra range, which appears to
be the eastern prolongation of the Himalayan chain.* The route lay
in a northerly direction, and to the west of the Giama Nu Chu;
many of the streams crossed draining into it. At the fort of Iho
Jong the great high road from Darchendo to Lhasa was struck, and
thence the route lay westward and fairly coincident with that
followed by the Abbé Hue on his return journey from Lhasa to
China, but instead of revisiting the capital, A k travelled south-
wards to Chetang on the Brahmaputra, and finally arrived at
Darjeeling on the 12th November 1882.

Such are the main features of this remarkable journey, which
extended over 3,000 miles of country, and lasted over four years and
a half. There is much of considerable interest in Mr. J. B. N. Hen-
nessey’s Report,+ which it is impossible to reproduce here, but one
important result was to demonstrate the fact that the great Tibetan
river, the Sanpo, does not flow mto the Irawadi basin, and that it
has no other possible exit than through the channel of the Dihong.
During the course of his travels A——-k took observations for
latitude at 22 stations, and heights by boiling point at 69 places.
He displayed great ingenuity in secreting and preserving his instru-
ments throughout all his troubles, and his perseverance and pluck in
the face of disasters and privations earned for him the highest praise
from his employers, and from all geographers. He was rewarded
with a grant of a jaghir of land from Government, the titie of Rai
Bahadur, a grant of money from the Royal Geographical Society,
a gold medal from the Paris Geographical Society, and one
awarded by the Venice Geographical Congress. Still more meri-
torious were A k’s courage and perseverance amid difficulties
sufficient to have daunted most men. Not only was he plundered

soil: k travelled down the Zayul river to about 10 miles below Rima; there he

ascertained from native information only that it is the source of the Lohit Brahmapatra

which flows into Assam. ‘The accuracy of this information having been questioned,
Mr. Needham, a British Police Officer in Assam, made an adventurous journey up the
Lohit Brabmapatra to a point within a mile of Rima, and conclusively ascertained that
the Zayul is the souree of that river. See General Walker’s paper on the Lu river of
Tibet, in the Proceedings of the R.G.S. for June 1887.

+ Report on the Explorations in Great Tibet and Mongolia, made by A——k in
1879-82. Dehra Dun, 1884.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. Woy7/

by the Chiamo Golok robbers of nearly all his possessions, including
the goods which had been provided, as usual, to enable him to
traffic and pay his way, but when, still refusing to turn back and
exploring further northwards, he was deserted and again robbed,
this time by one of his two companions, who left him and his faithful
comrade L—e practically paupers. He was then more than 1,000
miles, as the crow flies, from British territory, friendless and
dependent on charity, yet he pressed on, keeping his face from home.
Though for 2,000 miles he and L——c literally begged their way,
yet he continued his observations to the very end with regularity,
care, and skill, so that he rejoined the survey headquarters with all
his little notebooks and instruments intact. His work proved to be
of excellent quality and complete in every respect. Ordinarily
explorers pay their way through their goods, and when these are
expended, borrow money from friends or incur obligations which
have to be made good. A ——k was absent full twice the time of
any other explorer, but when asked for the usual contingent bill,
replied that he had paid nothing, and had no claim to prefer. Both
A k and L—c (who is the elder of the two) were quite
meapacitated by the hardships and anxieties undergone from under-
taking any similar work in future.

It should be mentioned that a small portion of A k’s route
was subsequently traversed by Mr. A. D. Carey, of the Bombay
Civil Service, whose journey, though not that of a member
of the Indian Survey Department, may be briefly noticed here,
especially as he bears testimony to the accuracy of A k's
work. Mr. Carey started from Leh in August 1885, and, in company
with Mr. Dalgleish, who acted as interpreter, proceeded to Kiria,
in the Tarim basin, through the uninhabited tract of Tibet lying
between the Pangong Lake and Polu. He then travelled to Khotan
and traversed a large portion of the great desert, first following the
Khotan river to Shah Yar, and then the course of the Tarim river
to Lake Lob. From thence he travelled southwards, ascending the
various huge ranges of mountains which here buttress the northern
face of the Tibetan highlands, till he reached a lonely point called
Mugzisolma, near the upper waters of the Yangtze-kiang, and south
of the Angirtakshia pass over the Kuen Lun range. He then turned
northwards through the Naichi valley, where good grazing and
plenty of firewood and water were obtained, and having abandoned
the intention of proceeding further south in the direction of Lhasa

158 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

on account of the difficulty of getting supplies, he returned through
the Sirthang plain and Sachu (both of which had been visited by
A—-k), and from Nainshe crossed the desert to Hami. From the
latter place he followed the usual route along the foot of the Tian
Shan mountains through Turfan, Karashahr, Kuchar, Aksu, Yarkand,
and the Karakoram pass to Ladak.

The journey forms an extremely interesting link between the
discoveries of Prshevalsky in his two Tibetan journeys of 1879-80
and 1884-85 and those of the Indian explorer A k, and was of
such importance as to earn for its author the gold medal of the
Royal Geographical Society.

A great deal of geographical and general information respecting
Tibet has been collected within the last few years by two native
officials of the Bengal Educational Department, viz., Babu 8. C. D.
and the Lama U.G. In 18798. C. D., being about to journey to
Shigatze on business of his own, and anxious to make the most of
his opportunities for acquiring new geographical information, under-
went a course of training in surveying and observing, under the
Pundit Nain Singh. He then set out from Jongu, in Sikkim, and,
traversing the north-east corner of Nepal, crossed into Tibet by the
formidable Chatang La pass and travelled northwards to Shigatze,
on the Sanpo. He returned by much the same way to near
Khamba Jong, and re-entered Sikkim by the Donkia pass. His
journey was fruitful of information, the observations of bearings and
distances were carefully taken aud recorded, and of much ‘value

for mapping.

S. C. D. is the author of a “ Narrative of a Journey to
‘** Lhasa, 1881-82,” with a supplementary paper on the Government
of Tibet.* The work, though at times overladen with traditions
and legends, is a most interesting and valuable description of the
journey, of the country, and of the people, though the geographical
information is rather meagre. The route followed by him and his
companion in 1881 starts from Darjeeling and runs by way of the
Kongla-chen pass, Tashi-Lhunpo, Dong-tse, and the Samding
monastery to Lhasa, and thence back again to Darjeeling.

S. C. D. intended to publish a second volume, containing a
narrative of his journey round Lake Palti, a series of papers on the

* Bengal Secretariat Press. Calcutta, 1885. 207 pages. The Secretary to the
Royal Geographical Society has informed me that they propose to bring out a carefully
edited abstract of this work.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 159

history, antiquity, customs, manners, &c. of the people of High
Asia, and an account of the explorations of Lama U. G., but
the author does not appear to have carried out this intention. Of the
Lama U. G.’s second journey no record appears to exist, though the
results of all the three journeys were embodied by Colonel Tanner in
the S.W. section of sheet 6 of the N.H. Transfrontier Series
of maps. Of the third journey a short account has been prepared
by Colonel T. H. Holdich.* One of the most interesting features
of this journey was the Lama’s complete account and survey of the
famous Yam-dok-tso or Palti lake.; This lake first appeared on the
map prepared by D’Anville from the Lama survey, and published
by Du Halde in 1735. It was there shown as a ring-shaped lake,
and so represented on all later maps, but the explorer L., who
travelled in Tibet im 1875 and 1876, and A——k, who passed
it on the 3lst August 1878, both remarked that the so-called island
in the centre was in reality connected with the mainland. The true
name of the lake was reported by the Lama to be Yamdok or
scorpion lake, an appellation which shows that the Tibetans must
have had some maps, giving a fairly correct idea of its shape.
Villages and monasteries are dotted on the margin of the lake, which
is embosomed by mountains, except at its eastern extremity, where
there stretches a far-reaching plain of rich sward, on which graze
thousands of cattle, horses, and beasts of the chase. On the hilly
. peninsula, which is encircled by the two scorpion claws, is an inner
lake about 24 miles in extent and 500 feet above the level of the
Yamdok lake, and on its shore is the great Samding monastery,
where 8. C. D. was very nearly breathing his last.t ‘I'he question
of an outlet to Lake Yamdok is still left in uncertainty, though the
probability is that its waters find an outlet down the Rong-chu into
the Sanpo. The Lama brought back a wonderful native story, that
occasionally the waters of the Sanpo rise and those of the lake sink,
so that the flow of the Rong-chu is then the other way. The altitudes,
however, make this an impossibility. The Lama then proceeded
southward by the Pho-mo-chang-thang-tso lake (16,050 feet),
respecting which he was the first traveller to bring back any infor-
mation, to the Menda La pass (17,450) feet, which leads over the

* Report on Explorations, &c. in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet. Dehra Dun, 1889.

j A good deal of interesting information respecting the Palti lake will be found in
a note on page 244 of Mr. C. R. Markham’s Tibet: Bogle and Manning (Triibner),

{ See page 116 of “ Narrative of a Journey to Lhasa in 1881-82.” Calcutta,
1888.

160 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

water-shed of the central Himalayan chain* into the valley of the
Lhobra Sanpo river or upper Manas. Here he had struck into
the Indian hydrographical basin, and very soon he entered a well-
peopled and highly cultivated valley, resembling Sikkim, and said
to be the most fertile in Tibet. At Lhakhang-Jong, a little north of
the frontier, the Lama’s goods were searched and his true character
as an explorer was revealed to the authorities, but by dint of judi-
cious bribes and his skill in meeting cross-questioning, he was
allowed to depart, his fair note book being alone destroyed. He
then made his way north-eastward, and passing through Chetang, on
the banks of the Sanpo, and the great Sam-ye monastery, probably
the most important in Tibet, he arrived at Lhasa, where he stayed
for a few days and had a friendly interview with the Nepalese agent.
He returned to India by way of the Yamdok-tso and Pho-mo-chang-
thang-tso lakes, and the Chumbi' valley to Darjeeling, which he
reached on the 15th December 1883.

The valley of the Arun river was traversed in 1880-81 by a Hindu
explorer, G.S.8., up to the water-shed between Nepal and Tibet.
Crossing the mountain range he advanced to the Tibetan village of
Karta, beyond which he was not allowed to go. He brought back
some new information respecting routes in Nepal, though his
observations were few and disconnected.

During 1884-85 the designation of the Darjeeling party was
altered to that of the Himalaya party, and under the superintendence
of Colonel Tanner a variety of work was performed. The blocks for
tea cultivation in the Darjeeling hills were demarcated with perma-
nent pillars, progress was made with the demarcation of the Nepal
boundary, and triangulation over 550 square miles was executed in
the Simla Hill States.; The most important part of the operations,
however, consisted in the triangulation carried on in the following
localities, so as to extend our knowledge of the Himalayas, viz., (a)
on the Gandak river, (b) from stations of the North-East Longi-
tudinal Series in the plains facing Eastern and Central Nepal, (c)
in the terai along the Mechi river, and in the Daling hills from bases

* See my article Himalay2 Mountains inthe “Imperial Gazetteer of India,” for a
general view of the structure of the mass of the mountain range referred to. Colonel
Gedwin-Austen also submitted an elaborate map and address on the same subject
before the British Association at Southport in 1883. See Proceedings, Royal
Geographical Society, 1883, p. 610, and 1884, p. 83.

J See also p. 99.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 161

derived from the Darjeeling survey, (d) from the stations facing
Western Bhutan, based on the data of the Assam Longitudinal Series,
and (e) from the stations in Hastern Kumaun facing Western
Nepal and Tibet.

The last-named operations were conducted by Colonel Tanner in
person, assisted by R -— N They crossed the Lipu Lek pass
(16,800 feet) at the north-eastern corner of Kumaun, but were
ordered back by the Tibetan Governor of Taklakhar, on approach-
ing that place. Colonel Tanner says that the Lipu Lek pass is one
of the easiest between India and Tibet, and though the surrounding
tracts are not so populous as Hastern Tibet and the road between
the pass and Kumaun most arduous, the trade in grain, salt, and
borax is already very considerable. The Jong Pon or Governor of
Taklakhar asked Colonel Tanner what object the English had in
making roads in Kumaun, and why they wished to leave the beautiful
plains of India for such a barren country as Tibet? How was it
that the English were always craving for the territories of others ?
Colonel Tanner replied that the Knglish did not in the least desire
to oecupy such a comfortless and bleak land as theirs. “ Bleak, do
* you call this?” was the rejoinder, ‘“‘Why, you are now in the
*« very garden of Tibet! If you call this barren what would you say
*< of other parts where there is literally nothing but rock and ice?
“« Go back now to India, you have seen the most inviting (!) part of
“* our country, the rest is not worth a visit. Our Government don’t
« allow the English in Tibet; but you, one and all, try to push
“ your way past aur frontier posts, and never consider that, if you
** succeed, our governors and officials on the frontier lose their heads
« for not stopping you!”

The scenery a few hours below the Lipu Lek is remarkably fine.
Below Budi, in the Kali valley, a series of stone steps or ladders
commences, over which the traveller has to make his way for a day
and a half before he reaches an ordinary mountain-path. This
extraordinary trade route consists of a kind of winding staircase, cut
into the rocky face of the cliffs, and in many places overhung with
crags, with a seemingly bottomless abyss below. On Colonel
Tanner’s return to India the whole flight of steps was literally
crowded with thousands and thousands of Jaden sheep and goats,
making their way up into the high lands of Tibet ; and the perils were
increased by the sheep obstinately rushing past regardless of the
consequences to themselves or others. Many animals are annually

x ¥ 20321. L

162 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

precipitated over the cliffs, and how the trade has been carried on
under circumstances of such exceptional difficulty is a marvel.

R N , who was Colonel Tanner’s companion through the
above work, also completed the very arduous undertaking of a circuit
round the great Kanchanjanga mountain, not only supplying a sketch
of the peak and its dependent spurs, but also a delineation for the
first time of the boundary between North-eastern Nepal, Sikkim, and
Tibet.

In 1887-88 the reconnaissance and approximate triangulation
of Western Nepal were extended eastwards from the Kumaun
boundary to the Gandak river, which has formed a sensible addition
to our geographical knowledge of that country. But a good deal
still remains to be done. Materials are most scanty where the
Gandak and Baghmati rivers break through the Himalayas imto
the plains, and most abundant, of course, in the tracts adjoming
Kumaun and Sikkim, whither observers have been able to gain
access without difficulty. The greater part of the operations in
1887-88 were done by Sub-Surveyors Rinzin Nimgya and Ram Saran
by distant sketching from the tower stations of the N.E. Longi-
tudinal Series of the Great Trigonometrical Survey and with the
aid of previously fixed distant peaks, a method which enables
the Surveyor to fix fairly enough the prominent points of ridges
and any other features seen and identified, but which leaves him
somewhat in the dark as to the run of the valleys and the details
of the drainage. Besides these reconnaissance surveys the only
other information we possess is derived from the route surveys of
the few native explorers who had traversed the country from time
to time, and from a survey by Major Wilsen and Captain Barrow of
the valley of Khatmandu. The chief difficulties attending Hima-
layan surveying of this character are due to the hazy and cloudy
state of the atmosphere, which nearly always obscures the central
band of mountains.

Bhutan is another region of which our knowledge is still very
fragmentary, and this appears to be mainly due to frequent internal
dissensions and the generally unsettled character of the country.
According to R. N., who explored tracts in Eastern and Western
Bhutan in 1885-86,* the government is nominally vested in two

* Report on the Explorations of Lama Serap Gyatsho and four other native travellers
in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet. Dehra Dun, 1889. An interesting critical review
of the journey, giving many additional details, will be found in the Indian Suryey
Report for 1886-87, page Ixxxvi.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 163

functionaries, the secular head or Deb Raja, and the religious head
or Dharma Raja, but the real power lies with several chieftains, who
are always plotting against each other to set some relative of their
own on the throne. Hence R. N. and his companion P. A., who
had entered Western Bhutan from Sikkim and the Chumbi valley,
were unable to continue their journey eastward across the country
as Pemberton had done in 1838, and were compelled to travel
southward to Buxa Duar, re-entering Bhutan at its eastern extremity
at Dewangiri. From this point they travelled to the north-west,
ascending the Pumthang river. one of the principal feeders of the
Manas, up to the Tibetan frontier, and thence travelling eastward
returned by way of Tawang. The route closes on to that of
Captain Pemberton (1838) in Bhutan, and of Lama U. G. in Tibet,
and the results have helped greatly to supply a sketch map of
Bhutan, which has been embodied by Mr. W. G. E. Atkinson in
sheet No. 7 of the N.H. Transfrontier Series. One result of the
journey was to prove that the Kuru or Lhobrak Chu is the largest
river of Bhutan, and drains the country between the Yamdok,
Pho-mo-chang-thang, and Tigu lakes, and the glaciers of the
Kulha, Gangri, and other great ranges.* R.N. also discovered a
new tribe called Chingmis in the eastern part of Bhutan. ‘Though
resembling the Bhutanese in dress, they differ in wearing pigtails,
are of a more amiable disposition, and live in better houses, but do
not, like the Bhutanese, form part of the official class.

An account of the lower Sanpo was written by the Mongolian
Lama Serap Gyatsho between 1856-68. His narrative,; however,
is mainiy confined to a list of names of monasteries, sacred places,
and villages, with an occasicnal digression into history, description
of wild beasts, &c. It contains but little geography, and being
based, moreover, on data collected nearly 30 years since, must be
altogether accepted with caution. Nevertheless, the information,
such as it is, combined with the account of K——p (a more recent
explorer) enabled Colonel Tanner to compile a sketch map of that
part of the Sanpo which had been previously a complete blank on
the maps.

* Geographers appear to have been in some uncertainty regarding the lower course
of the Lhobrak. In my article on the “ Himalaya Mountains,” in the ‘“ Imperial
Gazetteer” of India, I suggested that the Manas was in reality the lower course of the
Lhobrak ; but in Mr. Markham’s work “Tibet: Bogle and Manning,” the Lhobrak-
chu and the Subansiri are supposed to be identical.

7 See footnote on previous page.

li 2

164 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

K——p, the explorer just referred to, is a native of Sikkim, and
had accompanied G. M. N. (another employé whose work is referred
to on the next page) to Gyala Sindong on the Sanpo, besides having
since traversed Bhutan with R. N.* K p went as servant to
a Chinese Lama whom the late Captain Harman sent to Gyala
Sindong to throw marked logs into the Sanpo, having previously
arranged for watchers to be stationed at the junction of the Dihong
and Brahmaputra to ascertain whether the logs came down by that
course, and to settle by this means the identity of the Sanpo with
the great river of Assam. ‘he Lama proved a faithless rascal and
having sold K——-p returned to his own home in China. K-——p
managed to escape and return to Darjeeling after an absence of
four years, having traced the course of the Sanpo down to Onlet,
nearly LOO miles lower than any previous explorer and to within
one march of Miri Padam, which is said to be only 35 miles from
the nearest plains of India. K——p not being a trained explorer
the information he brought is not based on a route survey, and can
only be regarded as a bona fide story of his travels related from
recollection two years after his return. ‘The account was translated
into English from the original by Norpu.

From Gyala Singdong downward the river is enclosed by
snow-clad mountains on which the wild yak and Tibetan stag
abound. ‘The country is here called Pemakoichen, and is inhabited
by Chingmis, a race which R. N. had met in north-eastern
Bhutan (see particulars on preceding page), and which occupies
a considerable extent of country eastward as far as the Sanpo.
They resemble partly the Bhutanese and partly the Men tribes
around ‘awang. Those in Bhutan are described as more amiable
than the Bhutanese proper, and as living in houses of better
construction, while their affinity to the Chinese is shown by both
sexes wearing pigtails. They extend as far as Daugam on the
Sanpo river, where the Lo river joims it. Below that poimt
Tibetan names and influence cease, and the country of three tribes
of aborigines called collectively Lo Kabta} commences. They are
averse to anything savouring of Buddhism or Tibetan habits; they

* For narrative see “Report on Explorations in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet.”
Dehra Dun, 1889. See also Colonel Tanner’s interesting ** Notes” in the Indian
Survey Report for 1886-87, page Ixxxvi.

+ Compare the Lhék’haptra of De La Penna and L’hok’hapha of Klaproth. See
Markham’s Tibet, pages 311 and 312.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND BXPLORATIONS. 165

are great hunters, and shoot either with bows and arrows or with
matchlocks the bison and other game which is found in plenty on
the mountain slopes. The Padams at the lowest portion of the
Sanpo reached by K——p are known to us, on the authority of
Mr. Needham, as Abors.

An important piece of geographical discovery in connexion with
the course of the great river of Tibet, the Sanpo, was accomplished,
in 1878, by a Sikkim Bhutia G—m—n, who had been trained by
Lieutenant Harman, R.H.,1m the use of the prismatic compass, in
plotting his work, in the use of a boiling-point thermometer, and
the reading of a sextant. This traveller followed the course of the
river from Chetang, a village visited by the Puudit Nain Singh, in
an easterly direction to the Chamkar monastery (Tchamea of
D’Anyille), beyond which the river makes an acute bend and flows
south past Gyala Synaong (the furthest point reached by G—m—n)
and the Gimuchen country into a country which the natives say is
“ruled by the British.” This journey thus threw considerable light
on the further course of the Sanpo and (assuming it to be one and the
same as the Dihong of Upper Assam) reduced the unknown section
of the river to about 100 miles, a distance which was eventually
diminished still further by the journey of K. P. in 1886-87 (see
preceding page), which may be considered as the complement of
G—m—n’s exploration. The latter traveller also brought back
particulars of various places in the valley of the Sanpo which are
to be identified with names of D’Anville’s map. He also visited the
Yamdok-tso or ‘“ Palti lake” of D’Anville and furnished an
interesting description, with sketches of the great iron suspension
bridge at Chazumtuka or Chagsum by which travellers bound for
Lhasa from the south-west cross over the Sanpo river.

Burma and Assam Frontier.—The opening up of the Assam frontier
was pressed on the attention of the Secretary of State even before
the annexation of Upper Burmah. On the 31st July 1878, a deputa-
tion, headed by the late Mr. W. EH. Forster and Sir R. Alcock, and
comprising Col. Godwin-Austen and various gentlemen interested in
Assam and its tea-trade, waited on Lord Cranbrook at the India Office
with a memorial praying for the improvement of the communication
between Calcutta, Assam, and China, and for preliminary exploration
along the connecting route across the mountains. he matter was
commended to the notice of the Government of India on the
29th August 1878 (Despatch No. 46 (Geographical)). The papers

166 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

which form Appendix B. to G.T.8. Report for 1876-77 (see Survey
Proceedings for April 1878) contain some interesting details as to
the geography of N.H. Assam, and a Note (Appendix B.) on the old
Burmese route over the Patkoi and by way of Nongyong, viewed as
the most feasible and direct route from India to China. The deputa-
tion undoubtedly helped to concentrate attention on this important
region, and some useful explorations were subsequently made (see
Topographical Survey chapter, p. 79).

The military events in Upper Burma leading to the deposition
of King Theebaw and the annexation of the country to the British
Crown, necessitated the employment of surveyors, and in the
spring of 1886 Captain Hobday left the Andaman islands,* which
he had been engaged in surveying, for Mandalay. The latitude
and longitude and altitude of that city were determined, and a
preliminary map cf the surrounding country was compiled from
the reconnaissances of officers with the Burma Field Force. In
May Captain Hobday and Sub-Surveyor Ahmad Sayad accompanied
a military expedition into the Kachin hills, south-east of Bhamo,
and in the following month one to the south-east of Mandalay.
While carrying on his work at a place eight miles east of Kyonkse,
Ahmad Sayad was attacked by Shan dacoits and killed. The
despatch of a telegraph party to lay a line from Mandalay to
Bhamo gave opportunity for the extension of the triangulation and
topography northwards up the lrawadi. The survey of the city
of Mandalay on the G-inch scale, covering altogether an area of
50 miles, was completed as well as a sketch map of the new can-
tonment site at Bhamo.

In the later part of 1886 the survey detachment in Upper Burma
was strengthened and enlarged, and several reconnaissances were
made in connexion with the various military movements undertaken
for the pacification of the country. In November Captain Hobday
and a sub-surveyor accompanied a column from Mandalay to
Thonze vid Pym-ul-win and returned by the same route. In
January Captain Hobday joined another expedition from Mandalay
to the Shan State of Mainlon, via Lamaing and Kalagwe, and then

* A good account of the Little Andamans (which Professor Flower has described
as one of the most isolated spots in the civilised world) was given by Mr. M. Portman,
before the Royal Geographical Society on the 30th Jauuary 1888. See Proceedings
Royal Geographical Society, p. 567. The Great Andamans are better known, and an
admirable article on ihe two groups, from the pen of the late Sir Henry Yule, will be
found in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 167

proceeded with the troops to the Ruby Mines, returning from
Mogok, the ruby-mining centre, to Thabeitkyun on the Irawadi.
He also took advantage in March of the return of the Tsawbwa of
Thibaw from Mandalay to his capital, under escort, to accompany
the party which travelied through Nammaw and Goteik to Thibaw,
where he halted and explored the surrounding country. The area
reconnoitered and mapped during these various expeditions in the
Northern Shan States and the Ruby Mines district amounted to
about 3,000 square miles. Major Hobday remarks of the Shans
that he believes them to be a peace-loving community, who have
only been excited to wage war one against another by the intriguing
resident Burmese officials appointed from time to time by the
Burmese court. They are naturally very fond of trade, and along
every road are to be met hawking their wares. The country is
very deserted in parts owing to the petty wars and disturbances
prevalent of late years. Lieutenant Jackson, the next officer in
charge, was similarly engaged with various expeditions, and his
out-turn, together with that of the sub-surveyor with him, also
amounted to about 3,000 square miles of reconnaissance survey.
The general results of the work of these cfficers, as well as that
accomplished by Mr. Wyatt and others belonging to the Upper
Burma party, consisted of an area of 15,000 square miles triangu-
lated and 11,000 square miles of reconnaissance survey. The
difficulties in a country lke Upper Burma are very great owing
to the dense forests, undergrowth, and high grass encountered
almost everywhere, in addition to which an impenetrable haze
fills the air from March to the commencement of the rains.
These drawbacks, coupled with the necessity of keeping up with
troops marching from 101015 miles a day, rendered the carrying
on of a connected triangulation and topography a matter of great
difficulty, and Captain Hobday and his coadjutors received the
special commendation of the Commander-in-Chief for their labours,
A small survey party accompanied the military column which was
despatched from Assam by way of Manipur into the Chindwin
valley to co-operate with the field force in Upper Burma, and
Colonel Woodthorpe, who had just returned from Gilgit, where
he had been for more than a year with Sir W. Lockhart’s mission,
at once volunteered for the work. He selected as his assistant
Mr. M. J. Ogle, who had previously accompanied him in various
expeditions on the north-east frontier. The results comprised

NGSe GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

360 square miles surveyed topographically on the $-inch scale in
the south-east of Manipur, in continuation of the survey of 1881-82 ;
the whole of the Kubo valley and large portions of the Lekayain
district, comprising an area of 3,924 square miles, was surveyed on
the 4+-inch scale, as well as part of the course of the Chindwin river.
Colonel Woodthorpe was seized with a bad attack of fever, which
lasted during May, but Mr. Ogle energetically continued the
triangulation and succeeded in effecting a junction with Captain
Hobday’s series, brought up from Mandalay.

In recognition more especially of his services in Burma Colonel
Woodthorpe was appointed a Companion of the Order of the
Bath, a distinction which afforded much gratification to all thoze who
had watched that officer’s record of services in Afghanistan, Assam,
Upper Burma, and Hunza, and of other dangerous enterprises.

During 1887-88 Major Hobday extended the triangulation from
Mandalay northwards to Bhamo, while Captain Jackson and two
surveyors accompanied a column despatched from Fort Stedman
into the Southern Shan States. Reconnaissances were made
towards the Salwen river, and its course fixed at two points. A
highly satisfactory connexion with Major Hobday’s triangulation
was effected, the total circuit of the combined reconnaissances being
over 600 miles. A portion of the route traversed by the southern
column had been followed by the party accompanying the Salwen
expedition in 1864-65," and the work then executed by the late
Mr. F. Fedden, of the Geological Survey Department, was tested,
and its general accuracy fully established.

The Southern Shan States expedition was altogether a great
success ; the British were received everywhere in the most friendly
manner, and its effect was to re-establish peace instead of the
inter-tribal wars till then prevalent.

To the Northern Shan column Sub-Surveyor Faida Ali was
attached, and the area mapped by him amounted to 3,425 square
miles, north-east of Mandalay and stretching eastward to the Salwen
river, which here as well as in the upper part of its course flows
closely to its western water-shed, leaving a wide expanse of country
beyond to the share of the Irawadi.

In the country west of the Irawadi a large area was recon-
noitred in the Chindwin, Pakokku, and Minbu districts by four
columns which advanced into the Yaw country. Mr. Wyatt, who

* See the Memoir on the Indian Surveys, 2nd ed., p. 229.

GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 169

accompanied the southernmost column, extended the triangulation
down the Jrawadi to Thayetmyo, in the vicinity of which he
effected a junction with the principal series of the Great Trigono-
metrical Survey.

Another column operated in the country above Mogaung, and
visited the Jade mines north-west of Sakaw as well as the Great
Endaweyi lake seen by Mr. Strettell, Deputy Conservator of Forests
to the Government of India, on the occasion of his exploring trip in
1873-74. For fear of exciting the Kachins it was deemed advisable
not to ascend the hills. Triangulation was thus rendered impossible,
and opportunities of acquiring topography were lost. Some useful
miscellaneous surveys were executed by Mr. G. H. Powell, but while
in the vicinity of Konni, a new military post which had been formed
on the Shan plateau, about 30 miles west of the Inlé lake, an un-
fortunate quarrel arose with villagers, and in the ensuing struggle
Mr. Powell and two Burmans were killed. lis young officer’s
death was much regretted, for though he had been only a short
time in the Department he had shown much ability and promise.

The general result of the year’s operations was an area of
23,274 square miles trianeulated and 20,780 mapped on the }4-inch
scale, an out-turn which bears witness to the great activity of the
Departmental officers in the difficult circumstances imposed by
the unsettled condition of the country.

Tn addition to these reconnaissances a special survey was under-
taken of the Ruby Mines tract, and the entire area within which the
mines le, amounting to 77 square miles (a far larger extent than
previously imagined), was mapped on the 6-inch and 2-inch scales.*
Large scale surveys of the town and suburbs of Mandalay for settle-
ment and other administrative purposes were also completed in 1888.

The reconnaissance survey of Upper Burma by Major Hobday’s
party proceeded steadily during the following year (1888-89).
Survey officers accompanied the various military expeditions which
were organised during the year, and proceeded to the Chin country,
to the Kareni and the Southern Shan States, to the Northern Shan
States, and to Mogaung and other parts of the Bhamo district,
against the Kachin tribes. Surveys of a more regular character
were also carried on in the Minbu, Myingyan, Sagain, and the Ruby
Mines districts. The year’s out-turn amounted to 20,510 square

*Mir. R. Gordon, C.E., read a paper on the Ruby Mines before the Royal
Geographical Society on the 27th February 1888.

170 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS.

miles mapped on the quarter-inch scale, the greater portion of which
lay in the Shan States and Bhamo district. In 1889-90 one party
was at work in leu of two, and the out-turn was a little smaller.
But the total area mapped during the last four years in Upper
Burma amounts to 70,852 square miles, a result most creditable to
Major Hobday, Captain Jackson, Mr. Ogle, and the other members
of the party. To Mr. Ogle the Gill Memorial Medal for 1889 was
awarded by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society in
recognition of his excellent survey work in the North-eastern frontier
and in Burma.

A small survey party under Lieutenant W. H. Pollen, R.H., an
energetic and popular young officer, accompanied the military
expedition to the Lushai Hills in 1888-89; but owing to the
unfortunate illness and subsequent death of Lieutenant Pollen, but
little work was done, though the information acquired by Mr. James,
who succeeded to the charge of the party, proved very useful in the
following year. The expedition in that year (1889-90) consisted of
two columns, one starting from Kan, in the Myittha Valley, and
proceeding into the Chin Hills, and the other from Chittagong being
directed into the Lushai Hills. Each column was accompanied by
a small survey party under Lieutenants Renny-Tailyour, and Bythell,
R.E., respectively. The operations in the Chin Hills resulted in the
survey of about 3,000 square miles, and those in the Lushai Hills of
about 6,000 square miles of new country. The triangulation of both
parties were successfully connected near Haka.

A survey party, under Captain Jackson, R.H., which accompanied
the Anglo-Siamese Boundary Commission, mapped over 9,000
square miles on the }-inch scale. Mr. Ogle, who was a member of
the survey party, was detached at the outset to work independently,
with instructions to survey the four States of Mong Ton, Méng
Hang, Méng Chut, and Méng Tar. This he successfully completed.

In conclusion, mention should be made of an interesting piece
of work, which though carried out some years previously, helped
to throw a good deal of light on the conterminous region of
Upper Burma and Assam. In the early part of 1879 Captain
J. E. Sandeman, in charge of the cadastral survey in the
Hanthawadi district of British Burma, was requested to train
a native for exploring the upper course of the Irawadi river
beyond Bhamo. Towards the end of the year the man had acquired
a sufficient knowledge of his duties to be started on a preliminary

GROGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. v/a

exploration, and in November 1879 he started with two companions,
and soon after arrived at Bhamo. Thence the party ascended the
river in boats to Ka-cho, once an important city, in latitude 25° 20’,
at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above the sea. At the village of
Maigna, about 16 miles north of Ka-cho, the Burmese frontier was
reached. The country beyond is inhabited by Kachins, among
whom no Shans reside, and the people pay no tribute to Burma.
Two days afterwards the junction of the eastern and western
branches of the Irawadi river were sighted, the latter (called the
Maleeka) being considerably swollen and 500 paces wide, while the
eastern branch (called Mehka) was low and flowing amid rapids and
large rocks, with a width of about 100 yards. The people of the
country stated that the great increase in the waters of the western
branch was due to the melting of the snow at its sources, and there
can be little doubt that it is the larger, and rises in higher ranges.
The natives also stated that the eastern branch has two principal
affluents, one from the east, and believed to have its source in the
Naungsa lake, and the other from the north, said to rise in the hills
00 or 60 miles beyond Mo-goung-poon. The sources of the western
branch are stated to be in the Kantee country, at a distance of
about 23 days’ journey from Ka-cho. Thus it is highly probable
that this is the branch of the river reached by Wilcox in his journey
from Assam in 1827, which is described in Vol. XVII. of the
Researches of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Calcutta, 1832). The
explorer’s “ Kantee ” is obviously identical with Wilcox’s ‘‘ Khanti.’’*

The trustworthiness of the explorer’s investigations is proved by
a comparison of the three maps, viz.:—Lieutenant Wilcox’s, of
1828; Father Desgodins’ map of the eastern frontier of Tibet, pre-
sented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal; and the explorer’s own.
These are skilfully juxtaposed by the Surveyor-General of India in
his Report for 1879-80, and the general agreement is substantial
and striking. It is quite conclusive against the old theory of the
identity of the Sanpo and Irawadi.

* Major Sandeman read a paper on the journey before the Royal Geographical
Society on the 27th February 1882. See Proceedings, p. 258.

172

VII.

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

An enormous addition to our knowledge of northern and western
Afghanistan was made by the labours and researches of the
Boundary Commission, which was engaged, in conjunction with a
Russian Commission, in laying down the northern boundary of the
country in 1884-86. Unlike the Eastern Persian Mission under
Sir F. Goldsmid, and the Yarkand Mission under Sir D. Forsyth, of
which official narratives were duly compiled, an official account of
the Afghan Boundary Mission has not yet been written; but the
following details, culled from various published sources, but chiefly
from the excellent papers contributed by Lieutenant - Colonel
T. H. Holdich to the Royal Geographical Society’s Proceedings, will
give a general idea of the geographical results achieved.

The Indian section of the Afghan Delimitation Commission left
Quetta on the 19th September 1884 under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel (now Sir) J. W. Ridgeway. A small survey
party was attached to the Commission, consisting of Captain St. G.
Gore and Lieutenant the Hon. M. G. Talbot, assisted by three
native sub-surveyors. It was subsequently decided to depute a
third officer, and Major J. Hill, R.E., was at first selected, but
in consequence of his weak state of health he was unable to
proceed further than Quetta, and Major Holdich was recalled from
the Zhob valley expedition to take his place.

The triangulation laid out by Lieutenants Talbot and Wahab in
1883 to the south and south-west of Kelat formed the basis for an
extension of the Afghan triangulation from Nushki to the Helmand.
But the extension was carried out with great difficulty, owing to the
thick haze, and Captain Gore and Lieutenant Talbot were unable
to keep up communication between their respective series; but,
nevertheless, a fairly satisfactory junction was effected at Galichah,

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 173

just east of the Helmand. The distance from Nushki was about
220 miles, and the country was most barren and difficult; but the
position was important to fix, as Nushki is an oasis commanding
the highways which lead from Quetta to Seistan. Westward for
70 or 80 miles no streams or springs exist, but the low-lying
partially sand-covered “put” or hard-baked mud-flats form the
edge of the basin which receives the waters of the Lora from the
Pishin valley at flood times. Within the limits of the Hamun or
final swamp of the Lora water is practically found everywhere near
the surface.

The God-i-Zirreh or terminal swamp formed by the Helmand is
very similar to the Lora Hamun. The Helmand river flows through a
depression about 30 miles north of the God-i-Zirreh, and then turning
north at Chahar-burjak passes into the swamps which form per-
manent lakes south of Lash-Jowain. In the late autumn of 1884,
when the Afghan Commission was on the march to Lash-Jowain,
the flooded part of the Seistan Hamun extended very little further
than the limits represented as ‘‘ permanent lake” in Walker’s map
of Turkestan. In 1885, however, on the return march of a part of
the Commission, Mr. Merk found that the floods extended south-
wards and were connected by a well-defined channel with the God-i-
Zirreh. The level of the eastern end of the latter depression imme-
diately south of Rudbar is probably 500 feet lower than the
Helmand, and between the two there must be a dividing water-shed
of a considerable elevation towards the east but falling away
to the west. From Khoja Al to Chahar-burjak, where the great
northern bend commences, the Helmand forms a series of picturesque
reaches, often sub-divided into many channels and encompassing
islands green with tamarisk, Euphrates poplar, and occasional
fringes of grass. The white ribbon of silt intersected by the deep
blue of the stream is generally flanked with a mile or so in width
of pebble-covered, sandy “‘dasht.’ Beyond stand up the deep-cut
and many-folded sand cliffs, presenting an infinite variety of red
and purple tinted wall. On the left bank many traces of a long
disused irrigation system were observable, and near Rudbar a series
of ruined houses, forts, and palaces commences, the Kala-i-Madre-i-
Padshah being the most remarkable. A variety of Arab, Assyrian,
Greek, and even Chinese coins were brought thence to the English
officers for sale. Nowhere else did the Commission find evidences
of a once highly civilized and prosperous state so strongly marked,

N74 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

and the great grassy plain east of Kala Fath bears the appearance
of being the gigantic graveyard of successions of buried cities.
Kala Fath, itself the ancient capital of the Kaiani Kings, is still an
imposing mass of ruins.

At Kala Fath, where the route turned northward, a new system of
surveying was introduced, and the distances were checked by
observed latitudes at each halt till Ibrahimabad was reached,
50 miles beyond. From thence the latitude and longitude were
carried out vigorously by means of observed latitude and azimuths
and such triangulations from short independent bases as might be
possible. Simultaneously with the running triangulation a plane
survey of the whole country was executed on a scale of four miles
to the inch, based on a perambulator traverse combined with the
trigonometrically fixed points. This survey included, roughly, a
strip of country averaging some 20 miles in width. The whole
work was completed with both accuracy and speed, the entire
distance as far as Kushan (310 miles) being covered in 19 days.

From Kuhsan the method of surveying was as follows :—
Triangulation was carried on with Troughton and Simm’s 6-inch
‘“‘subtense” theodolites as opportunity offered, along several lines, each
of which finally resolved itself into a series more or less complete.
The following were the main series :—

1. From Kuhsan to Mashhad.

2. From Kuhsan along the Hari Rud valley to Bamian.

3. From Bamian via Haibak to Balkh.

4. From Zulfikar (on the Mashhad Series) to the Oxus at

Khamiab.

5. From Andkhui (on the “‘ Boundary” or No. 4 Series) to Balkh,

thus completing circuit.

6. From Kuhsan southward to Birjand along the Persian border.

In the course of this gradual extension many detached bases were
measured, and new linear values imported into the work together
with new azimuths. Astronomical checks were introduced when
observations could be taken over a sufficient number of days to
ensure trustworthy results. In this the officers of the Commission
were assisted by Captain Guedeonoff of the Russian staff, who was
able to verity the results by observations with a Repsold instrument
of a much higher class than the small English theodolites. His
results, however, agreed closely with those of the latter. On the

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. Ey)

basis of this triangulation all the topography was executed, whether
by the Russian topographers on a comparatively large scale along
the line of the boundary, or by the British officers and sub-surveyors,
who not only took up their share of boundary topography, but
extended smaller scale geographical work over a vast area in Persia
and Afghanistan amounting altogether to over 110,000 square
miles. The scale adopted was usually four miles to the inch,
occasionally reduced to half that scale where the triangulation was
not close enough to furnish a sufficient number of points within the
limits of the plane-table. The plane-table was the ordinary Indian
service pattern of the largest size, 36 m. x 24 in.

From Kala Fath northward to Lash-Jowain the narrow valley
of the Helmand afforded no extensive view east or west ; for 30 miles
villages are scarce, though Ibrahimabad and its neighbourhood
appeared to present a magnificent field for antiquarian research,
old seals, coins, and rings being brought to the camp for sale in
great numbers; all this part of the Helmand valley having been
evidently thickly inhabited in early times. ‘The eastern Hamun or
depression into which the Helmand flows presented a striking appear-
ance. The dark blue green of the surface was flecked with white
foam, and the miniature waves were driven shorewards before the
fierce intensely cold blast of the westerly winds. Reed islands broke
the level here and there, and myriads of duck rose from the banks
and islands and rotated over the surface of the swamp well out of
reach. The expanse of water, however, as seen in October 1884
was nothing to what it appeared to Mr. Merk in November 1885,
when the two swamps had united into a vast lake and spreading
themselves southwards had spilled their waters into the God-i-Zirreh
of Baluchistan.*

Jowain, a collection of mud buildings dome-roofed and in good
repair, on the left bank of the Farah-Rud, and Lash, picturesquely
perched on the edge of the opposite cliffs overlooking the river, are
both marked specimens of the peculiar Perso-Afghan style of town,
which extends throughout the border to Herat and Kandahar. Rows
of mud-built huts with beehive roofs clustering confusedly round
the walls of a central half-ruimed mud fort re-occur with monotonous
regularity. The substitution of flat roofs in some of the larger

* Some particulars of Mr. Merk’s journey are given at page 331 of the Proceedings
of the Royal Geographical Society for 1886.

176 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

cities marks the introduction of wood, which, except in the neigh-
bourhood of some towns, is exceedingly scarce in these regions.

To the north of Jowain the country rapidly assumes a new
geographical aspect. Sand is not so conspicuous. The Farah-Rud,
Kushk-Rud, and Har-Rud or Adraskand drain from the eastward
through gently swelling uplands, whose hard, gravelly surface
is traversed by sharp ridges of limestone, which preserve an approxi-
mate parallelism and a general trend from N.H.to8.W. These
rocky, steep, and deeply serrated ridges are seen on a closer approach
to be crossed transversely by numerous oper and easy kotals.
It is the rivers rather than the hills which form the chief
physical obstacles, for though the amount of melted snow brought
down by them into Seistan is practically inconsiderable, they
are all just as liable to violent floods as if they were mountain
torrents.

The valley of the Hari-Rud westwards from Herat is separated
from the basin of the Helmand by a low water-shed, and is very
partially cultivated, notwithstanding that the canal system appears
ample and that the villages are packed quite close together. At
Kuhsan the English and Indian sections of the Commission met for
the first time. Six miles above is the Tirpul bridge, the main
connecting link in times of flood between Western Afghanistan and
Persia. Up to Kaman-i-Bihisht (about 380 miles below Kuhsan)
there is usually an excellent road alongside of the Hari-Rud, but
at that point the river commences to flow through a series of
inagnificent gorges or defiles which it has cut for itself through the
mountains, and it cannot be approached till it emerges into a
contracted but beautiful valley south of Zulfikar.

Throughout the lower valley of the Hari-Rud the eifects of the
devastating ravages of the Turkomans on its agricultural population
were plainly visible, but the impression formed by Colonel Holdich
was that even under settled rule no very great extension of cultivation
could ever take place.

From Mashhad, the longitude of which was fixed in the summer
of 1885, a triangulation series was brought duwn southwards to
Zulfikar, and the survey of the Persian frontier and eastern Khorasan
was carried as far west as opportunity admitted. A junction was
effected with the Russian surveys north of Mashhad, but no trigo-
nometrical connexion, as their triangulation had not at that time

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 177

come so far south; the fertile valleys of the Jam, of Shahr-i-Nao, and
of Khaf weresurveyed as far westas Turbat-i-Haidri, and subsequently
opportunity was found by Captain Gore of extending his triangula-
tion to the south-west of Herat across the great salt plains south of
Khaf to the hills about Birjand. Sub-Surveyors Hira Sing and Ata
Mahomed were busy plane-tabling over this border during most of
the summer and autumn of 1885, and whilst the route triangulation
which had been carried out during the march from India was greatly
strengthened between Seistan and Herat, a good basis was secured
for the final extension of the survey from Birjand vid Kirman to
Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf. This was finally carried out
by Captain Gore, while the rest of the mission was en route from
the Oxus to India, across the Hindu Kush.

The plains at the foot of the Paropamisus range are swept by the
same fierce north-west blasts that dry up and almost devastate
Badghiz. During the heavy rainfalls in March and April the hills
are denuded and a large detritus of mud and sliding rock is spread
out, fan-shaped, across the plain below. Occasionally in the course
of a few hours the dry beds of watercourses become living mud
torrents, with results that were disastrous to the British party.
The physical effect of this is to diminish the relative heights of hill
and plain, to round off prominent spurs, and gradually flatten the
ridge where no central backbone of hard rock exists, rendering
it less formidable as a natural barrier. Over the whole line, indeed,
of the western Paropamisan system, including its smaller collateral
branches, and even the Band-i-Turkestan, which may be called a
distinct range, Colonel Holdich says that there is no pass over which
a horse cannot be ridden.

The Paropamisus is the name given to the range which bounds
the Hari-Rud valley on the north as far west as Kaman-i-Bihisht.
Here it is only about 2,000 feet in height, but at Chashma Sabz
it assumes a more distinct form with one easily recognisable central
water-shed, and from thence eastward past Herat to the north of the
Korokh valley it gradually gains in altitude till it attains a height
of nearly 11,000 feet above sea-level. The surface soil consists of
reddish clay and sand beds, with outcrops of trap and limestone
rocks, affording a plentiful growth of grass and brilliant flowers
during the summer. Between the western boundary and the
Zarmast pass north-east of Herat, at the head of the Korokh valley,
there are 11 well-known passes, besides minor tracks, al) of which

x ¥ 20321, M

178 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

converge towards Pul-i-Khisti at the confluence of the Murghab
and Kushk rivers.

North of the Paropamisus, between the Hari-Rud and Murghab,
is the great broken plain of Badghiz, occupied at present by the
Jamshidi and Hazara sections of the Chahar Aimak. On either
side of the Chingurak range, which occupies a central position, is a
multiplicity of rounded hill tops, a sea of sand waves, of which
the materials, according to Mr. Griesbach, are due partly to the
accumulation of ages of sand drift borne by the almost perpetual
north-west wind, and partly to denudation of the mountain slopes.
Water is scarce and unequally distributed, but it might probably
be obtained without much difficulty from wells. Evidences are not
wanting that Badghiz was once a fairly well populated and cultivated
region. About Gulran especially there are the partially sand-covered
remains of old towns of considerable magnitude, and of a system
of karez irrigation that covered all the plain between Gulran and
the hills. It is only the long continuance of years of misrule and its
position in being so open to raids that have transformed Badghiz
from a flourishing district mto a grass wilderness, the home of the
wild ass, of gigantic boars, of innumerable herds of deer, and even
of tigers. Eastward of the Murghab river the great central chain
of the Paropamisan mountain system increases in altitude from
west to east, and the mountain torrents rushing northwards with
increased force have cut deeper into the loess formation of the chol
sand drifts. ‘The latter becomes more complicated in feature and
difficult to traverse, but it still possesses the same characteristic
of being a magnificent grass country, and the evidences of recent
occupation and of cultivation are more abundant and fresher.
An exceedingly small percentage of the Badghiz district is under
cultivation. First a narrow strip bordering the main streams is
made tolerably certain of its water supply by a very complete system
of canals, beyond a small amount of cultivation which is at a level

above irrigation and dependent on rainfall. The valleys are cut up.

by reedy swamps which in many places occupy nearly the whole
of their width, while the supply of water from the rivers (especially
in the case of the Kashan) is uncertain.

The loess deposits forming the cho] east of the Murghab preserve
the same geueral characteristics throughout the Maimana and
Andkhui districts. The irregular mountain tract between the
Band-i-Turkestan, which bounds the Maimana district on the south,
and the Safed Koh range, which separates it from the Hari-Rud

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 179

valley, is drained by the Upper Murghab, and this wild tract,
inhabited by the most lawless tribe of the Chahar Aimak (i.e.,
Firuzkhuis) was entered by Sub-Surveyor Hira Sing in the autumn
of 1855. He crossed over from the Korokh valley to the historic
old fort of Naratu by the Zarmast pass, and from Naratu made his
way to the headquarters of one of the leading Firuzkhui chiefs
at Kadis. He then commenced a systematic survey of all the passes
crossing the Band-i-Turkestan and connecting Afghan Turkestan
with the Hari-Rud valley. The Band-i-Turkestan is a separate
mountain system from the Paropamisus, the connecting link between
the two on the east being an insignificant water-shed. Its con-
figuration is that of a series of approximately horizontal plateaux,
occasionally divided laterally by sheltered valleys, with passes dotted
at intervals along the main water-shed at a height of from 8,009 to
9,000 feet above sea-level. As a rule the mountains are thickly
covered with forests of juniper on the higher slopes, and an
abundant growth of pistachio lower down.

The Firuzkhui country is divided into the following districts :—
Kadis, Chakcharan, Sungar, Gharjistan, Kuchar, Bandar, Chaharsada,
Mak, and Murghabi (the extreme head of the river). One of the
Chakcharan daras called Dara-i-Khargosh or “ hare’s defile” was
eraphically described by Arthur Conolly, who passed through it in
October 1840.*

* Conolly’s full journal appears to have been lost, but extracts are printed in the
Calcutta Review, Vol. XV. For 13 miles Conolly and his party journeyed between
perpendicular mountains of limestone, the defile running in acute zig-zags, which for
the most part were not more than 50 or 60 yards long, and having only breadth
enough for fie path and for the brook, which the party were continually obliged to
cross. The height of the mountains made the horsemen look like pigmies as they
filed along their bases in the bed. Conolly remarks: “Take it all in all it is, I
suppose, for its length as difficult a pass as exists. I have seen nothing Jike it
‘ except some upper portions of the valley of the Ganges, in the Himalaya mountains,
and its impregnability, according to Asiatic notions of warfare, fully warrants the
“ saying with which Himaks are said to have answered the threats of kings :
** ¢Oppress us and we'll flee to the Hare’s defile ! ”

s
.

The Calcutta Reviewer prefixes to his article the title of a work by Mr. E. Sterling,
Bengal Civil Service, who journeyed in 1828 from Teheran to India. There is no
copy of this book in the India Office Library, but I remember seeing a copy some years
ago in the British Museum. I think, however, the author’s name was spelt Stirling.
Mr. Stirling travelled by the northern route, crossing the Tejend and Murghab,
following part of the same road that Vambery and Grodekofl did afterwards. The
geographical interest of the journey was slight, but it was cuvious as the first of a
series of journeys destined to open up Afghanistan to western research,

M 2

180 AFGIAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

The whole valley of the Upper Murghab is a deep network of
such defiles; there are no roads crossing the lines of lateral drainage,
and not any continuous road along the river, the Murghab being
on the whole a marked exception to the general rule in Afghanistan
of the coincidence of direction between main roads and main rivers.
The following roads and passes connecting Afghan Turkestan with
Herat through the Firuzkhui districts were explored, viz. :—(1) the
Kharajangal pass from Chaharshamba to Herat; (2) the group
of tracks and passes between the Ao Barik and the Baragan ;
(3) the Chahardara crossing, which carries the Tailan route over
the Murghab into Gharjistan and Chakcharan; (4) the direct
route from Maimana and Saripul through Chaharsada, and eastern-
most of all (5) the Saripul, Chiras, and Daulatyar connexion,
followed probably by Ferrier, and surveyed as far south as Chiras
by nam Sharif.

The roads and tracks between Kadis and Bala Murghab, and
those from Kadis eastward on the northern slopes of the Safed
Koh, have all been explored and reported on. High up on these
slopes, at least 5,000 feet above the sea, and about 20 miles east
of Kadis, Hira Sing found the remains of a city,* which must once
have been large and have possessed considerable local importance ;
the ruins of an old fort, of stone walls surrounding orchards, and
traces of irrigation are still visible. At the head of the Murghab
valley the surveying was carried out by imam Sharif, who found
the position of Chiras to be approximately correct, but was unable
to identify the Dev Hissar of Ferrier. He found, however, a city,+
called the Shahr-i-Wairan (or deserted city), not far from Chiras,
situated in a green plain, bounded by glittering white cliffs on the
north and by the long straight slopes from the crest of the cliffs
overhanging the Askarab on the south. The city must have been
of some magnitude, and such buildings as remain are of sun-dried
brick. There are no indications of a wall or moat, nothing even
suggestive of a canal or karez, nothing, in fact, but scattered ruins
covering an area of about 13 square miles. The graveyard was
easily recognisable, and its immense size furnished some clue to

* Major Raverty tells me he thinks this may be identical with Ashizar of (Ghar-
jistan, mentioned at pp. 394 and 1071-1072 of his translation of the Tabakat-i-Nasiri.

+ This appears to be the same as that mentioned at page 334 of the same work as
being in the district of Wajiristan.

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 181

the size of the city. Local tradition is, however, quite silent as to
the origin and history of this city.

Towards the north the Band-i-Turkistan mountains break up
into long, rough, and very irregular spurs, which have a tendency
to assume a plateau-like formation, with steep scarped cliffs flanking
broad and comparatively level flats. The mountain streams have
formed at the foot of these spurs broad alluvial plains, which are
rich and fertile and full of flourishing villages. The Kaisar, Almar,
and Maimana plains are of this nature. Maimana is an irregular
walled town, covering something less than a square mile in extent,
most picturesquely situated, with the snowy peaks of the Band-i-
Turkistan and Koh-i-Saf to the south and the rolling grass hills
of the chol. Viewing the city from the Governor’s residence in the
citadel, its general appearance was not unlike that of Cabul. The
bazaar was full of trade, and the mixture of races in its streets was
extraordinary.

The hill districts to the east of Maimana, between that place and
the Balkh Ao, had been very little known previously. They were
surveyed in the spring of 1886 by Imam Sharif, and the results
of his observations and mapping form a good record. Shibrghan
is a walled town some 500 or 600 yards square, the walls being in
a very ruinous condition. The Ersari Turkomans bring in grain
and ‘“‘pushm,” which is purchased by the Peshawari bunniahs, and
take away in exchange salt, cloth, and other necessaries. Imam
Sharif reckoned that even in winter there are noi 1,000 permanent
inhabitants. Round Saripul, which lies about 35 miles to the south,
there is a good deal of cultivation, Saripul and the adjoining district
of Sancharak being reckoned two of the richest districts in Afghan
Turkistan. They are especially famous for fruit. Saripul itself
is a small walled town, with the usual bazaar and citadel. Imam
Sharif surveyed a large portion of the intricate and difficult country
lying south of Saripul and about the water-parting between the
upper Murghab and Oxus tributaries. This region is remarkable for
deep gorges similar to those described by Conolly (vide supra, p. 178).
Cave villages were found in some of the defiles, the dwellings not
being entirely excavated, but half natural fissures in the strata and
half artificially constructed. Mr, Griesbach, of the Geoiogical
Survey, remarks on these extraordinary deep gorges, which are due
to erosion. Some of them are scarcely wide enough to admit of an
unladen mule being driven through without considerable difficulty.

182 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

Many of them are grandly picturesque; below Paoghan the Astarab
river flows in a narrow gorge often not more than 30 yards wide,
and enclosed by vertical walls of limestone, some 1,500 feet in sheer
height above the river bed. Most of the rivers flow from south
to north, and hence form transverse valleys through the ranges
of Turkistan. They have eroded gorges where they cross anti-
clinals and formed wider valleys with side streams when on a
synelinal.

In the summer of 1885 the necessity of finding some fixed
geographical point on the Oxus near tliat end of the boundary
became apparent. The Kuhsan base had been connected with
Mashhad by direct triangulation, and the longitude value of
Mashhad (determined telegraphically with Tehran) was thus
brought down to Kuhsan, while the triangulation itself formed an
excellent basis for the commencement of boundary demarcation
from any point on the Hari-Rud adjoming the Russian frontier.
But it was then known that the boundary would run in a north-
easterly direction through the chol, a country particularly un-
favourable for connected triangulation. Without some reliable
check the accuracy of the boundary survey would have been
unavoidably open to question. Captain ‘l'albot was therefore deputed
to undertake the difficult and dangerous duty of carrying out a
series eastward along the Hari-Rud valley, from which series it was
hoped that points might be fixed to the southward for the basis
of surveys between the Hari-Rud and Zamindawar. He was to
push his triangulation eastwards if possible to a junction with
points already trigonometrically fixed from India on the Hindu
Kush and Koh-i-Baba mountains, within sight of Kabul. He was
then to carry it across the great central mountain chain to Bamian,
extend northward through Haibak and Ghori to Mazar-i-Sharif and
Balkh, and finally carry on westwards till he sighted Kilif on the
Oxus and the mountain peaks of Bokhara. Pari passu with his
triangulation he was to carry out a plane-table reconnaissance
embracing all the country he could see, for there was no topographer
available for the duty. All this work was successfully accom-
plished, though not all at once. After pushing forward his
triangulation past Herat to Daulatyar with fair success, Major
Talbot was hurriedly recalled in August 1885 to help in making
arrangements for the defence of Herat. It was not tili late in
September that the political situation enabled him to retrace his

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 183

steps to Daulatyar. The delay was almost fatal to his success, for
the winter set in early, and it was only after a constant struggle
against snow, rain, mist, and clouds which often defeated him on
the summit of some gigantic peak after hours of weary labour lost
in climbing, that he at last emerged into the plains of Afghan
Tuarkistan, with his connexion with the Hari-Rud weak but not
entirely broken. It was not till the following spring that the
series between Balkh and Andkhui was finally completed; when
completed it was met by a series that had been run by Major
Holdich and Captain Gore through the chol between Zulfikar and
Andkbui. Thus a final system was evolved which covered the
whole of Afghan Turkistan and wild country south of the Hari-
Rud valley as far as the basin of the Helmund with a network
of triangulations which included several hundreds of well-fixed
points.

Captain Talbot found that the Hari-Rud rises about 34° 30’ N.
lat., and 67° 0’ H. long., and flows for some 70 or 8Q miles to
Daulatyar almost due west, and not as hitherto shown on the
maps. As far as Daulatyar it is known as the Ab-i-Sar-i-jangal,
and at that point it wasa broad but easily fordable stream. At
the head of the valley it is probably about 12,000 feet in general
altitude above sea-level. but gradually drops to about 5.000 feet
opposite Obeh. There are, however, occasional peaks on it, one of
which runs to 11,000 feet at a distance of about 20 miles of Obeh.
The mountain ridge is singularly straight, with slopes bare of trees
but an abundant water supply, and a luxuriant growth of grass and
wild flowers in every tagao or stream bed. Some of these narrow
valleys are well wooded with willow trees and occasionally haw-
thorn. From its source to Obeh the course of the Hari-Rud is
about 240 miles in length, and above Dahana Doab it includes a
catchment area of about 8,000 square miles.

About the t-me that Captain Talbot started for his triangulation
towards Bamian and Kabul, Sub-Surveyor Imam Sharif was deputed
to undertake a complete exploration and a survey, as far as possible,
of the hitherto little known districts which lie to the east of the road .
connecting Farah and Herat and south of the Hari-Rud valley.
Not much was on record respecting this tract, except what was to
be gathered from Ferrier’s somewhat doubtful account. It was
known to be inhabited by the Taimani section of the Chahar Aimak,
but the position of Taiwara, the capital of the Taimani country, was

184 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

uncertain, as well as that of Zerni, mentioned by Ferrier. In the
first instance, Imam Sharif had to base his surveys on a measured
traverse, but when Captain Talbot’s triangulation had extended over
the country his traverses were reduced to an agreement with the
points fixed by triangulation. Imam Sharif passed the historical peak
of Chalapdalan, the true name of which is Chahil Abdal. Round it
are inaccessible cliffs, and the peak itself, described by Ferrier as one
of the highest mountains in the world (!) attains the height of 12,000
feet. Its position has now been accurately fixed, as it forms one of
Captain Talbot's trigonometrical points. It is said to be the “ Takht”
of Zohak-i-Maran, the snake-bearing governor of these provinces in
the days of Cyrus, and it was from here that he built the massive
walls and towers of those old forts which surround Taiwara and
border the way to Ghur.* The walls of these strongholds are built
of sun-dried brick and mud, but they still stand so straight and
square on their massive basements (from 15 to 20 feet wide) as to
convey the impression of being newly built. Taiwara is situated at
the junction of two considerable streams, the Chahardar and the
Ghur (or Gaur in existing maps). The Taiwara fort is square in
form, and comparatively new; it contains the residence of the
Khan. At Yakhan Pain, south-west of Taiwari, old massive forts
and remarkably extensive ruins of an ancient city were observed..
The Chiling Shahi Mardan hill to the east is of some interest, as
there is a remarkably pointed peak with rough hewn steps leading
to the summit, whereon Ali is said to have fasted for 40 days, and
which is now a shrine of great sanctity. The valley of the Nili
(one of the tributaries of the Ghur) is well cultivated and full of
trees, which is most unusual in this timberless country. The trees
are not indigenous, being mostly apricot trees. Nili and Zerni fort
are only three or four miles apart, and from the Hari-Rud to that
fort the people are all Taimanis, and showed themselves civil and
hospitable to strangers.

While engaged in his explorations in the Firuzkhui country, and
about 15 miles from Daulatyar, Imam Sharif was robbed during the
night of nearly all he possessed; his theodolite was wrecked, his
aneroid broken and thrown into a stream, his records all carried off,
racluding a long series of barometric oberyations and his notes on
the Taimani country and its history. By good luck his plane-table

* See Raverty’s translation of the Tsbakat-i-Nasiri, page 331, where reference is
made to the Kasrs or forts built by Abbas of Ghur.

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 185

was under his pillow and his complete sheet of survey rolled up in
his bed, and these being saved he was enabled to continue his
survey.

The Khan of Taiwari stated that there were at least 15,000
inhabitants in the Taimani country, which he described as a poor
country with no fruit, and in great part deserted during the winter,
when the people migrate to Sabzawar, the Helmand, or more
genial climates. Snow lies deep in winter. The cultivation consists
entirely of wheat, except in the Ghur valley, where a patch or two
of melons exists.

The people are not absolutely poor; they own large herds of
sheep and goats, and trade in otter skins and wool with merchants
who come from Herat and Candahar. The Taimanis also own a
few cattle, and are invariably mounted, every man owning his horse.
They resemble the Jamshidis more than the Hazaras or Firuzkhuis,
and are exceedingly hospitable to travellers.

Late in the autumn of 1885 Sub-Surveyor Imam Sharif, having
completed the survey of a great portion of the Taimani country,
started to push his previous survey to a junction with those already
completed between Farah and Herat on the west, and to extend his
work as far south as he could. A connexion was fortunately
established with previous topography which had been completed
from Girishk, and together with the route survey made by his
brother, Yusuf Sharif, who was deputed to join the mission during
the winter of 1885-86, he secured a very complete knowledge of
many hitherto unknown routes and passes between Herat and
Kandahar, and completed the map of Western Afghanistan from its
extreme northern portion to the confines of the Helmund valley.
He was, however, unable to penetrate into Zamindawar, which still
remains a hot-bed of disaffection to the Amir, and of fanatical hatred
to all foreigners. He explored the Adraskand river and the Sabzawar
valley thoroughly, and visited Farah, adding much information to
that previously existing about the Farah district. He was every-
where well received and civilly treated.

Altogether, Imam Sharif was enabled to produce a fairly accurate
map of a large area of country lying south of the Hari-Rud, about
which exceedingly little was known, and which is of most special
importance as bearing on the communications between Kandahar
and Herat. That little is chiefly derived from Ferrier’s accounts of
his journeys, which, however, proved to be erroneous in several

186 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

respects. Previously to Imam Sharif’s explorations the exact
localities occupied by the Moghuls were unknown. There are
about 800 families living in Nili, Zerni, and Ghur Muskhan, who
speak a language strongly allied to Turki, and claim to have been
brought into the country by Chingiz Khan.

The great plains of Afghan Turkestan lying south of the Oxus,
between Andkhui and Badakhshan, as well as the river itself,
were thoroughly reconnoitred. According to Griesbach, the vast
deposits of clays, gravel, and loose sandstone which form these
plains have been in process of accumulation since the plocene era,
huge fans have been spread out at the points where the present
rivers, the Kaisar, Saripul, Khulm, and Balkh Ao, enter the plains,
the finer deposits being carried to the furthest limits of the fans.
Over this base in belts of various widths are thick waves of blown
sand, wind-borne from the north-west, and occasionally spread out
so as to completely cover the fluviatile deposits below. Griesbach
suggests that the great swell in the plain in which the southern
tributaries lose themselves represents an anticlinal now in course of
fcrmation, and that the river is, as it were, flowing along the crest
of a mountain range also in course of formation.

None of the tributaries of the Oxus basin west of Kunduz
draining from the mountain districts on the south find their way at
any season of the vear to the river. During the flood season in
spring they often spill over their ordinary channels and form large
swamps and lagoons. Hnormous masses of detritus and vegetable
matter are brought down from the channels of the hill streams,
which are thoroughly cleared out of the year’s vegetable growth,
and the sweepings of the hill-sides of the Band-i-Turkistan, of the
Hazarajat, and the Turkistan high lands generally. The Oxus itself
lb ings down large quantities of vegetable matter, and during the
s:mmer months it becomes a rolling chocolate-coloured sea, bearing
even large trees on its tide. Similarly there is a vast amount of
serviceable timber stranded along the lower course of the Tejend.

To the north and north-west of Andkhui is a vast area of open
p'uin which is not sheer desert but consists of chol formation
modified by aérial deposit and converted into gently swelling downs
and sandhills from which vegetation is never entirely absent. From
{:me immemorial wells have been dug, yet in spite of their number
the supply of drinkable water is exceedingly scanty. The extremes
of temperature are described as something terrific; the north-west

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 187

winter storms darken the atmosphere in the course of a few minutes
and freeze the life-blood of men exposed to them; in summer the
heat is almost more intolerable, and it is impossible to cross these
regions without special precautions. ‘wo very distinctly marked
and isolated natural hills called Kara Tapa Khurd and Kara Tapa
Kalan formed two trigonometrical stations of great importance
owing to the unvarying features of the surrounding country.

The Oxus at Khamiab is a majestic river, comparable to the Indus
below Dera Ismail Khan or the Brahmaputra in Assam. The
neighbouring settlements of the Hrsaris offer a most marked contrast
with the usual Turkoman villages; the houses are well built and
well kept, the roads are well defined, the irrigation channels kept
clear and clean, substantial bridges cross the canals, and the whole
atmosphere of the Khwaja Salor district is one of prosperity. The
Oxus continually carries away portions of its banks, and the positions
of its ferries and roads have materially shifted from time to time,
the principal ferry now being at Kilif, where the river narrows to
about 400 yards. A similar crossing 1s at Termez, some 30 miles
above Kilif, running between hard rocky banks, which will protect
its channel from further alteration through future ages. Through
the Ersari country wells were certainly more plentiful, and the
existence of old irrigation channels for 11 miles beyond Kilif points
to a time when this part of Afghan Turkistan must have been as
well populated as the great Balkh plain. The devastation effected
by that destroying angel of Central Asia, Chingiz Khan, who razed
Nishapur, Merv, Balkh, and Herat (once a large city of four times
its present size), doubtless changed the fair face of the country into
a wilderness in his time, and the modern raids of the Kara Turko-
mans, combined with the tendency of the Uzbeg people to emigrate
in order to avoida tyrannous rule, have kept much of the land
unproductive. As a rule the Oxus flows through many channels
which shift and alter just as they do in other large rivers not
confined to a single bed by hard rocky bauks.

The ferry at Kilif has been often described, and is worked (as it
was 50 years ago) by a system of attaching horses to large clumsily
built boats and swimming them across stream. The Shor Tapa district,
which extends from Kilif for 36 miles to Chobash, is described by
Captain Peacocke as consisting of six smaller districts, each of
which has its own canal from the river lined on both banks with
the usual orchards, houses, enclosures, and mulberry plantations,
and is occupied by some 6,000 families of Hrsari Turkomans. At

188 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

Termez there are the ruins of gigantic brick buildings, including a
large-domed ziarat, said to contain two inscriptions, one on marble
and the other on a silver plate, recording three occasions on which
the place was sacked, once by Alexander the Great. Beyond
Chobash (with the exception of the small new settlement of Kuldar)
to the mouth of the Kunduz river, 140 miles above Kilif, there are
no inhabitants, and the back water, swamps, and jungles in which
tigers and large deer are found, make it impossible to reach the
bank of the stream. Sub-Surveyor Ata Mahomed describes the
Oxus as a very Jarge river when seen in flood, rarely if ever less
than 1,000 yards wide, with a normal width of about 1,400 yards,
while in some places it must be a mile across. The winter volume
of water may be taken at one half the summer flood, and the
average current varies from 23 to 5 miles. In the neighbourhood
of Shahk in Kabadian, not far from the mouth of the Kunduz
river, Greek coins and ornaments are found in large quantities.
Striking southwards from the Oxus towards any of the great cities
of Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif, or Tashkurghan, there is always the same
desolate waste of partially sand-covered country to be crossed
before there occurs the first appearance of cultivation. Here and
there, on the southern edge of the sand belt, are vast piles of ruins
covering many square miles of country. Khanabad, Siahgird, and
Khulm are perhaps the most striking of these.

To the traveller approaching Balkh from the west there is
nothing very striking about the “ Mother of Cities,’ nor to indicate
its former greatness among the cities of Central Asia. One enters
through a gap in the walls which was once a gateway; inside the
outer wall are ruins and mounds of mud and brick on either hand
standing so close as hardly to admit of the roadway ; the covered
bazaar contains about 400 shops, and gardens and orchards cover
a fair extent of ground. But the visible ruins are not very ancient,
and most of the past generations of departed cities probably lies
beneath the grass-covered mounds which surround the walls rather
than below the site. The most striking feature is the extent of the
shattered old fort called the Bala Hissar, which overlooks the city
and was once its great stronghold.

The high open road between Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif passes
through a cultivated plain, across which the blue domes of the
mosque at Mazar are very striking objects as they glitter in the
sun aboye dense masses of surrounding trees. About four miles

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 189

before reaching the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif the direct road
runs through the new cantonment of Takht-i-pul, a place of
considerable strength, with a ditch and double wall pierced by
massive gateways. It is said to have been the residence of the first
governor of Afghan Turkistan before Mazar was made the seat of
government.

The Mazar of the present day is a very different place to that
described by Ferrier. Its gardens and orchards cover an area of
about four square miles, and the citadel and residence of the
governor as well as the far-famed mosque, the burial place of Ali,
are all in a state of flourishing repair, which is lamentably deficient
in most Turkestan cities. It is mhabited now chiefly by Afghans,
the Uzbeg population being rather on the decrease. As a trade
centre itis inferior to Tashkurghan, which occupies a better geo-
graphical position, but its climate is said to be far healthier, and as
the seat of government in Afghan Turkistan it certainly ranks first
among the cities north of the Hindu Kush.

Between Mazar-i-Sharif and Tashkurghan the road passes over
an open plain, on the right of which are imposing cliffs presenting a
long uninterrupted line of straight wall rising sheer above the plain
to a height of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, and forming the northern
edge of a vast plateau extending up to the Hindu Kush.

Tashkurgan is about 35 miles nearly due east of Mazar, and about
a mile anda half from the gates of a magnificent gorge barely
40 feet wide at one point, with sheer cliffs on either hand thousands
of feet high, which leads towards Haibak. ‘Tashkurghan is a large
and exceedingly picturesque town clustering round the slopes of a
sandstone hill, crowned by a fort and citadel. Its busy bazaar is
the great trade centre of the country.

The conformation of the great plateau region, which embraces the
basins of the Band-i-Amir (or Balkh Ao), the Dara Yusuf, the Khulm,
and the Kunduz, is difficult to describe from its extreme irregularity.
North and east of the Balkh Ao there is a raised plateau rising
gently northwards and culminating in rounded knolls, the whole
region, except where intersected by the Dara Yusuf, being apparently
uninhabited. Captain Talbot visited the head waters of the Balkh
Ao, which are dammed by a succession of small lakelets, the
formation of which is ascribed to Ali. The course of the Dara

190 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

Yusuf* was surveyed by Sub-Surveyor Ata Mahomed, and is similar
in most characteristics to the Balkh Ao.

Haibakf is a picturesque place with a small hill fort overlooking
the bazaar and the overcrowded httle town. Round about the
plain are the sharp square-cut cliffs which are ever the distinguishing
feature of all the plateau, and a mile to the south, across the well
cultivated fields, is the mouth of the well known and picturesque
Dara-i-Zindan (mentioned by Burnes) leading to Bamian. Neat
white-walled villages overlooking the rippling stream, well built
bridges, closely-set orchards, and meadows with grass lawns sloping
to the river, and above all the crags and many-coloured walls of
the precipitous cliffs on either side combined to form a picture of
which the beauty was doubly impressive to the eyes of officers
accustomed to the sterile wastes of Turkistan. The Buddhist ruins
and rock-eut stupa called Takht-i-Rustam in the neighbourhood of
Haibak were examined by Captain Talbot, who has written an
account of them as well as of the better known Bamian remains.

The Ab-i-Surkh, as the upper valley of the Kunduz is called,
is not distinguished by such remarkable defiles and gorges as that in
the Khulm and Balkh Ao. South and east of it one comes upon the
Hindu Kush system, and every pass to the southward crosses
a succession of spurs of that great range. The local nomenclature
makes the Hindu Kush terminate at the head of the Ghorband
valley, east of Bamian, so that the Irak pass to Bamian from Kabul
does not cross the true Hindu Kush, but a connecting water-shed
between it and the Koh-i-Baba.

With regard to the Hindu Kush range, Colonel Holdich notices
that the same feature prevails as is observable in the case of the
Himalayas, 7.e., that the central or main water-shed is not defined
by the most prominent peaks, which rise high above it from the
ridges of gigantic lateral spurs. There is, too, a remarkable
similarity in the general altitude and appearance of these granite
giants, and at a distance they are difficult to recognise distinctively.
The same may be said of the mount tain mass of the Koh-i-Baba,

* This route is most important anil Te a 3! the re anareable hill fort a8 Vi aiceae
which was besieged by the Mughals, as described in Raverty’s Tabakat-i Nei
p. 1023. Raverty calls it Walkh and is inclined to identify it with Zuhak in the
Samian valley, but Sir H. Rawlinson shows it is more probably the Wuleeshan of
Mir Izzut Ollah and the Valej or Val-valej of the old geographers.

+ Curiously enough, Haibak is omitted from the late Sir Charles Macgregor’s great
work, the Gazetteer of Central Asia (Afghanistan).

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 19]

whose crowd of irregular snowy peaks are equally hard to tell apart.
A very great difficulty was thus presented to the direct connexion
by triangulation of the previous surveys executed during the Afghan
campaign from the Kabul side and those now drawing to a close
of Afghan Turkestan. The longitude values in the latter region
had been brought over many leagues of desert and mountain from
Mashhad to the Hindu Kush, while the values about Kabul were
well determined and in direct connexion with India. The latitude
values depended on constant astronomical observations, which might
fairly be expected to be correct to one or two seconds, as they
were checked within certain limits by the results of triangulation.
Fortunately, right on the backbone of the main water-shed of the
Hindu Kush, a peak was at last discovered whence Colonel Holdich
was enabled to recognise the well-known landmarks of the Kabul
campaign, whilst due north were one or two granite pinnacles
belonging to the Turkestan Series. Thus the two systems of
triangulation were finally and successfully united with a general
agreement that was highiy satisfactory, considering the enormous
area traversed, and highly creditable to Colonel Holdich and his
colleagues.

The next piece of work was the survey of the Hindu Kush and the
routes and passes connecting Afghan ‘'Turkistan with Kohistan
and Kabul. ‘These surveys were carried out by Colonel Holdich,
Captains Peacocke, Talbot, and Maitland, and Sub-Surveyors Yusuf
Sharif, Ata Mahomed, and Hira Sing, and on completion of the
work ali assembled at Charikar. Yusuf Sharif ascended some peaks
near Khawak and made some additions to the existing knowledge
of the surrounding mountain region. The main water-shed of the
Hindu Kush preserves a singular uniformity of level, while the
gigantic spurs which intersect Badakhshan and Kafiristan, and which
rise almost to the dignity of separate ranges, are repeated along the
entire length of the Hindu Kush on the north as well as on the south,
enclosing valleys similar to the Ghorband and Panjshir. But the
physical characteristics of the northern offshoots are distinctly
different from those of the south, and might well belong toa different
system and climate. Rough barren walls and ridges of limestone
and granite tower above the narrow valleys on either hand, splintering
at their summits into sharp aiguilles streaked with snow even in the
summer months, and constantly hurling down avalanches of rocks
to block the nirrow green riband that borders the mountain streams,

192 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

As the road winds up amongst them and the flattened slopes of the
main water-shed are gradually approached, their sterility and
barrenness recall that of the Tibetan passes. On the southern side
it is far different. Every valley leading down from the snow-bound
rivulets and lakelets of the broad water-shed into the valley of the
Ghorband is a picture of fertile beauty, surpassing even the most
favoured spots of Alpine scenery. ‘There were battlemented turrets
of ancient strongholds, perched insecurely on red clay and sandstone
cliffs, amid an endless succession of terraced hill sides, vineyards, and
yellow maize fields; these again were backed by the deep purple
of the hills and broken into a cascade of colour by the marvellous
tints of autumn which spread over the surrounding trees. To the
British officers, Kabul and its well-remembered surroundings marked ~
the end of their geographical labours.

In connexion with the work of the Afghan Boundary Commission
some important explorations of the Pamirs and Upper Oxus valley
were carried out by Mr. Ney Elias, C.1.E., of the Foreign Department
of the Government of India, already known for his adventurous
journey across Mongolia in 1872-73, for which he received the
gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

Mr. Elias started in September 1885 from Yarkand to cross over
by way of the Pamirs to Shignan. He left the plains at the
frontier village of Ighiz Yar, and took what is known as the
Karatash route, 7.e., over a pass of that name (about 14,200 feet
in height) which leads over a range forming the water-parting
between the Guz river and the streams flowing to Yangi Hissar, &e.
The Guz was found to rise in snow fields to the south of the pass
and then to flow on between the great peak measured by Captain
Trotter, by theodolite angles from Kashgar, Yangi Hissar, &c.,
and another great isolated peak to which Mr. Ehas had to give the
name of Tagharma,* from the Pamir region at its base. The Kirghiz
nomads have no particular name for either; but the Tagharma peak
is known over all those regions. Itis probably the one seen by
Kostenko from near Great Karakul and called by him Mustagh Ata.
Close to the foot of the great Tagharma cone, and only three or four
miles north of the Guz, hes Little Karakul, through which flows a
stream into the Guz. From Little Karakul Mr. Elias proceeded
to Rangkul, and passed the “*‘ Lamp Rock” (see Sir H. Rawlinson’s

* Conf. Ezekiel, xxvii., 14 (Lamentation for Tyrus), “They of the house of
Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.”

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 193

paper™) to the Aksu or Murghabi river, which he crossed on the way
to the Alichur Pamir, after crossing the Neza Tash pass (about
14,000 feet). Proceeding down the Alichur valley Mr. Elias passed
south of the Sasik and other small kuls in the neighbourhood, and
crossed the Kohitezek pass (about 14,000) into one of the head
streams of the Gund river. The Gund valley was then followed
down to its junction with the Panjah, nearly opposite Bar Panjah
fort. So far the journey had proved that the Aksu did not discharge
down the Gund valley as some maps represented, but as Mr. Elias
had to investigate this Aksu question (he had found it impossible to
follow it down from where he crossed it near Rangkul) he went
on at once from Bar Panjah (4th November) to ascend it as far as
possible from Kila Wamar. The track was found impassable for
anything like a caravan, or even a loaded pony. It was chiefly
climbing over pathways built along the side of the cliffs, of bits of
wood, willow twigs, &c. Mr. Hlias succeeded in reaching as far
as the confluence of the Kudara (which turned out to lie much
further north than supposed) and then returned to Wamar. From
thence he descended the Panjah to the frontier of Darwéaz, and then
returned to Bar Panjah. After a short stay there he ascended the
Panjah to Ishkashim, makimg an excursion to the Shiva lake
en route. This lake was an interesting spot. It turned out to bea
high mountain tarn (not a flat-bottomed lake lke the Pamir lakes)
with an underground outlet into the Darmarokbt stream, which
carried its waters “cascading” down into the Panjah. The height
of the lake was 10,300 feet, and that of the Panjah at the confluence
about 6,800, the bee-line distance between the two being a little
over six miles.

At Ishkashim, early in December, he came upon Lieutenant Wood's
route, and the work of several native explorers, so he there concluded

* Proceedings of the R. Geographical Society for 1887, p.69. Sir Henry Rawlinson’s
short but interesting paper identifies this central Pamir track (which had also been
mentioned by Major Trotter in the appendix to Sir D. Forsyth’s Yarkand Mission
Report, p. 457, Route XX VII.) as the famous trade route of antiquity, by which
the caravans of Rome passed from Bactria along the ‘Vallis Comedarum” to the
equally famous Stone Tower on the border of Chinese territory. Sir Henry proves
that it is in all probability the route followed by Hwen ‘Thsang, and that the
Dragou lake, the holiest spot in the Buddhist cosmogony, can be none other than
the Rang-Kul lake, where the mythical legend of a dragon with a large luminous
diamond set in its forehead is still believed in by the Kirghiz inhabitants. Sir Henry
also points out that Mr. Ney Elias discovered traces on the Little Kara Kul and
the Yeshil Kul of the passage of the Chinese troops who in 1759 pursued the fugitive
Khojas as far as the latter point in their flight to Badakhshan.

1 Y¥ 20321. N

194 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION.

his route survey. He had carried it on all the way from Ighiz Yar,
and it came to over 600* miles between the two. Points were fixed as
usual by an observation, and altitudes by boiling-point measurements
based upon Yarkand. In the map submitted by him to Govern-
ment on his return to India the altitudes were all given about
250 or 300 feet too low. It was made up before he had time
to send the boiling-point thermometers to Kew to be retested.
After that was done he computed all the altitudes afresh with
the new corrections and found the above general error.

From Ishkashim Mr. Elias proceeded to Faizabad and stayed
there till the beginning of January. It was too late in the year for
travelling at high altitudes, and all Mr. Hlias was able to do was
to go onto Khanabad, near Kunduz, on a visit to the governor
of the province, and thence make an excursion to the confluence
of the Kokcha and Panjah during an interval of open weather, when
a little new geography was got in. Faizabad was found to be a
small trading place of about 4,000 inhabitants, mostly Tajiks, and
Khanabad a somewhat smaller town, with chiefly a Turki population.
Kunduz is now in ruins and almost uninhabited, and Khanabad has
taken its place.

From Khanabad, early in February, Mr. Elias was obliged to
travel down to the ‘furkoman country to join the Afghan Boundary
Jommission, then near Maruchak on the Murghab, and was only
able to leave them towards the end of April to return to Badakhshan.
However, no geographical work was done on Mr. EHhas’s return
as he was recalled to India wid Chitral and Gilgit, arriving in
Kashmir eventually towards the end of September 1886.

The zoological investigations during the Afghan Boundary Com-
mission fell to the lot of Dr. J. E. T. Aitchison, C.J.E., F.R.S., F.L.S.,
who was appointed naturalist, and had thus to undertake general
duties in addition to his more special calling of botanist. Captain
C. E. Yate and Lieutenant Rawlins and other members of the
mission rendered assistance in the supply of specimens, but the
absence of regular collectors was a drawback, the Afghans being
useless in this respect. Dr. Aitchison’s collections comprised 290

* Not 360 miles, as erroneously printed in the R. G. S. paper, p. 69. of 1887,

7 Trausactions of the Linnean Society of London, 2nd series Zoology, Vol. V.,
Part 3. “The Zoology of the Afghan Delimitation Commission,” by J. E. ‘i’. Aitchison,
M.D., C.LE., F.R.S., F.L.S., London, 1889 (plates and two maps).

See also a paper by Dr. J. Scully on the mammals and birds collected by
Captain C. E. Yate, C.S.1., of the Afghan Boundary Commission (J. A. S. B., lvi.
pt. ii, p. 68, 1887).

AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 195

species, of which 32 were new, belonging to 210 genera. One of the
most interesting was the Hllobius fuscicapillus, a curious bull-dog
headed mole-like rat with enormous incisor teeth. The whole of the
Badghiz east of the Hari-Rud was in many places perforated like a
sponge from the burrowing of this and other rodents, making it very
unsafe to ride over. Another point of importance is the extension
of the geographical range of Felis tigris in Afghanistan as far east
and north as Bala-murghab, and that of the hunting leopard (Lelzs
jubata) to the valley of the Herirud. A specimen of each is in
the Zoological Society's Gardens in London.

The botanical researches during the progress of the Commission
also fell to the care of Dr. Aitchison, and his observations thereon
are likewise recorded in the Transactions of the Linnean Society.*
He divides the country which was traversed into seven natural
sections or regions, as represented by its physical features, viz. :
Northern Baluchistan; the valley of the Helmand, from Hadj-ali
to the Hamun of the Helmand river; the basin of the Harut, from
the Hamun of the Helmand to Pahir; the valley of the Hari
Rud; the Badghiz district; Mount Do-shakh and Khorasan.
Dr. Aitchison’s generalizations are that the flora of North-western
Afghanistan differs much from the typical flora of Hastern
Afghanistan, so graphically described by Hooker and Thompson
in their introductory essay to the “ Flora Indica,’ and that this
difference is due to climatic conditions. ‘The winter is much more
severe and of longer duration; in spring the persistence of damp
and cold is also more prolonged; while the summer, though
short, 1s intensely hot during the months of July and August.
There is no mountain range to the north, moreover, to afford shelter
from the continuous blasts of winter cold and hot dry air of
ssummer;-so with such climatic conditions, cultivation below an
altitude of 3,500 feet is impossible without the aid of irrigation or
under the mitigatory influence of a river. Dr. Aitchison’s collec-
tion consisted of oriental flora, with a considerable admixture of
Siberian and Central Asiatic types; there are also a few Western
Himalayan or Tibetan plants, and a very limited number common
to the Punjab and Sind regions.

* 2nd Ser. Botany, Vol. III., Part 1, April 1888,

N 2

196 ’

Waldir

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

The systematic record of tidal observations in India may be said
to date from the 4th July 1877, when an important Resolution on
the subject was passed by the Government of India. The advan-
tages of such observations were pointed out in the Resolution to be
mainly the following :—

(1.) They enable standards to be fixed for the purposes of survey.

(2.) They afford data for the calculation of the rise and fall of
the tides, and thus subserve the purposes of navigation.

(3.) They are of scientific interest apart from their practical
usefulness.

The first two of the above were considered by the Government
of India to be of strictly local bearing, an accurate survey of a port
being essential to the safety of the shipping frequenting it, and
correct tide-tables necessary for the convenience of navigators and
engineering purposes within the port itself. It was therefore laid
down that every port where a tidal gauge was set up should pay
for its establishment and maintenance from port funds. The third
object, the scientific results to be expected from the record, would
be sutfticiently provided for by the appointment by the Government
of India of one of its own officers to supervise and control the local
- observations, anc to arrange for their utilisation.

The general superintendence and control of the tidal observations
(which inciuded a continuous registration of the barometric pressure
and of the velocity and direction of the wind taken by self-recording
instruments) were entrusted to Captain A. W. Baird, R.E., Deputy
Superintendent, Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, who had

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 197

already for some years past been engaged upon tidal observations
in the Gulf of Cutch and on their reduction in England.

Inquiries were at once set on foot to ascertain the most suitable
ports for tidal stations. The necessary conditions were, firstly, a
site immediately over or close to the sea, where the deptn was not
less than from 10 to 15 feet at lowest tides; secondly, the presence
of a port officer to exercise a general supervision over the operations
and correct the clocks of the several self-registerimg instruments
whenever necessary, either by direct determination of time or by
getting the true time from the nearest telegraph office; thirdly, the
feasibility of periodical inspection of the instruments et imtervals
of not less than six months generally, and more frequently when
there might be no superintending officer resident on the spot.

During the following year Captain Baird visited Bombay,
Karachi, Karwar, Aden, Beypur, Paumben, Madras, and Viza-
gapatam, making due arrangements at each port. A man was
placed in charge of the instruments in each place, and taught how
to manipulate them; he was also taught to read the graphic
delineations of tidal height, and to enter the value for each hour
in a tabular report which was sent off to Poona daily.

The barrels of the tidal gauges are five feet in length, and thus
capable of registering on the scale of nature all tides of which the
amplitudes between extreme high and low water do not exceed
five feet. For tides of greater amplitude a gear of wheels is supplied
to each instrument, enabling the scale to be varied.

The analysis of tidal observations is a matter of much complexity,
and from the outset Colonel Waiker determined to adopt the
procedure recommended by the Tidal Committee of the British
Association for the investigation of the tidal constituents, and to
employ Mr. Edward Roberts, F.R.A.S., of the Nautical Almanac
Office,—who, under Sir William Thomson’s supervision, had reduced
and analyzed the tidal observations placed at the disposal of the
British Association for the advancement of Science—in working out
the yearly tables of tidal prediction from the values of the tidal
constituents with his tide-predicting machine.

In the system of analysis adopted by the Tidal Committee of
the British Association, the successive heights of the tide for each
hour at each port are grouped in a large number of combinations,
so that the exact effect of each grouping is ascertained with great
precision. The following explanation may serve to elucidate the

198 TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

process pursued. If the height attained at any tide be marked
upon a wharf wall, as at A im the annexed
diagram, and also the point of lowest
depression as at G, and a circle drawn
through these two extreme points, then,
roughly, the heights at equal successive
times may be found by dividing the cir-
cumference of the circle into equal parts,
as at B, C, D, &ec., the fall and succeeding
rise of the water reaching the points thus
found in equal times. If now, for sim-
plicity, the tidal heights at each hour of the day be thus grouped
together for an entire year,* and the sums and means of the 365
groupings taken, the mean value of the effect due to the sun will
be obtained. Similarly, another grouping according to mean lunar
hours will give the mean value due to the moon. These values
would represent the values supposing the sun and moon to be always
at the same distance from the earth, and also at the same inclina-
tion to the horizon. The lunar orbit, however, is far from circular,
and in practice it is found that it is necessary to include several
other groupigs to correct the mean values obtained as above.
A smaller number suffices for the solar tide, the earth’s orbit
approximating much nearer to a circle. Other groupings correct
the mean values for the varying inclinations of the sun and moon
due to the different declinations or distances from the equator of
these bodies. The effects due to rainfall and other meteorological
causes are similarly found.

In practice about 25 groupings are made, and some 30 values
obtained. The quantities obtained give the value of each tidal
constituent in feet (or other measure) and the time at which such
constituent tide is at its maximum. For simplicity we may assume
that the tide traced on the wharf wall is due to only one body, and
that the water attains the successive positions indicated by the
points A, B, C at each succeeding hour from noon at A to midnight.
Then the value of the tide found from the groupings will be
the range or radius of the circle O A, and an angle such as A O B
will give the time at which the tide was at its maximum or highest
point. The mean level of the water will be given by taking the

sailors Sent reasons a period 7 369 days 3 AOE is generally used, oan
25 semilunations.

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 199

mean of all the successive heights, and in the figure is represented
by J D.

If now it is required to calculate the height of the tide for any
port for which the tidal values have been obtained, it will be
necessary to find the value of the heights due to the mean sun
and the mean moon, and also each of the smaller constituents due
to the ellipticity of their crbits, &c. The algebraical sum of these
added to the mean height will give the height desired.

Jt will be readily seen that if the number of ports be considerable
heights calculated in this manner for, say, each hour of the day for
a whoie year would involve very great labour and require a con-
siderable staff of calculators. Recourse has consequently been had
to mechanical means to effect the desired object. It will be readily
understood that if, say, the hand of a clock represented propor-
tionally the value of any one tidal constituent, and it is made to
revolve in its proper time, then the successive heights due to the
component will be traced by the end of the hand. Similar move-
ments would represent the other tidal constituents, and all that
would remain to be effected would be to combine all the heights
thus traced out. The tide-predicting machine, made by Mr. A. Légé
from the designs of Mr. Edward Roberts for the Indian Govern-
ment, embodies a beautiful! and simple means of combination, the
suggestion of Mr. Beauchamp Tower, and consists of a very fine
and flexible wire fixed at one end and carrying a tracing point at
the other. This wire passes successively over and under 20 pullies
arranged in two rows of movements above and under each other.
Each pulley is made to revolve relatively to the others in its own
proper time, and is capable of being
thrown out from its centre to the range
cf the constituent it represents.

The free or tracing end of the wire will
thus represent the height due to the whole
of the pulls. To avoid the error due to
the wire being thrown out of the vertical
by the revolution of the pulley it is
carried on a parallel slide (designed by
Sir William Thomson), whereby the wire
is kept strictly vertical under all the varying positions of the pullies.

In the machine designed for the Indian Government Mr. Roberts
has included no less than 24 tidal constituents, which, for most

ZOO ~ TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

ports, include all that produce any sensible effect, and he has been
most successful in finding numbers for the wheels in the gear-work
which represent relatively the periods of each of the constituent
tides. The machine can be run for a period representing a whole
year, practically without error. Thus, for the chief tidal con-
stituent, if the hand represented mean lunar time at starting, its
error relatively in time at the end of a run of 365 days would not
amount to a quarter of a minute. :

The saving effected by the machine can be imagined when it is
stated that the curves for a whole year can be run off in about two
hours, and then only require to be read off, whilst the calculations
of, say, the heights for any one port for a year, combining the 20
constituents included in the machine, would take a practised
computer some four to five months’ labour. The machine is used
now in the predictions of over 30 Indian ports, and Mr. Roberts
(who has charge of the instrument and superintends all its opera-
tions) also uses it for the predictions of the tides at Singapore and
Hong Kong, and expects shortly to include in its predictions the
tides of other East Indian ports, and also those of South Africa
and Canada.

It may be stated that on the whole the predictions are very accurate
and give very general satisfaction.

Simultaneously with the tidal observations, spirit-levelling opera-
tions were carried on, partly with a view to connect the tidal
stations and ascertain whether there is any appreciable difference
in the mean sea-level at the several places, and partly to connect
together and reduce to a common datum the hitherto isolated
system of levels which have been executed throughout the country
for canals, railways, and other engineering works. During 1877-78
lines were carried from Damaun to Bombay, completing the line
wanted to connect the three tidal stations on the Gulf of Cutch
with the one at Bombay; from Bombay to Callian Junction of the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and thence up the Bhore Ghat to
Poona, and down to Satara; from Callian to the Thal Ghat, and
thence up the Ghat to. Igutpuri, Malegaon, and finally to Chikal-
wohol. In addition to these main lines, short branch lines were
carried to connect local bench marks of importance, the aggregate
length of lme completed amounting to 589 miles, fixing 536 bench
marks.

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 201

During 1878 the gauges continued to work well, though at
Madras and Vizagapatam the occurrence of cyclones caused damage
to the apparatus, and temporarily interrupted the observations.
Sites for future sites, chiefly along the Arakan and Tenasserim
coasts, were selected, and progress was made with the lines of
spirit-levels, chiefly in the Bombay Presidency. In the following
year six additional places for the erection of tidal gauges were
selected, viz., False Poimt, Rangoon, Hlephant Point, Amherst,
Moulmein, and Port Blair, at which place the clerk in charge was
a licensed Huropean convict who was also the port signaller. Self-
registering anemometers, and aneroid barometers, and verificatory
mercurial barometers were erected at all the tidal stations, with the
exception of Karachi, Bombay, and Madras; at the last two of
which there were meteorological observatories already in existence.

The accuracy of the tidal registrations depends very greatly on
the adjustment of the instrument both to true time and to a
definitely fixed level, so that when the pencil in traversing the paper
on the barrel crosses an hour-line the time should be exactly that
of the hour indicated, and when it crosses a height line the height
should be exactly that of the momentary height of the sea-level
with reference to the bed-plate of the imstrument or any fixed
bench mark in its neighbourhood. The several adjustments and
settings are of course made with great accuracy before the com-
mencement of the registrations, but this would be of little use if
the instruments were not maintained uniformly in exact adjustment
throughout the entire period of registration. Fortunately, there
was a telegraph office at nearly every place where a tidal observatory
kad been established, so arrangements were made to correct the
clocks of the self-registering instruments to local time wherever
necessary by communicating with the adjoining telegraph office.
In 1880-81 the number of self-registering tidal gauges was 14,
while new stations were being erected at Kidderpore, Diamond
harbour, Saugor island, Bhaunagar, and Negapatam.

A complete set of all the instruments used in connexion with the
tidal operations on Indian coasts was sent for exhibition to the
Geographical Congress at Venice. The tide gauge was connected
with the Grand Canal, and registered the tides there during the
duration of the exhibition. Captain Baird was awarded a gold
medal of the first class in acknowledgment of his scientific services
in regard to tidal matters.

202 TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

In 1880-81 the tidal stations at Madras and Bombay were
connected for the first time by a line of spirit-levels carried directly
across the peninsula, for the most part near the railway. At each
station the mean sea-level was determined very approximately, and
the result of the spirit-levelline operations over a line 730 miles
was to make the mean sea-level apparently about three feet higher
at Madras than at Bombay. Compared with the surface of the
spheroid or other geometrical figure which most closely corresponds
to the figure of the earth, there must probably be variations in the
general level of the surface of the ocean at different places, and
certainly where the attractions of mountains and the like are not
counteracted by deficiencies of density in the strata below the
elevated masses. But, as the surface of the ocean is everywhere
maintained in equilibrium there can be no flow of water from one
point to another. The differences of height however considerable
must be insensible, because they cannot be measured by instru-
mental means, for the causes producing them must equally affect
both the spirit-levels of the instruments and the level of the ocean.
Had the spirit-levels been carried, without error, along the coast line
from Bombay round, vid Cape Comorin, to Madras, they must have
shown identity of mean sea-level at Bombay and Madras, just as had
been met with in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, on opposite
sides of the Isthmus of Suez, and in the Atlantic and the Pacific
Ocean at the Isthmus of Panama. And this identity would have
been obtained even if there were actually a considerable difference
of height, which is very possible; for the Western Ghats and the
generally greater elevation of the western as compared with the
eastern half of the peninsula are sources of attraction which if
not counteracted by deficiency of density below the elevated masses
must raise the mean sea-level at Bombay no less than 31 feet
(according to Mr. Hennessey’s calculations) above the mean sea-level
at Madras. The levels, however, were taken across the continent
and not along the coast line; they were carried from Bombay up
the short and abrupt ascent to the crest of the Western Ghats, and
then down the long and gentle decline to the east coast, and it has
been surmised that the closing discrepancy of three feet at Madras
may be due to the proximate and local attractions of the hills and
table-lands over which the levels were carried, or else to the
accumulation of small errors, so minute as to be barely appreciable
at any single station, but possessing a tendency to be repeated at

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 203

successive stations, and to attain some magnitude at the end of a
long line.

During 1881-82 large discrepancies were for the first time met
with between the tidal predictions and the actual facts of the tides.
This arose in the case of stations situated on the banks of great
rivers, as the Hugli and the Irawadi, in which the tides are
influenced not only by the attractions of the sun and moon, but by
the amount of water brought down by the river from its sources,
which varies at different seasons of the year. The tide tables
for three stations on the Hugli, two on the Irawadi, and one
on the Salwen were found to be erroneous to the extent of
occasionally an hour or more in the times and a foot or more in
the heights of high and low water, facts which have shown
the necessity for supplementing the mathematical formule for the
harmonic analysis of purely luni-solar tides by formule to take
cognizance of riverain influences. The subject is, however, a very
abstruse one, and in the meantime Mr. Roberts has adopted a
provisional method of predicting tides tor riverain ports.*

One of the results of the Indian tidal observations proved about
this time to furnish some light on the question of the rigidity of
the earth. The subject had been mooted about 1865 by Sir Wiliam
Thomson, who appealed to the universal existence of oceanic tides
of considerable height as a proof that the earth as a whole possesses
a high degree of rigidity, and maintained that the previously
received geological hypotheses of a fluid interior were untenable.
At the Southampton meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science Professor G. H. Darwin brought forward
a numerical estimate of the rigidity of the earth, which gives
evidence of “a tidal yielding” of the earth's mass, and further
indicates that the effective rigidity of the whole earth is about equal
to that of steel; This theory he largely based on the results
derived from the Indian tidal observations.

An interesting fact was also revealed from a comparison of the
observations at Madras with those taken in 1821 by Colonel De
Hayiland, of the Madras Engineers, which is that the mean sea-level

* See Tide Tables for 1883 for Diamond harbour in the River Hugli.

{ Professor Darwin’s later researches tended to prove that the effective rigidity is
not so great as that of steel.

£ See also the address of General J. T. Walker, as President of the Geographical
Section of the British Association at the Aberdeen meeting in 1884.

204 TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

at Madras in 1881 was about one foot lower relatively to the land
than it was 60 years previously.

In connexion with the subject of tidal observations mention
should be made of the earthquake which happened on the morning
of the 2lst December 1881 in the Bay of Bengal. It was very
violent in the neighbourhood of the Andaman and Nicobar islands,
more or less violent along the entire length of the west coast from
Ceylon to Calcutta, and slight at various points along the east coast.
The earth-waves appear to have lasted for only a few seconds, but
the ocean was greatly disturbed, and the waves continued to roll
against the east coast for several hours afterwards. At Rangoon,
Moulmein, and Amherst there was no disturbance of river and
ocean surface, but at the island of Kisseraing, below Tenasserim,
Major Rogers, who was at the very moment measuring angles with
one of the great theodolites, ‘‘ saw the earthquake before feeling it,”
as the signal which he was observing (some 15 miles distant)
appeared to rise and fall in the field of the telescope. On looking
at the levels of the instrument he found that they were violently
agitated, and he subsequently ascertained that the earthquake had
been felt, at almost the same moment, at Madras and False Point,
on the opposite coast. ‘The origin or centre of impulse was there-
fore, in all probability, a point in the bay almost equi-distant from
the three stations, but lying a little to the south.*

During 1882-88 the Paumben observatory ceased to be operative,
owing partly to severe weather and partly to the observatory and
equipment being more needed in Ceylon; and those at Karwar and
Elephant Point were also dismantled. In all 18 groups of
observations were reduced, and the so-called “ constants” supplied
to Mr. E. Roberts for computation of prediction tables by the tide-
calculating machine.

These tide gauges afforded an unique opportunity of observing the
tidal phenomena resulting from the great eruption of Krakatoa, in
Java, on the 27th and 28th August. Major Baird prepared a full
report on the subject, dated December 1883. His main conclusions
are :—

1. The primary effect of the eruption was a marked fall in the

sea-level, or, in other words, the formation of a negative
super-tidal wave at each of his stations.

* Major M. W. Roger’s report is printed at page 71 of the Appendix to the Indian
Survey Report for 1881-82.

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 205

2. This negative wave was succeeded by a great positive wave at
an interval ranging from 75 minutes at Negapatam, the
station nearest Krakatoa, to 24 minutes at Aden, the most
distant station.

3. Super-tidal wavelets, denoting antecedent minor eruptions,
were registered at the whole of the Indian stations some
hours, more or less, before the effects of the great eruption.
This shows that the explosions were at first comparatively
faint and feeble, being felt only at the nearest stations, but
afterwards they increased in intensity, becoming sensible
even at the most distant station three hours before the effects
of the great eruption.

+. Great super-tidal waves of amplitudes ranging from a maximum
of 22 inches at Negapatam to a maximum of 9 inches at
Aden were registered at all the stations which were in a
position to receive the full force of the eruptions at Krakatoa,
unobstructed by the configuration of the foreshore. Other
waves of less magnitude occurred at these stations at
intervals of one to two hours for about 12 hours after the
first great wave.

5. The secondary great waves were succeeded by wavelets
gradually diminishing in size but continuing for some time.

6. Loud reports resembling the firing of distant guns were heard
at Port Blair and in the Nicobar islands on the 26th and
27th August, and, being supposed io be signals from a vessel
in distress, a steamer was sent out in search of the vessel.
Similar reports were heard at two places on the coast of
Ceylon on the 26th, first at 6 p.m. and afterwards at
midnight.

These facts show that the terrible and disastrous eruption at
Krakatoa, which was attended with such an appalling loss of life,
was preceded for some hours by minor eruptions which were
insignificant only by comparison, for they produced effects which
were sensible even at Aden, a distance of upwards of 4,000 miles.*

The spirit-levelling operations carried on in connexion with the
tidal operations in 1882-83 completed the last link in the long line

* General R. Strachey, R.E., C.S.I., has communicated an interesting and suggestive
note to the Royal Society on the barometrical aisturbances which passed over Europe
between the 27th and 31st August, and investigated uhe speed of the barometrical
waves travelling from Krakatoa round the earth. ;

206 TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

of spirit-levels between the sea at Karachi, on the Indian ocean,
and False Point, in the Bay of Bengal. This lme runs from
Karachi up the Indus to Mithankot and onwards via Firozpur,
Agra, Allahabad, Monghyr, and Calcutta to False Point, a distance
of about 2,300 miles, or as far as from London, straight across the
Channel, Germany, and Russia to Astrakhan. It is probably the
longest line ever run between two seas. and the error in levelling, so
far as is known, does not exceed 1-7 foot, or under nine inches per
thousand miles; in its absence accurate sea-level as a datum was
unknown throughout the vast length it traverses.

During 1883-84 three new stations were opened at Marmagao,
on the Malabar coast, and at Galle and Colombo in Ceylon. The
predictions for 1883 were found to be good; they may be sum-
marised as follows : —

Percentage of predictions within 15 minutes of actuals.

High Water. Low Water.
Open coast stations - 72 percent. - - 70 per cent.
Riverain - a uO wes - = "667599:

Percentage of predictions within 8 inches in height of actuals.

High Water. Low Water.
Open coast stations - 92 per cent. - - 96 per cent.
Riverain - = .G6) baer = G4 oe

A connecting lmk was also interpolated during the following
season between Sironj and a station 32 miles north of Maumad, on
the Bombay and Agra road, completing a lne of levels between
two sea-coast stations very little inferior in length to the chain just
mentioned; the closmg error was only °624 of a foot, or less than
four inches per thousand miles.

In 1884-85 the observations of Beypur and Vizagapatam were
closed, after a full course of work extending over five years, and
their equipment was removed for the erection of two new observa-
tories at Cochin and Coconada. At False Point the observatory was
unfortunately swept away by the cyclone which committed such
devastation on the coast of Orissa, on the 22nd September 1885.
Captain Douglas, the port officer there, lost his life, as well as the
tidal observatory clerk. Chittagong and Bhaunagar were started in

TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS. 207

1885-86, the instruments at the latter station being provided at the
cost of the Durbar. Diamond harbour, Amherst, and Moulmein were
discontinued on completion of the usual period of registration, which
in the case of Moulmein was extended to six years owing to certain
peculiarities in the tides of that port.

An important improvement was introduced into the tide tables for
1887, by the employment of a scientific datum, which rendered 1
possible to fix finally the datum for each of the observatories.
Previously to that the datum line of soundings adopted by the
Admiralty was the “ mean low water for ordinary spring tides,” but
as the term was not scientifically accurate with reference to tidal
theory, a new datum line, called “The Indian spring low-water
‘““ mark,’ was definitely adopted after discussion with Professor
Darwin and Captain Wharton, R.N., the Hydrographer, and a table
was prepared to show the datum finally decided upon.*

In 1886 the Amherst observatory was closed and the instruments
sent to Akyab, where a new station was erected, and on the night of
the 29th September in the same year the tidal observatory at Dublat,
near the mouth of the Hugh, was swept away with all its contents
by a heavy wind and sea, and none of the instruments or records could
be recovered. Fortunately the clerk was absent and no loss of life
occurred.

The diagrams of the self-registering tide gauges at False Point and
Dublat (Saugor island), and at Diamond harbour and Kidderpore on
the Hugh, for the 11th March and 9th April 1885 show unmis-
takably that considerable tidal disturbances took place on those dates
at the stations named. From a consideration of the facts, which are
reviewed by Major Baird in a special memorandum,* it would appear
that a submarine depression caused the disturbance of the 11th
March, and that this was followed about a month later (9th April) by a
submarine upheaval which caused a very considerable wave to pass up
the Hugli. There are indications that the latter may have occurred
at the Sand Heads, opposite Balasore.

The stations at Negapatam and Elephant Point were closed in 1888,
and two fresh ones at Tuticorin and Prince’s Dock, Bombay, were
started. In 1889 the observatories at Colombo and Galle having

* The datum is defined as the sum of the semi-ranges of the principal lunar (M,)
and principal solar (S,) semi-diurnal tides, and of the uni-solar (IX,) and the lunar
diurnal (O,) tides below mean sea level, that is to say :—

Ay — [H of M, + Hof S, + H of K, + H of O,] above the zero of the gauge.

7 See page lxxiv of Appendix to Indian Survey Report for 1886-87.

208° TIDAL AND LEVELLING OBSERVATIONS.

completed their registration were dismantled and the sites of three
new observatories at Trincomali, Diamond Island, and Minicoy
Island were selected. In addition to these it has been decided to
start observatories at Jashk and Bushire.

Since the systematic resumption of tidal observations in 1877
observations have been taken at 28 observatories, of which 1] have
been closed on the completion of their registration, and 17 were in
operation in 1888 and the same number in 1889.

The results of the predictions for 1889 may be summarised as
follows :—

Percentage of predictions within 15 minutes of actuals.

High Water, per cent. Low Water, per cent.
1] open coast stations - 76 - - -. 16
5 riverain do. - 66 - - = 5S)

Percentage of predictions within 8 inches in height of actuals.

High Water, per cent. Low Water, per cent.
11 open coast stations - 98 - - - 96
5 viverain do. > 70) = > 5) Bx)

The constituents of the Indian tides are now computed by new
formule investigated by Professor Darwin, in supersession of the
formule first suggested by the Tidal Committee of the British
Association.”

* A “Manual for tidal observations and their reductions by the method of harmonie
analysis, with an Appendix,” was compiled by Major Baird, and published by Taylor
and Francis, in 1886.

IDG
GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS.

All great national surveys have for many years past contributed
data for the determination of the figure of the earth. At first these
consisted mainly of measurements of the distances between successive
points situated on a common meridian, and of the astronomical arcs
of amplitude between these points, but it is only of late years that
similar measurements have been attempted in the case of points
situated on a common parallel of latitude. The reason of this is that
the required astronomical data are very readily obtained in the case
of meridional arcs by determining the latitudes of the geodetic
points, which is one of the simplest problems of practical astronomy ;
but on ares of parailel, longitudes are required instead of latitudes,
and the precise astronomical determination of an absolute longitude
under such circumstances is well nigh impracticable. When, how-
ever, places are connected telegraphically, their differences of longi-
tude can be determined with great precision, and this has been done
both im America and Europe. In the former country the operations
were utilised for geographical purposes only, but in Hurope, which
is covered with a net of triangulations, of which there is as yet no
counterpart beyond the Atlantic, their chief interest lies in the hight
they throw on the figure of the earth.

At the same time these investigations have benefited the Indian
Survey in a way that may be shortly explained. In order that
the true latitudes, longitudes, and azimuths of the stations of a
system of triangulation on the earth’s surface may be computed,
it is necessary that the polar and equatoreal axes of the terrestrial
spheroid should be correctly known, as they are involved in the
formule by which such computations are effected. The value
of those elements that have since 1830 been used in the calculations
of the Indian Survey are those known as “ Everest’s Constants,
Ist set.” Any error in these adopted elements will, of course,
produce an error in the geodetical latitudes and longitudes of the

stations, increasing with the distance from the originating station.
1 ¥ 20321. O

210 GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS.

Consequently as the Indian geodetic operations have come to be
extended over the whole peninsula, along the Burmese coast and
across the mountains into Siam, and as far east as Bangkok,
it has become more and more important to determine the amount of
error in the further stations.

The data for such investigations are furnished by—

(1.) Comparison of observed latitudes with geodetic latitudes ;

(2.) Comparison of observed longitudes with geodetic longitudes ;

and

(3.) Comparison of observed azimuths with azimuths deduced

through the triangulation from the station of origin.

The astronomical observations are of great importance in various
ways, among which may be mentioned that they contribute largely
toward the investigation of local attraction, and also towards the
accurate determination of the position of India with respect to its
distance from Greenwich, and lastly they furnish data for improving
existing star tables in the case of about 900 stars.

But before the application of the electric telegraph to the
determining of longitudes the comparison (2) could not be made,
because the longitudes determined by the old methods were not
sufficiently accurate for such a purpose, a case in point being
that of Madras which, though the result of many years careful
observations and taken with all the refinements of a well-equipped
observatory, was discovered through these electro-telegraphic
operations to be erroneous by about 23 minutes of arc, which had
the effect of placing India nearly 3 miles too far from Greenwich,
and of ascribing an error of 10 seconds to the chrovometers of all
ships arriying at Indian ports from Europe or America.* Thus the
introduction of electro-telegraphic longitude operations into India was
a most valuable addition to the geodetic operations of the Survey.

The Government of India have always taken a very liberal view
of the more purely scientific ends of the Great Trigonometrical Survey,
and almost from its commencement the operations of the Survey have
furnished data for investigating the figure of the earth. Its earliest
contributions to the science of geodesy were determinations of
the lengths and amplitudes of meridional arcs, as described in
Colonel Everest’s accounts of the measurement of sections of the
meridional ures of India published m 1850 and 1847. Then came
the series of Pendulum observations for the purpose of determining

* See wfra, p. 213.

GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS. DALIL

the variations of the force of gravity at sundry stations of the
Survey, situated on mountains, table lands, the interior of the
continent and the coast lines, which was commenced in the year
1865 and is described in the fifth volume of the Account of the
operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. And
when the electric telegraph had been introduced into India, the
advantage was taken to commence the measurement of differential
longitudes between certain stations of the Survey, co-ordinating
with the differential latitude measurements and thus to contribute
to the science of geodesy determinations of a number of longitudinal
arcs which were to supplement and be combined with the time-
honoured Meridional Arcs.

One of the first preliminary steps for the electric determination
of differential longitudes was to procure the necessary apparatus,
the astronomical clocks, transit imstruments, chronograph and
electric appliances. On the recommendation of Colonel Walker,
then Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, the
expenditure for this was sanctioned by the Secretary of State, and
Colonel Strange, a retired officer of the Survey, residing in London,
was entrusted with the task of designing and superintending the
construction of the instruments. He had already acquired a high
reputation for skill in mechanism generally, especially in regard
to delicate geodetic instruments. Messrs. Frodsham, of London,
were selected for the task of making the clocks, Messrs. Cooke and
Sons, of York, for the transit instruments, and Messrs. Hichens and
Hardy, of Paris, for the chronographs and electric apparatus.
Before being sent out to India the instruments were examined
at the observatory attached to the India Stores Depot, by Colonel
Strange, assisted by Captain W. M. Campbell, who subsequently
took a prominent share in the observations themselves.

The instruments were received in India in 1872, and were placed
in the hands of Captains Herschel and Campbell, who were then at
Bangalore, which, bemg connected both by railway and telegraph
with Madras, was a convenient starting point for the operations.
The arc Madras—Bangalore was first measured, and then the sister
are Bangalore—Mangalore. ‘The total are was a very interesting
one. In length it was not so great—its amplitude was 5° 24’ 12”,
and lineal measurement 364 miles—but it was situated much nearer
the Equator than any other measured arc, and, moreover, it was

on that very are of parallel that Colonel Lambton had endeavoured
O 2

22, GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS.

in 1802-5 to determine the length of a degree of longitude, so the
comparison of determinations by ancient and modern methods
became peculiarly valuable.

The procedure adopted in the telegraphic operations was as
follows:—T'wo observers were employed, one for each of the two
stations to be connected. Hach observer furnished with a complete
set of instruments took up his position and made the most accurate
determination possible of the error of his own clock, and at certain
times both observers working in concert determined. by means
of electric signals transmitted between the stations, the absolute
difference between the clocks at a given instant. With these data
the difference of longitude between the stations or are of longitude
becomes known.*

The results of the first field season’s operations were unfortunately
unsatisfactory: one of the transit instruments showed discordances
in the ‘ constant for collimation’ which were eventually traced to a
fault in the joint of a telescope, so the observations were rejected
and re-measurement was necessary.

During 1875-76 the following arcs were measured by Captains
Campbell and Heaviside :
Haidarabad (Bolarum)—Bombay. Madras—Haidarabad (Bolarum).
Bellary— Bombay. Madras—Bellary.

Haidarabad (Bolarum)—-Bellary. _Bangalore—Bellary.

During the next year (1876-77) the following arcs were measured
by the same officers :—
Vizagapatam—Madras.
Vizagapatam—Bellary.
Mangalore—Bombay.
In almost all the cases the trigonometrical values were found to be
ereater than the telegraphic. Thisis due partly to the circumstance
‘that the constants for the figure of the earth, used in the computa-
tions of the geodetic latitudes and longitudes of the Indian Survey,
are not quite exact, and parily to local deflections of the plumb-line
at the stations of observations, which indicate (in accordance, it may
be observed, with the results of Captain Basevi's pendulum observa-
tions) a probable greater density in the strata of the earth’s crust
under the beds of oceans than under continents.

* Volume IX. of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India,

page xiv.

GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS. 213

On the completion of the operations between Bombay and Manga-
lore, Captains Campbell and Heaviside proceeded to determine the
differences of longitude between Bombay, Aden, and Suez. in order
to complete the connexion between England and India, of which the
section from Greenwich to Suez had been executed on the occasion
of the Transit of Venus in 1874, under instructions from Sir George
Airy, the Astronomer Royal. The Hastern Telegraph Company
kindly granted the gratuitous use of their cables, not only during the
actual work of signalling, but also during the preliminary tentative
measures. In these operations Captain Campbell devised a sort of
automatic method of comparing the clocks through the cables, so
that no personal errors of observing or repeating signais could
enter. The results were to establish the following values* :-—

Jb. a0, Ss.
Station at Aden - > = 2 69 Sec Hast of
Observatory at Bombay- = 4 51 15°81 een

Observatory at Madras - = 5 20 59-34) Sen

The longitudes of all places in India are usually referred to Green-
wich through the Madras observatory, the position of which has
been determined at various times by astronomical observations. The
latest determination had been 5h. 20m. 57°3s., or 80° 14’ 19-5’
east of Greenwich, and this had been for many years the accepted
value, being that given in the Nautical Almanac. The effect of
these electro-telegraphic observations was to show that this value
was about 2 seconds of time or 30°57 seconds of are in deficit of
what is probably the true value, i.c., 80° 14’ 50-03” H.*

In 1877 both officers took furlough, and on their return the
Afghan war intervened, but in 1880-81 operations were resumed
and the following geodetic arcs were measured :—

Bombay—Disa. | Jabalpur—Haidarabad (Bolarum).
Disa—Karachi. | Jabalpur—Agra.
Bombay—Karachi. | J abalpur—Disa.

Jabalpur—Bombay. Agra—Disa.

During the following season seven arcs were measured between
Faizabad, Agra, Jabalpur, Hazaribagh, Calcutta, and Jalpaiguri,

* See p. xviii. of Vol. IX. of “Account of Operations of the Great Trigonometrical
“ Survey of India.” It has been recently suggested that Indian longitudes should be
referred direct to Greenwich, so as to avoid the discrepancies arising from the fact of the
true longitude of Madras Observatory being above 24 minutes west of its accepted
position on Indian maps.

214 GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS.

but owing to a defect in No. 2 transit telescope similar to that found
in 1872-73, three of these arcs were remeasured in the following year
as well as five new arcs, and in 1883-84 the operations moved east-
wards of Calcutta as far as Moulmein, thus completing the last
link between Karachi and Moulmein.

In 1884-85 Major Heaviside resumed the observations for
astronomical latitudes with the zenith sector, which had been in
abeyance since 1871-72. He observed at stations about half a degree
apart down the Amua meridional series, commencing about latitude
28° 30’ N. and carrying them south over five degrees of the are,
which was eventually to be extended to Madras in latitude 13° 4’.
The results are given in the appendix to the Survey Report for
1885-86, p. lvii. :

No fewer than nine arcs were measured for longitude by electro-
telegraph in 1885-86, but, unfortunately, when the results came to
be reduced and compared in the recess season, it was found there
was a mysterious source of appreciable error, for out of five verifi-
catory circuits; three exhibited errors between a quarter and a third
of a second of time. ‘These irregularities were investigated with
the greatest care during the following season by Colonel Haig,
Lieutenant $8. G. Burrard, R.E., and Mr. Eccles, and every possible
interchange of observers, telescopes, electrical apparatus, and stations
was secureil in a series of observations on a short experimental are
at Dehra Dun. ‘The observations tended to show that the longitude
operations had been harassed by three sources of error, viz., (1)
electrical, (2) local, and (3) imstrumental. But it must be borne in
mind that these so-called errors are intrinsically so minute as to be
of no consideration whatever, except from a purely scientific point
of view.{

* The whole of the details and results of the observations from 1875-76 to 1883-84.
will be found in Vols. IX. and X. of the “Account of the Great Trigonometrical
“ Survey,” &e. mentioned in the previous note.

; Any three arcs forming a triangle offer a verificatory circuit:
thus the sum of the ares A B and B C is equal to the are A C,
therefore, if the sum of the measured ares A B and B C differs
from the measured are A C the difference is due to error of

measurement in one or more ares. Cc A

+ They have since heen traced to the determinations of the errors of collimation of the
telescopes, which indicate either slight weakness in the telescope tubes, or irregularities
in the object glasses, which were not always exactly centered between the collimators
in determining the collimation.

GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS. AN 5)

During the early part of this season (1886-87) Lieutenant Burrard
continued the latitude observations with the zenith section near the
meridian of 80°, observing at five stations and so extending the arc
to about latitude 20° N. The longitude operations were resumed
in Southern India, and the following arcs were measured :—

1. Madras—Bangalore.
Bangalore—Nagarkoil (near Cape Comorin).
Madras—Nagarkoil.
Nagarkoil—Mangalore.
Madras—Mangalore.
Bellary—Mangalore.
. Mangalore—Bombay,.
Nos. 1 and 5 were revisions of the work executed in 1872-73 and
rejected (as mentioned above) owing to a fault in the telescopes, and
No. 7 the are which was left incomplete in 1876-77.

Three of the old arcs in Southern India were revised in addition
to four new ones being measured. The season’s measurements tended
to confirm a curious geodetic fact that the plumb-line round the
coasts of India deviates in the direction of the sea. They were also
satisfactory in showing a diminution in the circuit errors which was
probably as small as can be expected, while the value obtained for
arc No. 7 differed only by 0023 of a second from the value of the
same are as measured in 1876-77. Bie

Operations were resumed in 1889-90 in the Punjab, Baluchistan,
and Central India. Seven arcs were measured, including the
revision of one formerly measured in Baluchistan, and the measure-
ment of a cross-arc, Agra-Karachi.

SID Or yp Ob

216

xX.
SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS.

The supply of accurate instruments constructed on the most
recently approved principles by skilled mechanicians has largely
conduced to the precision of modern surveys. In 1862 the Secretary
of State perceiving that the supply and examination of instruments
for use in India were requirements likely to increase rather than
the reverse, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel A. Strange, F.R.S., to
supervise and test all scientific instruments destined for India.
Colonel Strange was an officer possessing high qualifications for the
post; he had had considerable practical experience in trigono-
metrical surveying, while his mechanical genius and knowledge of.
mathematical, geodetical, and astronomical instruments were not
surpassed by any man in England. A special observatory* and
office were erected at the India Store Depdt in Belvedere Road,
Lambeth, and since then the examination of instruments has steadily
proceeded, the number of kinds of instruments annually dealt with
being now close on 2U0, or about twice as many as in 1871. The
effect has been to bring about a vast improvement in the quality of
the appliances. In the early part of 1876 Colonel Strange died, and
in June of the same year the Secretary of State appointed
Mr. ‘Thomas Cushing, F'.R.A.S., to succeed him as Inspector of
Scientific Instruments. Mr. Cushing had also had much practical
training and experience in his earlier career as a_scientitic
mechanician, besides having been for nine years assistant to Colonel
Strange. During the last three years the number of instruments
examined by him has averaged about 10,000 per annum (valued at
30,0002.) as against 7,000 in 1871.+ Among them may be specially
mentioned a six-inch equatoreal telescope, a large reflecting telescope
and an observatory dome for the Poona College of Science, as well as
costly physical apparatus of a varied kind for the use of colleges in
India, amounting in value to 1.714/. For the Survey Department
only instruments of the highest order are sent out, long experience
having shown this is most economical in the end.

* A description of the observatory will be found at page 201 of the “ Memoir on
the Indian Surveys” (2nd ed.).

} Appendix I. shows the character, number, aud value of the scientific instruments
examined at the Lambeth Observatory during the three years ended 1890.

SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. 217

In the year 1879 Mr. Cushing brought out a new form of levelling
instrument which he called a “reversible” level. The objects were
to facilitate the adjustments, make the instrument more compact
and rigid, and render the surveyor independent of the aid of an
instrument-maker should anything go wrong when in the field.
Several hundreds are in use at the present time in India.

The tide-predictor, constructed for the Indian Government by
Messrs. Légé and Co., is located in the observatory at Lambeth,
and with its aid tide-tables for upwards of 20 ports are annually
printed and forwarded to India towards the end of the year pre-
ceding the one for which they are prepared. The tides for several
ports are also predicted for the Colomial Office. This work is very
ably done by Mr. E. Roberts of the Nautical Almanac Office.*

During the year 1889 three new standard yard measures were
constructed in England by Messrs. Troughton and Simms as
primary standards of length for the Governments of Bengal, Bombay,
and Madras, and were verified by the Standards Department of the
Board of Trade. It may be interesting to know that these important
standards do not absolutely agree in length, but they are probably
as near as human skill can make them. The standard temperature
of India having been fixed at 85° Fahrenheit, the certificates of
verification, which were forwarded to the respective Governments
with the standards, show their respective lengths at that temperature,
which are as follows :—

Bombay - 936:00023406 inches.
Calcutta - 36°00039041 ,,
Madras - 36:00007206

And the co-efficient of expansion in each case is the 00003744 of
an inch.

The mints of Calcutta and Bombay were each supplied in 1889
with new sets of standard tola weights, all of which were verified
by the Standards Department of the Board of Trade, and the
tables of errors were supplied to the respective mints with the
weights in question.

The Calcutta mint also received a large balance, constructed by
Napier, for weighing silver. It was a splendid piece of mechanism,
made to carry upwards of 380 lbs. avoirdupois in each pan and to

* For a description of the tide predictor, sce p. 199.

218 SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS.

turn with two erains, which isa quantity less than the one-millionth
of the weight in each pan. It is needless to say that such accuracy
requires the highest mechanical skili in the construction, and such a
balance, which must necessarily be costly, deserves the greatest
possible care in use, notwithstanding that it is so constructed that
the pans can be loaded before the knife-edge is brought into contact
with the plane on which it acts in weighing.

Besides the above department in London there is a similar depart-
ment in Calcutta called the Mathematical Instrument Office, which
receives and takes charge when necessary of all the instruments
constructed in Europe for the Survey Department, manufactures those
which can be made most economically in India, repairs those which
are damaged, and keeps up a stock of serviceable instruments for issue
to the Survey and other public departments in the Bengal Presidency.
It has always been under the superintendence either of the Deputy
Surveyor-General or one of the senior officers stationed in Calcutta,
but it was not until 1877 that a report on this branch was issued.
Since then the work done has been regularly noticed in the Surveyor-
General’s Report. In April 1878 the number of instruments in
store at Calcutta was nearly 37,000, about a third of which belonged
to the Public Works Department and a nearly equal number to the
Survey, the remaining third being distributed among other depart-
ments. The principal description of instruments issued are :—

To the Survey Department.-—Aneroid barometers, binoculars,
chains, magnetic compasses, drawing instruments, heliotropes,
reading lenses, plane-tables, planimeters, protractors, flat rules,
scales of various sorts, optical squares, telescopes, and theodolites.

To the Marine Department—Barometers, binoculars, Massey’s
patent logs, carpenters’ rules, drawing instruments, sympiesometers,
telescopes, and thermometers (but all in very small numbers).

To the Military Department.—Pocket aneroid barometers, sketching
cases, prismatic compasses, drawing instruments, reflecting levels,
protractors, scales of various sorts, pocket sextants, and tapes.

To the Public Works Department. — Drawing boards, chains,
compasses, curves, drawing instruments, levels, protractors, car-
penters’, rules, flat rules, scales of various sorts, levelling staves,
tapes, and theodolites.

To Miscellaneous Departments, viz., Meteorological Department.
Telegraph Department, Educational Department, and others.—

SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. 219

Aneroid barometers, chains, drawing instruments, prismatic com-
passes, surveying compasses, protractors, flat rules, scales of various
sorts, pocket sextants, tapes, thermometers, and wind-vanes.

The rates at which instruments were locally purchased in Calcutta
in 1879 were, on the average, about 343 per cent. higher than those
at which the instruments received from Hnegland had been issued to
the public service, and which were themselves 20 per cent. above
their English prices, in order to cover freight and other charges.
Moreover, the articles purchased in the local market were seldom
equal in quality to those received from England.

The departmental manufactures, valued at about 10,000 Rs. in
1878, and consisting chiefly of chains, hand map-printing machines,
drawing boards, plane-tables, pluviometers, stands for compasses,
plane-table telescopes, &c., were issued, as far as could be ascertained,
at about two-thirds of the value at which similar articles could be
issued if procured from England. In repairing too a very consider-
able amount of work is done, 7.e., about twice as much as in
manufacturing. Among the repairs was that of the great 24-inch
theodolite which was used with great success by Colonel Branfill in
Southern India, and among the new instruments manufactured was
an idiometer, designed by Lieutenant-Colonel W. M. Campbell, R.E.,
the object of which was to afford means of measuring the absolute
personal equations in observations of star transits recorded on a
chronograph. The general arrangement is that of a moveable
frame carrying vertical wires in imitation of the wires of a telescope,
which passes in front of a fixed imitation star; a small observing
telescope is attached to the wire frame so as to follow its
movements, and thus the appearance of fixed wires and a moveable
star is obtained. As each wire passes the star two sienals are
recorded on the chronograph, one by the observer and the other
automatically by the instrument.

In 1884 a fine circular dividing machine by Troughton and Simms,
which had been obtained from Hngland some years previously for
the Madras Public Works Department workshops, and had lain
there unused, was transferred to the Mathematical Instrument
Office, where it was set up. It proved to be of great use, enabling
the limbs and verniers of many damaged theodolites, which
would otherwise have had to be rejected or sent to England for
repair, to be re-divided. In the following year a machine was
imported from Hngland for the purpose of testing all aneroid

220 SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS.

barometers by a standard, in lieu of sending them to the
Meteorological Department.

In 1888 the Mathematical Instrument Department was located in
its present handsome building,* which had been commenced the
year previously. The transfer from the old house (one of the
oldest in Calcutta) was not too soon, for some of the beams showed
unmistakeable signs of collapse, and the steam engine had to be
stopped for fear of disaster. It was found that the large majority
of the beams had been gutted by white ants, and it was fortunate
that the hovse did not fall to ruins before it was vacated. The new
buildimg has fairly ample accommodation for workmen, stores, &c.,
there is an observatory on the roof in which a transit instrument
has been set up for rating chronometers, and a new steam engine
and shafting have been erected.

During the last 12 years there has been a great increase in the
work of the Department, necessitated by fresh annexations of
territory in Burma and Baluchistan, the development of railways,
roads and public works, and a general increase in the scientific
requirements of the administration. The number of instruments
issued in the year 1887-88 was 57,293, valued at Rs. 2,25,599, while
out of the total stock 7,387, valued at Rs. 1,16,246, were procured
from England, 31,846, valued at Rs. 35,252, were purchased in the
local market, and 17.960, valued at Rs. 33,820, were manufactured
in the Mathematical Instrument workshop. The last number shows
a large increase, nearly 100 per cent. over the figures of the previous
year, and the value has risen by nearly Rs. 10,000.

* There is a capital photograph of the new building at page 92 of the Surveyor-

General’s Report for 1887-83.

i)
i)
—_—

XI.
HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

The Headquarters Offices of the Department of the Surveyor-
General comprise six different offices, five in Calcutta, and one in
Dehra Dun, whence the operations are directed, and where the
results of the field surveys are worked up into final shape for general
administrative use. These offices consist of—

(1.) The Surveyor-General’s Office (including also the drawing,

engraving, and map issue branches),
2.) The Lithographic Office.
3.) The Photographic Office.
4.) The Mathematical Instrument Office.
5.) The Revenue Survey Office.
(All at Calcutta.)
(6.) The Trigonometrical Survey Office at Dehra Dun.

In 1877 the Calcutta branches were still in different buildines
some cistance apart one from another, and a good deal of incon-
venience was felt in consequence. ‘This anomaly and inconvenience
had long been felt and recognised by Government sanctioning designs
for new offices; but it was not till 1882 that any part of the new
building was sufficiently advanced to be occupied. In that year
the new building designed to accommodate the Surveyor-General’s
and Revenue Survey Offices was ready, and within a month after
the close of the year the houses in Park Street and Middleton Street,
in which the offices had previously been located, were vacated, and
the entire stock of maps and records—the collection of nearly a
century—of copper plates, and plant of all descriptions, was trans-
ferred to their new quarters. The new building proved to be well
designed and constructed. It is commodious and airy; it gives
suficient space for all the members of the office, and excellent
accommodation and lighting for the engravers and draftsmen, who
had long had to work in crowded and inadequately lighted rooms.
In 1882-83 it was decided to amalgamate the correspondence and
accounts offices of the Surveyor-General’s Office and the Revenue

DD, HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

Survey Otfice under one Registrar, and form three sub-offices, the Sur-
veyor-General’s Office, the Revenue Branch, and the Topographical
Branch Offices, each under the immediate supervision of its own
head clerk. The work of the Drawing Office divides itself so dis-
tinctly into two classes, the geographical drawing and that connected
with large scale revenue maps, that it was found advisable to keep
up two sections of the office for the two classes of work, though
for administrative work the clerical staff were all amalgamated into
one list under one Assistant Surveyor-General. The new building
for the accommodation of the photographic and lithographic offices
was not completed till 1889 and was finally taken into occupation
at the end of September in that year. These offices which had been
for many years scattered between three houses, of which one was
at some distance from the others, were thus concentrated under one
roof, and this concentration, together with the introduction of
steam printing machines, enables them to work with far greater
economy and efficiency than was possible previously.

A large and important part ef the work of the Surveyor-General’s
Office consists in compiling urgent maps and preparing pressing
data for other departments. With a view to prevent interruption
of work and to ensure a more perfect scrutiny of the geographical
compilations and publications, a special examining branch was
organised in 1877-78, and located in a separate part of the Surveyor-
General’s Office.

The engraving branch have to cope with two classes of work,
viz.:—(1) the sheets of the Indian Atlas on the quarter-inch scaie,
and (2) provincial and other compilations and maps of India on
smaller scales than the atlas. The increasing amount of labour
thrown on the branch made it necessary after a time for the data
engraved on the copper to’ be confined to the results of actual
survey, all questionable details being left blank or drawn on the
plate by hair lines. ‘The engraving branch contains a large
number of natives who have been trained by Mr. Coard, the late
superintendent, and his assistants to do the more mechanical part
of the work very satisfactorily. But strange to say, the natives do
not appear to possess the artistic skill requisite for hill etching,
though at first sight it was imagined that this was precisely the
class of work at which they might be expected to excel, and so
the lull engraving has had to be assigned almost entirely to
Europeans.

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 223

A considerable amount of labour was thrown on the Department
by the preparation of a list of the latitudes and longitudes of all the
places in Dr. Hunter’s Imperial Gazetteer of India. This was
successfully completed in 1879.

In July 1878 Captain Waterhouse went to Hurope on privilege
leave and visited the Paris Exhibition and other places to investigate
the most recent improvements in photography as applied to map
reproduction. He also studied the process of heliogravure™ practised
at the Military Geographical Institute, and secured for the Depart-
ment the right of using Mr. Willis’s platinotype process, a good
permanent substitute for silver printing.

During the year 1879-80 the demand for maps of Afghanistan
was very great and urgent, and it taxed the resources of the
Department to the utmost to utilise speedily the new surveys which
kept coming in from the seat of war from time to time. Five
editions of the large map issued under the successive titles of the
two routes to Kabul and the seat of war in Northern Afghanistan
were compiled and published on the quarter-inch scale. Two
editions of the map of Quetta to Kalat-i-Ghilzai and Girishk and a
first edition of the map of Sibi to Quetta and Tal-Chotiali to the
Pishin valley were published on the same scale, and a new map of
Southern Afghanistan and Baluchistan was also taken in hand and
completed during the ensuing year.

The process of steel-facing the copper plates of the Indian Atlas
to prevent wear has proved very successful. For some years a
large number of the plates had been thus treated and none of them
showed the least sign of wear or of suffering from rust, while the
system possessed another advantage in the fact that it was no longer
necessary to make transfers from the copper to stone, and that the
clearer and sharper impressions could be taken directly from the
plate without fear of injury to its surface.

A very useful engraved general map of India on the scale of
32 miles to the inch was completed in 1881, to take the place of the
old skeleton map which had done duty for many years. Progress was
also made with two smaller maps on the scales of 64 and 96 miles to
the inch respectively. During the same year the map of Southern
Afghanistan in four sheets was also issued. There was a con-
siderable diminution in the out-turn of geographical and military
maps owing to the withdrawal of the British troops from

* Described in the Appendix to the Survey Report for 1881-82.

22.4 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

Afghanistan; but, on the other hand, there was a great imerease
in the number of cadastral maps printed, the voluminous character
of which has always proved a very laborious undertaking.

The despatch of the Indian troops to Egypt m 1881-82 neces-
sitated the drawing and publication of a map of Lower Egypt, as
well as maps of the Suez Canal, Cairo, and Alexandria. All these
came into great demand on the outbreak of hostilities. Happily the
collection in the Survey Department contained some exceilent
French maps of Egypt, and from these single specimens large
numbers of copies were rapidiy obtained by photo-zincography,
issued to the troops, and also sold te the public.

In September of the same year (1881) the Venice Geographical
Congress and Exhibition took place. Colonel C. T. Haig, R.E., was
delegated thither by the Government of India as their representative,
and Sir Henry Thuillier and Captain Baird were subsequently depuled
in the same capacity from England by the Secretary of State. Sir
H. Thuillier and Colonel Haig were also appointed British Commis-
sioners by Lord Granville. Collections of maps, charts, &c., were
despatched by the Indian Government, Ordnance Survey, and
Admiralty, and the Indian delegates obligingly took charge of the
arrangement and organisation of the Engligh maps, &c., in addition
to their own exhibits, which included a large and representative
selection of Indian maps, as weil as the great theodolite and other
survey and tidal instruments. Two letters of distinction (the highest
award) were given to the Survey of India in Classes I. and VIII., as
well as two medals for native explorers (already mentioned at page 88,
note), a diploma of honour to the Marine Survey of India, a medal
to Captain Baird for his tidal work in Class II., a medal in Class I.
to Colonel Haig for his topographical maps of Gujrat, and a medal
in Class VI. to Dr. Hunter for his Gazetteer of India.*

A map, based on triangulation, of the Nizam’s dominions was
commenced in the following year, the old topographical sheets being
re-drawn in the regular standard forms on the one and half inch
scales and in a style fit for reproduction by photo-zincography. The
materials were very old, being derived from surveys in the
early part of the century. Unfortunately though old they are the
only materials available, no modern survey having been as yet made
of this enormous expanse of country in Southern India, though
detached portions here and there have fallen into the field of
adjoiming parties. During the same year (1882-83) an irrigation

* See Reports in Appendix to Indian Survey Report for 1880-81.

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 225

map of the North-West Provinces on the scale of eight miles to the
inch anda rainfall chart of India with eight gradations of colour
were also prepared. The heliogravure process also made steady
progress, and seven plates were turned out, four being for the
Geological Survey, one outline map of Simla and Jutog, and two
plates of a view of the great Kan-chan-janga mountain.

In 1883-84 some of the special maps drawn for the Calcutta
International Exhibition were prepared for publication, viz., those
exhibiting trade routes, distribution of religions, missionary stations,
density of population, distribution of languages and river basins ;
the rainfall, railway, and telegraph maps having been already
published.

An elaborate plaster of Paris model map, based on the 32-mile
map of India, showing all the hills as well as the scale would allow,
was completed for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886
by Major Charles Strahan, R.H. The vertical scale was 12 times the
horizontal, hence the highest peaks of the Himalayas were nearly
two inches high.* In the same year (1884) a very successful repro-
duction of a quarter atlas sheet by the electrotyping process was
made by Colonel Waterhouse, the method of scraping away the faulty
parts from the matrix being suitable where large corrections on a plate
are required and the ordinary mode of cutting out and hammering
up from behind might seriously damage the plate. Considerable
progress was also made in the various processes of heliogravure by
the electrotyping and etching methods, and 79 plates (principally
of photographs of Indian art-works taken in the Caleutta Exhibition)
were produced. Considerable attention was also given to the
reproduction of maps, and some very successful experiments were
made in reproducing brush-shaded maps by the photo-etching
process. With suitable original drawings the heliogravure processes
can be made to render immense service in the cheap and speedy
production of engraved maps. The process of electrotyping was
also applied to the duplication of the engraved sheets of the Atlas of
India so as to adapt them for temporary issue, pending engraving
of the final results, and good progress was also made with the
photo-collotype process which was used for plates of coins for the
Asiatic Society, for botanical plates, and the like. The principal map
completed in the Lithographic Office during the year was a contour
map of India in six sheets on the scale of 1 inch to 32 miles.

* This relief map hag since been presented to the Imperial Institute.
1 Y¥ 20321. P

226 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

During 1885-86 a great deal of drawing and compiling work was
done for the Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London. A map
was prepared showing the import and export trade of India with
other countries, and a series of maps showing at a glance the
percentage of various crops grown in different districts of India,
with other maps showing density of population, religions, emigra-
tion, external trade, land settlement and revenue, and geology of
India was also completed.

In the Lithographic Office a series of maps were prepared for Sir
E. Buck’s Statistical Atlas of India, and the map of the Nizam’s
dominions in two sheets on the 16-mile scale referred to above was
printed off.

The following year (1886-87) was marked by a great demand for
maps of Afghanistan and Baluchistan, consequent on the events
on the Afghan frontier. Compilations from rough military recon-
naissances in Burma had also to be undertaken. The Engraving
Office lost the services of Mr. C. W. Coard, the superintendent, who
had been selected, together with a small staff of engravers, in 1868
by Colonel Thuillier, then Surveyor-General, to take up the
engraving of the Indian Atlas sheets. Mr. Coard had done excellent
work during his tenure of office, and had left the engraving
branch in a high state of efficiency. He was succeeded by
Mr. G. G. Palmer.

The work done in the heliogravure and collotype sections was
more satisfactory im quantity and quality than previously, both
processes having quite emerged from the experimental stage into
practical methods. A commencement was made in reproducing
archeological drawings for the use of art schools and also for the
illustration of the Journal of Indian Art.

During 1887-88 greater strain was put on the geographical
drawing and compiling branch in consequence of the necessity
of preparing general maps of Burma and sheets of the N.W.
frontier, and it was with difficulty that sufficient materiai could be
got ready to keep the engravers employed. To remedy this it
was arranged that all the N.W. frontier mapping, except
Baluchistan, should be undertaken at the Trigonometrical Branch
Office at Dehra Dun, leaving the Burma maps to be dealt with in
the Calcutta Office.

One of the principal features of the period under review has been
the introduction of the heliogravure processes for the direct repro-
duction of delicate drawings in line or of balf-tone subjects of all

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 227

kinds, and of electrotyping for the duplication and correction of
hand-engraved maps.

The first experiments in heliogravure were made, with fair success,
about 1877 with a photo-electrotype process based on Geymet’s,
which was originally brought out by Mr. J. W. Swan, the inventor
of the carbon process. In the following year Captain Waterhouse,
while in Europe on privilege leave, visited the Military Geographical
Institute at Vienna, at that time the only large geographical office
working the process, and obtained a good deal of valuable informa-
tion regarding it; but little progress was made till 1882, when he
introduced a new process for producing “ grain” on the plates of
half-tone subjects which he had worked out, with the aid of the
Autotype Company, while on furlough in 1880-81. In this process
the wet-gelatine relief is dusted over with sand or some similar
granular material, previously waterproofed by treatment with a greasy
substance like wax, so that it might easily be removed from the
gelatine relief when dry. ‘I'he effect of the sand was to roughen
the gelatine surface proportionately to the depth of gelatine and so
produce a graduated grain stronger in the shadows than in the
lights. 'The gelatine surface was then blackleaded and electrotyped.
In this way an engraved mezzotint plate was produced from which
very perfect half-tone prints could be printed. This process proved
very valuable for the production of some 3,000 copies of the “ Award
Certificate” of the Calcutta Exhibition in 1883-84, and several
plates of illustrations of Indian art-ware in the Exhibition as well
as of brush shaded maps and drawings were reproduced by it, but
owing to climatic causes it was always rather a difficult process to
work, and the plates required a good deal of touching up.

In 1884, with the assistance of a skilful carbon printer, Mr. A. W.
Turner, experiments were made with the photo-etching process,
which was on the same principle as the photoglyphic process
originally invented by Fox Talbot, and which had recently been
re-introduced with modifications by Herr Klig of Vienna.

The process was worked out successfully on the bare information
obtainable from the photographic journals, but further improve-
ments, learnt at the Military Geographical Institute in Vienna,
during Colonel Waterhouse’s furlough in 1886, were introduced in
1887, and since that time the process has been working on a
perfectly practical footing and is found very valuable for all kinds
of delicate work in line or half-tone. It has the great advantage

12 2

228 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

over photo-collotype, which was also worked with some success at
Calcutta, that the copper plates can be worked on and lettered and,
if protected by a coating of steel, are capable of yielding an
unlimited number of equally good impressions, whereas the tender
gelatine film of the photo-collotype plate will stand no touching up
or correction, 1s difficult to print under varying conditions of
temperature and humidity, and at best will only yield a compara~-
tively small nuinber of good impressions, while all lettering has
usually to be added by a separate printing. Consequently, photo-
collotype is being discarded in favour of photo-etching.

The principal applications of the photo-etching process have been
for the reproduction of some very delicate drawings of insects in
pencil and Indian ink, for the illustration of the “ Indian Museum
Notes,” also for botanical and histological plates from the original
drawings or photograpius, illustrating the ‘ Memoirs by the Medical
Officers of the Army in India.” A large proportion of the plates,
illustrating Dr. Fihrer’s Report on the Sharqi remains at Jauupur,
both from photographs and line drawings, were done by this process,
and no other would have answered so well. It is also steadily
utilised for the reproduction of a series of technical drawings of
architectural ornaments, &c., taken from the drawings of the
Archeological Surveys and issued for the use of art schools and
workmen of various kinds in all the provinces of India.

Attempts have been made from time to time to apply the process
to the reproduction of brush-shaded maps and by its means enable
a preliminary issue of the sheets of the Atlas of India to be made
pending the completion of the hill-etching by hand, which is always
a tedious operation. There are, however, great difficulties to be
overcome in reproducing lines and brushwork together, which have
practically prevented its utilisation in this way, although it is
always kept in view. The process might be more largely applied
to the reproduction of maps in line, but the difficulty has been to
obtain a staff of highly trained draughtsmen capable of turning
out the original drawings in a sufficiently good style for direct
engraving. The necessity for constant corrections on the maps
also militates very greatly against the preparation of highly finished
drawings capable of competing aguinst hand engravings. The
process has, however, been successfully applied to the reproduction
of the maps of the Andaman Islands on the }-inch scale, by reduc-
tion from the original standard sheets on double the scale, and, no

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 229

doubt, as time goes on, it will be much more largely employed for
map work.

The process of electrotyping was first introduced in connexion
with the photo-electrotype process of heliogravure about 1882,
and has proved very valuable in connexion with that process, and
also as an economical means of duplicating engraved plates of
standard maps in various stages of their progress, in order to
obtain skeleton maps with varying amounts of detail, suitable for
the illustration of reports and other administrative purposes. It
has also been found very useful in carrying out extensive cor-
rections on the engraved plates; a matrix being made from the
original plate, the parts in relief corresponding to the parts to be
corrected are scraped away and a duplicate plate is electrotyped on
which the faulty parts present a blank flat space upon which the
new details required can be engraved. The process is scarcely ever
used, as it is at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, for
producing printing plates,-as the process of steel-facing which
enables the original engraved plates to be printed from without
injury has been found to be cheaper and more suitable for the
requirements of the Indian Office.

The electrotyping method in use is practically the same as was
practised for many years at the Military Geographical Institute in
Vienna, and consists of a horizontal single-cell apparatus in which
an electrical couple is formed by the copper plate to be deposited
on, which rests on a suitable support in a bath of sulphate of
copper, and an iron plate immersed in dilute sulphuric acid,
contained in an upper tray with a leathern bottom which forms
a porous diaphragm. These batteries are found to work with
regularity and practical economy, being very simple in working and
easily looked after by natives. The electrotyping work is done
in the Photographic Office.

Probably the most important cartographical work of the Calcutta
Office is the Indian Atlas. This great work is on the scale of four
miles to the inch; it is the standard map of India, and embodies the
results of the detailed surveys. It is designed to cover 181 full
sheets, 40 inches by 27, on the globular projection and scale
originally proposed by Mr. Aaron Arrowsmith, and the region
embraced extends from Karachi to Singapore and from Gilgit to
Cape Comorin. It also includes Ceylon. The original sheets, for
which the Madras Topographical Surveys furnished the materials,

230 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

were produced by Mr. John Walker in 1827. In 1864, with a view
to expedite the work, a proposal was made by the Surveyor-General
that the Atlas should be brought out in quarter sheets, and this was
agreed to by Mr. Walker. The convenience of this mode of publi-
cation has been universally recognised since and the practice
uniformly adhered to, the old full sheets being now discontinued.
In 1868 the engraving of the Indian Atlas was formally transferred
to Caleutta, and a small but efficient staff of experienced engravers
under Mr. C. Coard, was engaged by Colonel (now Sir Henry)
Thuillier, the Surveyor-General. These were reinforced in 1872 by
fresh hands selected by Colonel J. T. Walker, who at the same
time made arrangements for the completion of the engraving of
all the plates remaining in England. Since 1876 the engraving
has been carried on entirely in Calcutta at the headquarters of the
Surveyor-General, within easy reach of the compilers and surveyors,
to whom reference is made in cases of doubt or difficulty.

It must not be supposed, however, that the Indian Atlas, though
commenced as far back as 1825, is near completion.* This arises

* The following table, taken from Captain George M. Wheeler’s (U.S. Army)
admirable report upon the Third International Geographical Congress and Exhibition
at Venice in 1881], will serve to show how far the European countries had advanced
in 1885 towards the completion of their general topographic maps :—

Great Britain - - 1: 63,360 696s 412 C.
Germany - - | 1: 100,000 674 417 C.
Austro- Hungary - | 1: 75,000 720 578 Hig.
France - - | 1: 50,000 1,092 20T Lie

» Algeria = | 1: 50,000 $27 23 | Tix
Switzerland - - | 1:100,000 25 25 | C.
Holland - - 1: 50,000 62 62 Ss.
Spain - - 1: 50,000 1,080 29 Ss}
Italy - - - 1: 100,000 277 109 Ph. z.
Sweden - - 1:100,000 232 64 C.
Russia = =|) 9, | 1: 126,000 9725 505 (oh
Belgium - - | 1: 40,000 72 72 G
Denmark (Jutland) - 1: 40,000 131 } 69 (Ot

» Cslands) a) 1: 80,000 29 29 C.
| (in quarter
| | sheets).
Norway - - 125,646 | 1:100,000 Bl | 43 C. and S.
Portugal - - | 34,418 | 1: 100,000 37 22 Ss.
|

+ C. Copper engraving; S. Stone engraving; Z. Zincography; Ph. z. and Ph. 1. Photo-zincography
and Photo-lithography; Hlg. Heliogravure.

t This map is intended to supersede the Etat Major map on the scale of 1:80,000 in 273 sheets,
which was commenced n 1819 and finished in 1881.

§ Approximate.

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 231

partly from the magnitude of the scheme which embraces the whole
of Burma and the Malay peninsulas and partly from the necessity
of replacing the sheets compiled from old surveys by more accurate
work as soon as practicable. The last index map shows that nearly
the whole of India west of Burma has been completed and published,
the exceptions being Nepal and parts of Gujrat and Rajputana.
But the greater part of the Punjab, the Lower Provinces, Madras,
Haidarabad, the Berars, the western part of the Bombay Presidency,
and Sind are derived from oid materials and will have to be
re-engraved. In fact, the Indian Atlas sheets that are based on
trustworthy surveys (which consist for the main part of a broad
belt running north-west and south-east from the Punjab to Jeypur
and the Mahanadi, with the addition of Assam, Kathiawar, and
the greater part of Cutch) are less numerous than those which do
not corae up to the modern standard of accuracy. It will thus be
seen that there is an enormous area still awaiting the energies of
the Department both in mapping and field work before even a
satisfactory first survey of India is available.

The number of sheets according to the original scheme of the
Indian Atlas was 177, which included the whole of Burma (at that
time independent of the British Crown) right up to, and even
beyond, the Salwen river. Hvents have proved that this precaution
Was a wise one, and that the wide margin allowed in this direction
was not too liberal. But in the extreme north India has outgrown
the limits of the Atlas, and three new sheets, 14a, 27a, and 44a
(to include Chitral, Gilgit, and Baltistan), have been laid down, while
fresh sheets will probably have to be added for Baluchistan, which
is now, to all intents and purposes, incorporated into our Empire.
A special arrangement, too, has been sanctioned, by which the
Indian Atlas is being supplemented by a complete and homo-
geneous belt of maps illustrating all the transfrontier regions from
Baluchistan round by way of Tibet to Burma, on the same scale
as the adjacent Atlas sheets, a most convenient plan in consequence
of the unavoidable expansion of the Indian Empire.

The following are the other principal maps in general demand :—
(1.) India. Scale, 32 miles = | inch, in six sheets.
(2.) India, 64 miles = | inch, engraved, in four sheets.

(3 and 4.) Railway maps of India on 48 and 64 mile scales, photo-
zincographed with hills in grey.

Zon HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

(5.) Turkestan. Scale, 32 inches=1 mile. 6th edition. Photo-
zincographed, in four sheets.

(6.) Afghanistan. Scale, 24 miles = 1 inch. Photo-zincographed,
two colours, in four sheets.

(7.) Burma and Adjacent Countries. Photo-zincographed.
Scale, 32 miles = 1 inch.

(8.) Atlas of India. Scale, 4 miles = 1 inch. Engraved.

(9.) Provincial maps. Engraved on the scale of 16 miles =

1 inch.
(10.) Standard sheets of the Topographical and Revenue Surveys
on various scales from 2 inches = 1 mile to 4 miles =

linch. 1 inch =1 mile is the standard.
(11.) District maps on various scaies, usually 4 miles = 1 inch.
Transferred to stone from the engraved copper plates.
(12.) Himalayan Route map. Scale, 32 miles = 1 inch.
Engraved.

The Trigonometrical Branch Office, Dehra Dun.—Although the
three branches of the Survey (Trigonometrical, Topographical, and
Revenue) were amalgamated in 1877, it was nevertheless found
conyenient to maintain the Trigonometrical Survey Office at Dehra
Dun, where important and special work had and still has to be
transacted. The principal part of this work has been the final
reduction and publication of the Indian and extra-Indian triangula-
tion, both principal and secondary, which was carried cut for years
under the care of Mr. J. B. N. Hennessey and Mr. W. H.Cole. This
Department has also had to publish the Topographical Surveys
executed by the parties formerly attached to the Trigonometrical
Branch, as well as those carried out by the Forest Survey Depart-
ment. Being located at a considerable distance from Calcutta,
the office has a small drawing, photo-zincographic, and printing
establishment of its own, as well asa depot of instruments and stores
attached to it, chiefly of the higher class of instruments appertaining
to the Great Trigonometrical Survey, such as several large theodo-
lites, the compensation bars, and apparatus for the measurement of
base-lines, &c. Other work pertaining to this branch has consisted
in the determinations of azimuths from celestial cbservations at many
of the stations of the triangulation; the observations of astronomical
latitudes, the determination of differences of longitude by the aid of
electric telegraph, and the determination of sea-level at many places
on the coasts of India, from which main lines of spirit-levelling are

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 233

run over the country to form a basis for canal, railway, and other
operations. Vol. I. of the general account of the operations of the
Great Trigonometrical Survey was completed in 1870. In 1878 and
1879 Volumes II., III., and IV. were produced, giving a general
account of the triangulation and its reduction, with full details of
the North-West Quadrilateral; also Vol. V., giving an account of
the Pendulum Operations; this was followed in 1880 by Vol. VI.
for the South-Hast Quadrilateral, in 1882 by Volumes VII. and VIII.
for the North-East Quadrilateral, in 1883 and 1887 by Volumes IX.
and X. on the Electro-telegraphic longitude operations executed
during 1875-77 and 1880-84, and in 1890 by Vol. XI. on the
Astronomical Observations for Latitude made during the period
1805 to 1885, and Vols. XII. and XIII. on the Southern Trigon.
Of the synoptical volumes—which give a précis of the results, both
principal and secondary, for topographical and geographical require-
ments—twenty-three have been published in all.

In the volume on the Pendulum Operations it is shown that the
steps which had been taken to connect the Kew Observatory,
the base-station of the Indian operations, with the Greenwich
Observatory, which was an important station of the Huropean
operations, had not sufficed to effect the desired connexion. ‘lhe
absolute leneth of a seconds’ pendulum of the Kater pattern, which
had beer determined at Greenwich by Genera! Sabine in 1831, was
determined with the same pendulum at Kew by Major Heaviside
in 18738, in the expectation that this would suffice for the connexion
of the operations at the two observatories; but the result gave
three more vibrations in 24 hours at Kew than at Greenwich, which
was highly improbable, as it corresponds to a change in latitude
of about 1°, whereas the two observatories are nearly in the same
latitude and only ten miles apart. Colonel Herschel was therefore
deputed to determine the vibration numbers at Kew and Greenwich
with the invariable pendulums which had been used in India.
He was aiso authorised to take the pendulum to America and swing
them at some of the pendulum stations of the United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey, with a view to a further connexion with the
Indian operations. He made observations accordingly, employing
the two Indian pendulums, and a third pendulum of the same
pattern which he obtained at the Kew Observatory; he swung all
three pendulums at Kew and Greenwich, in London, and at
Washington and Hoboken in the United States. He then made over

234 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

the three pendulums to officers of the United States Survey, who took
them round the world and swung them at Auckland, Sydney, Singa-
pore, Tokio, San Francisco, and finally at Washingten. When Colonel
Herschel’s observations came to be finally reduced, it was found that
the relation of Kew to Greenwich by one of the pendulums differed
by more than six vibrations from the values by the two other
pendulums. MRevisionary swings were therefore made at the two
observatories, with all three pendulums, by the observatory staff
at each place. The final result gives the daily vibration number at
Kew an excess of 0°64 of a vibration over that at Greenwich.
General Walker has given an account of Colonel Herschel’s work and
the revisionary operations at Kew and Greenwich, with an abstract
of his results and those of the officers of the United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey at other stations, in the Philosophical
Transactions, Vol. 181 (1890) A., pp. 5387-558.

At the Dehra office the solar photographs referred to at page 340
of the Memoir on the Indian Surveys, 2nd edition, were taken under
the care of an observer, Mr. C. Meins, who had been trained by
Mr. Norman Lockyer. Mr. Meins died on the 3lst March 1879,
and nine months later the observations were resumed by Mr. L. H.
Clarke. The photo-heliograph employed gave 4-inch images of the
sun, but by means of an enlarging combination, 8-inch pictures
were obtained, while the definition in no way suffered. In July 1882,
however, the great photo-heliograph sent out by the Secretary of
State, and capable of taking 12-inch pictures of the sun, was received,
and after some difficulty connected with the period of exposure, and
some delay entailed by ihe construction of tho necessary rotating
dome, good and regular pictures were eventually secured. The
difference between the amount of invisibility in India and in the
sunless climate of England is very striking; in 1880-81 at Dehra Dun
the percentage of dark days was 15; in 1881-82 it was 10, and in
1882-83 it was 13, as against 50, which was the average percentage
of “invisible” days at Greenwich during the same period! The
8-inch pictures have been continued pari passu with the 12-inch
photographs, the former being used for the measurement of the
areas of spots and faculw, while the latter are specially suited for
the study of the mottling or granular appearances of the normal
photosphere and structure of the penumbra of the spots. The results
of the observations are included by the Astronomer Royal in the
yearly volumes of the Greenwich observatory.

HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. Joo

Successive editions of General Walker’s excellent map of ‘Turkestan
** and the countries between the British and the Russian dominions
“in Asia” have been produced at the Dehra Dun office, the last
(7th ed.) having been issued in 1885. At that time the surveys
in connexion with the Russo-Afghan boundary were actually in
progress, and since then our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan
and the adjacent regions has been so revolutionised that an entirely
new map has become necessary. But during the 20 years that
Walker’s map has been in existence it has been invaluable as the
standard map of that vast and important region between the Caspian
sea, the Persian gulf, and Tibet. A full and interesting account
of the circumstances under which it was undertaken, and of its
general construction, will be found in the appendix to the Report
of the Trigonometrical Survey for 1872-73.

The new map of Afghanistan which will, to a great extent, take
the place of the foregoing, embodies the surveys and reconnaissances
made by the officers and native surveyors attached to the Afghan
Boundary Commission. It is in four sheets and on the scale of
24 miles to the inch, and the work of preparation, first under
Major Gore and then under Colonel Holdich, has been divided
between the Calcutta and Dehra offices. Among other cartographical
work that has devolved on the latter branch have been the three
sheets illustrative of A-—~k’s remarkable explorations in 'Tibet,*
and a two-sheet map of Arabia and Persia for the use of the Resident
in the Persian gulf.

Another important duty devolving on the Dehra Dun branch is that
sf protecting the principal stations of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey. In 1884-85 the number of these stations was 3,665, and
their protection involved correspondence and accounts with a large
number of district officers to provide for their repair.

* See above, pp. 152-7.

236

XII.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

From a geological point of view, India is most conveniently
regarded as presenting a threefold aspect, and this is the general
division of the country adopted in the “‘ Manual of the Geology of
India,” @.e., into the peninsular area, the extra-peninsular area, and
the great Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain separating the two.

When we proceed to distinguish the various formations, we find
that the geology of the country south of the Himalayas presents a
comparatively simple aspect, in that all the rocks are easily
separated into the following great groups, viz. :—

6. Alluvial plains.

5. Sedimentary rocks, of jurassic, cretaceous, and tertiary ages.

4. The Deccan basalt, of cretaceous and lower tertiary age.

3. The Gondwana system, comprising the Indian coal measures,
and ranging inclusively from the age of the English coal
measures to that of the Portland and Purbeck beds.

2. The Vindhyan system, a formation peculiar to India, the age
of which cannot be guessed, as it has yielded no fossils,
but which is immensely older than the Gondwanas.

1. The archean or metamorphic rocks, such as gneiss and
crystalline schists with the granite often occurring in them,
and with some slaty rocks that have partially escaped the
general metamorphism.*

Long before the establishment of an organised geological survey,
a series of travellers had from time to time recorded observations
of a practical or scientific character on the rocks and minerals of
India. Foremost among these observers were Dr. Falconer and Sir
Proby Cautley, to whom the discovery of the wonderful fossil fauna

* A detailed consideration of these formations does not come into the province of
this book. It may be mentioned, however, that an excellent and picturesque general
account of the Geology of India, from the pen of Mr. Medlicott, F.R.S., late Director
of the Survey, is to be found in Sir Edward Buck’s Statistical Atlas of India, while
those who desire to pursue their investigations still further should consult the Manual
of the Geology of India, in 4 vols. with map, Caleutta and London (Triibner).

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. DHT

of the Siwalik hills was due, a discovery which revealed the
extraordinary nature of the animal life with which the alluvial
valleys south of the Himalayas once teemed. Another famous
geologist was Captain Newbold, who made some important
researches on the laterite of the western coast, the regur or black
cotton soil of the south, and the mineral resources of the country,
while Dr. Carter, of the Indian Navy, in addition to his original
investigations, collected and classified the recorded observations
of his predecessors.

The first geological map of India was compiled by Mr. Greenough
in 1858; and this forms a distinct landmark showing the state of
our knowledge at that time; but it was not till 1856 that Lord
Canning, who took a real interest in geology, placed this branch
of the survey on a proper footing, under the superintendence of
Dr. Thomas Oldham.

The excellent work of Dr. Oldham and his able assistants are
described in detail in the publications of the Department, which are
threefold, viz., the ‘“ Memoirs,” “ Records,” and “ Palzontologia
Indica.” The first-named are the detailed and matured results of
the investigations in each district, written by the geologist who
prosecuted the survey. The volumes are profusely illustrated with
maps, views, sections, and sketches. The “ Records” are issued
quarterly, and contain the annual reports and brief abstracts of the
results of the field work during the previous three months, as well
as other papers of general interest. The “ Paleeontologia Indica”
contain elaborate illustrations and descriptions of the organic
remains which are discovered during the progress of the survey.
A most interesting summary of the labours of the Department up to
1875 is contained in Chapter XIV. of the “ Memoir on the Indian
Surveys,’ at which period, in spite of the limited staff and the
inherent difficulties of so vast an undertaking, an area about
five times as large as Great Britain had been examined and
reported on.

The year 1876 was one of special advance in the knowledge of Indian
formations, for some problems previously unsolved or misunderstood
in the classification of the great plant-bearing series of rocks known
as the Gondwana system, the only fossiliferous formation of central
peninsular India, was at last successfully grappled with by investi-
gations and discoveries made by Mr. Hughes and Dr. Feistmantel,
in the Pranhita valley, and corroborated by the researches of

238 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Dr. King in the Godavari delta. An important gap in our knowledge
of the Sub-Himalayan tertiaries was also filled up by the season’s
work. Messrs. Medlicott, Theobald, and Lydekker made an outline
survey of the broad band of tertiary deposits flanking the Pir
Panjal in the Jammu territory, thus connecting previous work in
the Cis Ravi ard Trans-Jhelam regions. In the east, in Upper
Assam, Mr. Mallet completed his survey of the coai fields of the
Naga hills, which for quality and quantity of the coal, rank as the
most important of the Indian carboniferous deposits, although
entirely of tertiary age, possibly even of middle tertiary.* On the
south-west extension of the Sub-Himalayan series, Mr. Blanford,
assisted by Mr. Fedden, accomplished a good season’s work on the
tertiary deposits in Sind. A preliminary sketch of these formations
from the previous season's field work was published by Mr. Blanford
in the “ Records” for 1876 (p. 8).

Early in 1876 Mr. Blanford made an important trip across the
desert east of the Indus, through Umarkot and Balmir to Jodhpur,
and back through Jaisalmer to Rohri. Interesting information was
thus gained regarding a great area of Western Rajputana, pre-
viously almost unknown, and of the region traversed by the Arvali
mountains, a tract believed to be formed entirely of gneissic and
transition rocks, the remains of an exceedingly ancient mountain
system or area of special disturbance. The main difficulty here
demanding solution is the occurrence within a moderately large area
of several strong rock groups, having much mutual resemblance,
and each independently in natural contact with a fundamental
gneiss.

The survey sustained an irreparable loss during 1876 in the
retirement of Dr. Thomas Oldham, F.R.S., the able and eminent
superintendent, whose services will be found briefly recorded in the
Memoir on the Indian Surveys. He was succeeded by Mr. H. B.
Medlicott. Mr. Tween, the chemist to the survey, also retired,
after a service extending over 15 years.

A first-class medal was awarded for the exhibits of the Geological
Survey of India at the Congrés International des Sciences
Géographiques, held at Paris in 1875.

During 1877 two comparatively new regions were explored by
Mr. Lydekker and Dr. Ball, respectively, one beimg the mountains

* See Part 2 of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. XII.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 239

north and south of the Kashmir valley and in the upper basin of
the Chenab, and the other a wide tract some 300 miles long between
the Mahanadi and the lower reaches of the Godavari. The former
was rather difficult ground; the presence of carboniferous strata
had long since been observed, as well as the extensive occurrence
of eruptive rocks ; but the relations of all these to the preponderating
mass of contiguous unfossiliferous rocks had remained unknown.
Mr. Lydekker showed that the Kashmir area is a compressed
synclinal ellipse, on the pattern of the larger features defined by
Stoliezka in the Tibetan region, but containing, so far as observed,
no rocks vounger than the trias. Regarding the obscure point of
the relations of the gneissic series, Mr. Lydekker’s view was that the
Pir Panjal range is on the whole a great folded anticlinal flexure,
having a cone or axis of gneiss, the whole stratified series on the
outer (south-west) side being inverted. The Simla region, which
belongs to the broad area of lower mountains which east of the
Sutle] separates the snowy range from the plains, is made of
metamorphic and slaty rocks, in a very irregular and incompre-
hensible mode of distribution. This region was examined by
Colonel McMahon, himself an amateur geologist, and his paper is
published in the “ Records.” He shows that the massive gneiss
forming several prominent ridges on the lower mountains must be
the same as the central gneiss of the main range; he describes the
upper members of the slate series to be so related to this gneiss as
to involve the total overlap of the lower part of the series, and
therefore complete unconformity to the gneiss, but subsequent
metamorphic action, largely affecting the slate series itself, has so
obscured the junction as to make the exact definition of it a matter
of great difficulty.

The region between the Mahanadi and the Godavari is a wild,
hilly country, entirely occupied by primitive tribes and petty
tributary states. It proved (as indeed had been conjectured) to
be occupied by Vindhyan and gneissic rocks. On the coast side
there is a broad mountainous belt of crystalline rocks, with peaks
exceeding, in some cases, 5,000 feet in elevation. West of this is
an extensive upland also largely formed of gneissic rocks, upon
which stand two or more scarped plateaux of flatly bedded sand-
stone, the principal being that of Nowagarh-Kharial. Further west
there 1s the wide expanse of lower ground formed of the shales,
limestone, and sandstones occupying the plains of Chattisgarh and

240 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Upper Mahanadi, and stretching southward to the more elevated
land about Bustar. High-level laterite was also found, giving a
plateau character to the otherwise serrated mountain features.

Mr. Hacket’s work in Rajputana also ranked as in new ground.
He carried his observations to some distance south of Ajmir, where
he obtained a further section of the metamorphic rocks transitionally
underlying the Arvali series.

The recognition of the Karnarbari coal measures as a distinguish-
able horizon in the lower Gondwana series was an interesting step
in the knowledge of these formations. Dr. Feistmantel’s paleeonto-
logical researches indicate that their affinity is rather with the
Talchirs than with the Damudas as hitherto imagined.

Among the detailed work of the year, an interesting area of
the Gondwana formations was completed by Mr. Hughes, in
extension of his previous work in the Wardha valley, the geological
lines beine carried down to the Godavari at and above Sironcha.
A practical result of this work was the accurate demarcation of a
considerable area of possibly productive coal measures in the
Nizam’s territories about Khairgura and Tandur, and again on
the Godavari at Sandrapali. In the former position actual coal
crops were found, and in the latter promising indications of the
same formation.

Mr. Foote, during the season, completed his survey of the coastal
zone of Gondwana deposits through the Nellore and Gantur
districts up to the Kistna river, thus bringing his lines into con-
nexion with Mr. King’s work in the Godavari district south of
Hllore. The deposits which were the special object of his study
are very obscurely exposed as irregular patches along the margin
of the crystalline rocks forming the low ground from the base of
the Hastern Ghits, and on the east they pass rapidly under the
alluvium of the flat seaboard. Mr. Foote has made considerable
collections of the mixed marine and terrestrial fossils peculiar to
the Gondwana strata in this position.

The coal explorations which had been prosecuted for some seasons
past in the Satpura basin unfortunately proved unsuccessful,
though in some cases the borings were carried to a greater depth
than anywhere else in India.

Some observations on underground temperature in these borings
were instituted by Mr. Medlicott. The lowest depth at which
successful observations were taken was 370 feet, and the most

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 241

reliable group of these at Manegaon gave, below the depth of
60 feet (throughout which a constant temperature of 81° prevails)
a very steady rate of increase of 1° Fahrenheit for every 66 feet
in depth.

Mr. Wynne was fully occupied in mapping the structural features
of the tertiary basin between the Salt Range and the mountains
to the north, which is often spoken of as the Potwar or Rawalpindi
plateau. It is on the whole a broad synclinal with many sub-
ordinate axes of flexure, and the disturbed character of the deposits
makes their study a matter of great difficulty. The post tertiary
deposits here are of much interest. They are found resting upon
tilted Siwalik strata at very high levels over the actual river courses,
so that prodigious denudation must have taken place since they
were laid down. There is much evidence to suggest that glacial
action took a direct part in the accumulation of some of these
deposits.

During the working season of 1876-77 Mr. Blanford and
Mr. Fedden completed the mapping of Sind west of the Indus.
The former re-examined the Khirthar range from its northern
termination west of Jacobabad to the neighbourhood of Sehwan;
he then re-mapped the cretaceous rocks in the Laki range south
of Sehwan, and after completing the geological lines in the Habb
valley, and marching westward along the coast as far as Sonmiani,
returned to Calcutta. Mr. Fedden, starting from Karachi, mapped
the large tract of country west of the Laki range from the neigh-
bourhood of Sehwan to the sea, an area of nearly 5,000 square
miles. Large additions were also made to the fossil collections
previously obtamed. So much of the geology of Sind had been
determined in the two previous seasons that no very important
addition could be expected. It was, however, clearly ascertained
that a band of contemporaneous volcanic rock, from 40 to 90 feet
thick, intervenes between the base of the Ranikot group (lower
eocene) and the cretaceous beds, and there can be little doubt that
this thin lava-flow represents the great mass of the Deccan traps.

Mr. W. T. Blanford’s memoir (Vol. XVII., Art. 1) on the
geology of Western Sind* deals with that portion of the province

* The names of the province of Sind and of the river called the Indus by Europeans
are really identical, and Hindu, Hindustan, and India are all derived from the same
source, the letters S. and H. being interchangeable. ‘The old name of the Indus is
Sindhn. There is 1 Muhammadan story about tne name of Sind being derived from
Sindh, the brother of Hindh and son of Noah.

1 Y 20321. Q

DED GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

of Sind which lies west of the Indus, and especially the hilly
portions of the Karachi and Shikarpur collectorates, together with
the curious isolated ranges of limestone hills to the east of the
Indus in Northern Sind near Rohri, and in Southern Sind near
Haidarabad. The examination of the geology of the province was
a special desideratum as the peninsula of India has had a very
different geological history from other parts of the country, the
former having probably been land ever since paleeozoic times at
least, while the extra-peninsular regions have frequently been
covered by sea. Fuller series of marine tertiary beds were known
to exist in Sind than elsewhere in India, and other advantages lay
in the absence of forest which so greatly impedes surveying, and
in the circumstance that large collections of fossils from this
region have been carefully examined and described by Huropean
paleontologists. Sind is also nearer to Europe than most parts
of India, and the rocks form the eastern prolongation of a tract
of tertiary beds believed to be continuous with the well-known
formations on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Khirthar
eroup, named from the great frontier range of hills, comprises
by far the most conspicuous rock, the massive nummulitic limestone,
of which formation all the higher ranges in Sind consist. The
sections exposed in the Khirthar range are superb, and afford the
best epitome of tertiary geology hitherto observed in India. Above
is found the Nari group, occupying a belt of varying width from
one to ten miles in breadth throughout the eastern flank of the
Khirthar range; the lower beds of this group are mostly yellow
or brown limestone, while the upper series assume the form of
coarse, massive, thick-bedded sandstones, attaining in some places
a thickness over 4,000 feet. Upon the Nari group, almost through-
out Sind, is found resting a mass of highly fossiliferous limestones
and calcareous beds (the Gaj group), easily distinguished from the
limestones of the older tertiary formations by the absence of
nummulites, while the highest sub-division of the Sind tertiary
series, the Manchhar group, represents in all probability the well-
known Siwaliks of Northern India, consisting of clays, sandstones,
and conglomerates, and attaiming in places a thickness of about
10,000 feet. Westward of the British frontier the Manchhar beds
die away, and are succeeded by high hills of hard greyish-white
marls or clays, conspicuous at Ras Malan, Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar,
near Jashk, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and on the Persian
shores of the gulf itself. The headlands of Ras Malan, Ormara,

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 243

and Gwadar consist of great horizontal plateaux surrounded by
cliffs of whitish marl or clay, and capped by dark calcareous grit.
These remarkable rocks have been called the Makran group, and
though the coast of Baluchistan has never been examined |
geologically, there appears a considerable amount of probability
that the marine Makran group may represent the Manchhars and
Siwalikhs on the edge of the Indo-Gangetic plain.

The completion of the ‘“* Manual of the Geology of India” was
the principal event in 1878. Though not the first general de-
scription of the Geology of India it differed from most previous
works in the extent of the area described and the amount of
information. Since the establishment of the survey in 1851,
data in the shape of detached papers and reports had been
accumulating rapidly, and these were not even confined to the
official channels of publications but had overflowed into the
journals of various scientific societies throughout the world. There
was thus an urgent need of a general view of the existing
knowledge, and Mr. Medlicott and Mr. Blanford’s efforts supplied
the want. While the work itself is a joint production, each chapter
bears the initials of its actual author. The first two volumes deal
with the more strictly scientific side of Indian Geology, while a
third volume of over 600 pages from the pen of Mr. Valentine Ball
treats of the Economic Geology of the country, its Mineralogy being
described by Mr. F. R. Mallet in the fourth and last volume. A
map on the scale of 64 miles to the inch and geologically coloured
forms a valuable accompaniment to the work.

During the same year Mr. Hacket examined a very large area at
the northern extremity of the Arvali range, and extending up to the
Jumna at Delhi. Though not abundant in mineral wealth the Arvali
region contains several extensive mines, now abandoned, from which
in bygone times large quantities of copper and lead ores have been
extracted, and a number of small pits or burrows where ores in small
quantities were found. None of these mines, however, were worked
deeper than a few feet below the water level on account of the
difficulty of raisimg the water. Marble is of frequent occurrence
among the Arvali rocks, and is extensively quarried in several
places, the principal place being Makrana. It is generally white,
but coloured marbles are occasionally met with, and black marble

in one spot.

Q 2

244 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

A description of the previously unsurveyed basins of Palamau
was given by Mr. Ball in Vol. XV. of the Memoirs.

Palamau had attention directed to it about 60 years ago, when
the object was to open out the coal-fields then known to exist, and
so to obtain a supply of cheap fuel for the steam navigation of the
Ganges. To meet this demand the Daltonganj field was worked
by the Bengal Coal Company up to the time of the mutiny, when
the works were attacked by the rebels and destroyed. On the
completion of the main canal, the question of connecting the
Palamau fields with the Hast Indian railway arose, and an examina-
tion of the coal and iron ores available became necessary. Mr. Ball
speaks highly of the coal from the Daltonganj field, which has
ereat heating power and is admirably adapted for steam purposes ;
that from the other two fields of the Palamau basin, the Aurunga
and Hutar, being of only average quality. The Aurunga field is,
however, the only locality where there are iron ores and limestone
suitable for iron manufacture.

The Rajmahal hills, which are described by Mr. V. Ball in
Vol. XIII. of the ‘“‘ Memoirs” are of complex geological structure, but
the mutual relations of the several rock groups within their limits
have supplied a useful key to the geological problems of far distant
localities. Amongst other notable features in this area are some
curious examples of radiating columnar trap,“ while at least two
varieties of laterite occur. The coal found is inferior to that of
a large series of Raniganj coal, but it can be easily worked, though
the difficulties and cost of transit to rail and rivers. render it
unavailable except to stations in the immediate neighbourhood. A
considerable variety of rocks suitable for building purposes exists
in the Rajmahal hills, while the basaltic trap.is capable of affording
an inexhaustible supply of road material. Clays suitable for
pottery and iron also occur.

The geology of the district of Manbhum, which lies about
120 miles west of Calcutta, and of Simghbhum, which is situated
to the south of Manbhum, is also described by Mr. V. Ball (in
Vol. XVIII. of the Memoirs). The tract abuts on the headlands
(as they may be called) of the eastern frontier of the rocky and
elevated country of western Bengal, the headlands themselves being
lapped round by tke Gangetic alluvium, which spreads over Lower

* See illustration facing page 60, latter part of Vol. XILJ. of “ Memoirs of Geological

Survey of India.”

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 245

Bengal. The northern part of the region is occupied by meta-
morphic rocks, which pass across the boundaries of Manbhum on
the north into Birbhum and Hazaribagh, on the west and south
into Lohardaga and Singbhum, and on the east into Bankura
and Midnapur, while the scuthern half is covered by sub-meta-
morphic rocks, the term adopted by the Geological Survey of India
for a series which, though showing distinct signs of metamorphism,
do so in a much less degree than do the eneissose or metamorphic
rocks proper. The prefix sub refers to the amount of metamorphism,
not, as might be supposed, to the position in the geological scale.
Speaking generally, the sub-metamorphics of Bengal may be said
to occupy a position in the geological scale roughly corresponding
to that of the Huronian of Canada or the Cambrian of Europe.

The determination of further obscure points in the great Gondwana
series occupied the attention of several members of the Geological
Staff m 1878. Dr. King was engaged in endeavouring to fix the
middle Gondwana horizon on the lower Godavari, while Mr. Hughes
came across plant fossils of decided upper Gondwana type between
the Pranhita and Godavari rivers. LHarly in the season Dr. Feist-
mantel visited the Satpura coal basin to examine on the spot some
good sections of the Gondwana series. He shows that they belong
to the horizon of coai-bearing strata represented by the Karharbari
measures in Bengal. And on the western confines of the Peninsula,
where the Gondwanas become associated with marine sirata,
Mr. Fedden broke new ground in Kathiawar, of which he surveyed
about 1,800 square miles. He speaks very highly of the excellence
of the sheets of Captain H. Trotter, R.E.’s Topographical Survey
of that province. The country is for the most part flat, and the
rocks consist of Deccan traps overlying sandstone in which some
remains of plants were found. These plants prove to be identical
with those occurring in the uppermost jurassic or Umia beds of
Cutch, and it is thus clear that a portion at least of the Cutch
jurassic series extends into northern Kathiawar. The greater part
of the area examined consists of jurassic sandstone, the hills being
of trap, but to the southward, where the surface is more hilly, the
traps cover the country.

In Southern India Mr. Foote took up new ground iv the south
of Trichinopoly. - The region belongs partly to the Madura, Tanjore,
aud Trichinopoly districts, and partly to the native state of Pudukotai
or Tondiman. It may be described as a gently undulating inclined

246 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

plane, rising very slowly westward from the delta of the Cauvery
or the sea board. It is only on the western part that the surface is
broken by a few low but steep hills rising in the gneissic area and
by the lines of scarp corresponding generally with the western
boundary of the lateritic formations, which occupy by far the
ereater part of the country now under consideration. The district
18 poor in economic minerals. In the extreme North-western Punjab
Mr. Wynne made a preliminary examination of some new ground in
Hazara, having been prevented by difficulties on the frontier from
following the formation of the Salt range across the Indus into
Bannu as had been proposed. He made a useful reconnaissance
of the ground and defined the limits of the crystalline rocks forming
the higher mountains. One general inference was that the gneiss of
Hazara is much newer than the central gneiss of the Himalayas.
Mr. Lydekker’s work in the N.W. Himalayas was much hindered
by the famine in Kashmir, so he spent the season in the mountains
of Dras and Tilail where he described some important sections
of the sedimentary rocks. Colonel McMahon also made some
noteworthy observations in the Central Himalayan districts to the
north of the Simla region of the Lower Himalayas, on the relation
of the lmestone and slate series of the latter range to the central
gneiss. Mr. Theobald made large additions during the same season
to the collections of Siwalik fauna, the results of which are recorded
in Mr. Lydekker’s papers in the Records and the “ Paleontologia
Indica.”

Mr. Mallet was deputed to report upon some coal seams in Ramri
Island, which had been reported by the Commissioner of Akyab.
Mr. Mallet could not form a favourable opinion of the practical
value of these measures; the coal is inferior to that of Bengal, and
the measures are greatly disturbed and would be difficult to
work. Specimens of a very different coal, a bright jetty lignite,
were forwarded by the Commissioner from the Baranga islands.
Mr. Medlicott also made a short trip to the North West Provinces
to serve on a committee appointed for investigating into the causes
of deterioration of land by veh or efflorescence in the Aligarh
district. His notes were published in the report of the committee.

Two large parts of the Palxontologia Indica were issued during
the year, one by Dr. Feistmantel on the flora of the Jabalpur group,
containing 14 plates, and one by Mr. Lydekker on the erania of
fossil ruminants, containing 18 plates. By order of Government

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 247
the price of these publications, and that of the “ Records,” were
lowered.

During 1878 the survey lost Mr. Walter Lindsay Willson, who
died on the 28rd of March 1878. He had joined the Indian service
in March 1857, having at that time been for some years Senior
Geologist on the Geological Survey of Ireland; the training he had
there received was very marked in the finished neatness of his
field maps in India. His place was taken by Mr. C. L. Griesbach,
F.G.S., who was appointed by the Secretary of State in the latter
part of the same year.

The great tract of Gondwana rocks, occupying the lower half
of the Godavari valley, is conveniently divisible into two areas,
separated physically by that portion of the Hastern Ghats sometimes
called the Golconda range of mountains, and geologically in that
the upper division of this formation is in great part of marine
origin to the south of the hills, while there are only river and
lacustrine members of the series in the upper part of the valley.
The portion below the Ghats, or in other words the coastal region
corresponding to the lower division of the Godavari district, is
described by Mr. King in Vol. XVI. of the “Memoirs.” The
country mainly consists of the deltaic deposits of the Godavari and
the Kistna, rismg gradually amid groups of small hills up to the
Kaurkonda-Papakonda range. It is a puzzle how the Godavari
river came to cut its way down through a 2,000 feet high range of
crystalline rocks (where the famous “ gorge” of the Godavari lies),
when it might have deviated and flowed through the more easily
worn sandstone to the south-west near Ashwaraopet, where the great
gap (crossed by the Kistna) in the continuity of the Hastern Ghats
commences. The economic geology of this region is of no great
importance, though old diamond workings exist in the sandstone
near Muleli, west of Ellore.

In 1879, Mr. King’s researches were prosecuted among the
Gondwana rocks in the Pranhita-Godavari area, and the detailed
account is contained in Vol. XVIII. of the ‘ Memoirs.” The
Godavari valley for a considerable length of its lower course
traverses a great area of Gondwana rocks, which connects the
Nagpur or Kamthi and Chanda fields of these with the patch of the
same great formation on the Coromandel coast. The Chanda rocks
extend southward by the Wardha river valley, and so with the
Pranhita river to its junction with the Godavari, whence they are

248 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

continued down the valley of the latter river, and 1t was in the
following out of this great series of the plant-bearing sandstones
with the economically interesting coal measures of their Damuda
subdivision that this immense tract of wild and poorly populated
country came to be visited by the survey. The Pranhita-Godavari
area is thus a narrow strip of Peninsular India, extending from
about Dhaba or Porsa on the Wardha in a 8.8.H. direction to
within 40 miles north of Ellore. With the exception of the bottom
or floor rocks, namely, the gneiss or crystalline series, which extends
far to the eastward and westward, all the other formations occur as
roughly parallel outcrops or bands. It is still practically what
it has been for ages, the home of a great portion of the old
Pre-Aryan race of Kols or Gonds, and a centre for the huge trains
of grain- and salt-carrying pack bullocks of the Brinjaris, who find
the region well adapted for their temporary settlements and feeding
grounds. Judging, however, by the ruins of many large forts,
splendid temples, and great tanks scattered over part of the country,
the Aryan conquerors exercised there a benign and prosperous
sway.

The better known outcrops of Barakar strata showing workable
coal of any value are in the southern part of the above field,
at Damerchela, Lingala, and to the westward in the two fields of
Kamawaram and Singareni.* Iron is obtained from the Chikiala
sandstones, and gold in small quantities has been washed for, having
been found to be brought down into the Godavari by streams from
Haidarabad territory. ;

An irregularly shaped strip of the Carnatic, including rather more
than the southern half of the Nellore district and portions of the
northern edges of those of Madras and North Arcot, was traversed
by Mr. W. King and the late Mr. Charles Ai. Oldham in 1861,
while following out the transition rocks of the Cuddapah district.
Mr. King’s account was written subsequeutlyy and after Mr. Oldham’s
death, The region is in the nature of a coastal plain with a more
or less distinct step or ghat edging an upland, the former being of
eneiss, covered up in a scattered way (more perfectly towards
the coast) by later formations, while the western hill wall is of

* A report on the progress and results of borings for coal in the Godavari valley
near Damagudem and Bhadrachalam, by Mr. W. T. Blanford, forms an Appendix to
Voi. XVIII. of thie * Memoirs.”

} See “ Memoirs,” Vol, XVI,

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 249

the hardest rocks of the transition or Cuddapah series. The
carving out of the great plain and step of mountain wall was
evidently in the greatest measure the work of marine denudation,
though subsequent atmospheric and river degradation and later
deposits have obliterated most traces of this. An interesting
feature observable in this region is a narrow and low sandstone
ridge, from 40 to 70 feet above sea-level, with a lateritic
covering running generally north and south at from 10 to
20 miles inland from the sea shore, and forming an extension of the
Red Hills of Madras, Pondicherry, Cuddalore, and Samuleotah
in the Godavari district. This plateau ridge marks what may be
considered the last permanent upheaval of the Coromandel, but
the views of the Survey differ as to the period when this may
have taken place, Mr. Foote inclining to date the upheaval during
the human period, while Mr. King is doubtful whether it can be
fixed so late.

The eastern coast from latitude 15° and northward to Masulipatam
is described by Mr. Foote in Vol. XVI. of the “ Memoirs.” The
topography is simple, consisting as it does of an inclined plane
sloping gently eastward from the foot of the Eastern Ghats to the
Bay of Bengal, diversified only by scattered hills. Fiscaily the area
is divided between the Kistna and Nellore districts. The geological
structure is almost as simple as the topographical, the western part
being occupied by a broad band or zone of ancient crystalline rocks
belonging to the gneissic series, the eastern part by marine and
fluviatile alluvia, while the intermediate part, roughly speaking,
is occupied by a band of patches of sedimentary rocks of two ages, both
older than the alluvial formations. The economic resources of this
region are very small as regards all the really valuable and important
minerals; there is a great deal of good iron ore, but unfortunately
no coal or mineral fuel accompanies it, while in the matter of building
and road materials, the supply, though plentiful, is no better than the
average districts further to the south.

Mr. Foote’s exhaustive description of the geological features of
the South Maratha country («e., the country which formed the
southern part of the Maratha empire without reference to the
distribution of the Maratha people) is published in Vol. XIL.,
Part I., of the “ Memoirs.” Although a very large portion of this
area iS inhabited by Kanarese people, who differ very widely in
appearance and language from their Maratha neighbours, the term
is a convenient one for the irregular belt stretching from near

250, GEOLOGICAL AURVEY OF INDIA.

Haidarabad in the Deccan to the western coast between Ratnagiri
and Goa. Of the several rock series found there the eneissic is the
mostly widely developed, and occurs chiefly in the eastern, southern,
and south-western parts of the area, while the Deccan trap covers
very nearly as large an extent of ground in the western and northern
parts. The iron clay or lateritic beds cover a much smaller area,
but claim notice on account of their remarkable features. They
cap all the highest ridges and peaks in the Kolhapur and Belgaum
mountains, rendering them perfectly table-topped, and in consequence
favourite sites for old Maratha strongholds and forts.

Tn continuation of Mr. Ball’s survey of the Aurunga and Hutar coal
fields (sce ‘“‘ Memoirs,” XV., Parts I. and II.), Mv. Griesbach, during
1879, mapped and described some 900 square miles of Gondwana
rocks in Ramkola between Takapani and the Rer river. The ground
is the easternmost prolongation of the great central area of South
Rewa or the Son, extending westwards to near Katni on the
Jabalpur railway and south-eastwards into the Mahanadi basin to
near Sambalpur. In Kathiawar, on the southern confines of the
Arvali metamorphic region, Mr. Fedden completed the survey of
some 1,900 square miles in continuation to the south of his previous
season’s work, besides making some preliminary traverses of
adjoining ground. Nearly the whole area is occupied by the great
eruptive formation. It is mostly stratified, having a slight inclina-
tion to the south, but huge dykes traverse it in various directions;
forming prominent ridges across the low undulating country. The
isolated central hill forming the sacred peak of Girnar is a mass of
thoroughly crystalline rock, which seems to be the core of a volcanic
focus. Owing to the scattered position of the outcrops im a wide-
spread waste of sand, Mr. Hacket was enabled to add a very large
area (more than 10,000 square miles) to his previous study of the
Arvali region, extending to the south-west as far as Hrinpura. The
Vindhyan strata were found to cover a large area to the north and
east of Jodhpur; they everywhere rest flatly upon the old rocks,
the gneiss, schists, felsites, or Alwar quartzites.

With the aid of the new maps of Kumaun, Mr. Theobald explored
the belt of tertiary rocks at the base of the mountains between the
Ganges and the Kali, in continuation of the work done several years
previously to the west of the Ganges.

Mr. Wynne, besides making a reconnaissance of the ground far to
the north between Kohat and Thal on the Kuram, accomplished the

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. oil

survey of the western extension of the Salt range from the Indus to
the outskirts of the Suliman range beyond Shakh Budin. The
Salt range proper, or eastern section, between the Indus and
Jehlam rivers, had been examined by Mr. Wynne in 1869-70, with
the assistance of Dr. W. Waagen, for the paleontology, but the
report was not published till 1878, when it appeared as Vol. XIV.
of the “ Memoirs,’ forming a volume of over 300 pages. ‘The
range had long been known as one of the most interesting and
important regions in British India, its geological interest being
enhanced by its highly fossiliferous rocks, and its importance chiefly
derived from its enormous deposits of rock salt. Years before the
British conquest of the Punjab, our officers penetrated thither and
reported on the geology of the region. In making a detailed
examination, Mr. Wynne had the advantage of the excellent maps
constructed by Captain D. G. Robinson, R.E., one of the best set of
maps ever produced in India.* The Salt range occupies historic
ground, one extremity resting upon the ancient Hydaspes or Jehlam
river, the other on the Indus, while its eastern extension overlooks
the battle field of Chilianwala, which is marked by a memorial
obelisk built of materials taken from the range. The Mayo mines
in the eastern plateau of the range are probably the most extensive
salt mines in the world. Old chambers occur in them up to
320 feet in width and 130 feet in height, besides natural shafts
formed by rain water, one of which is 312 feet deep. The old
workings had long been in a dangerous condition, and disastrous
falls have taken place—one in 1870. When visited in 1869-70 the
position of the miners was anything but enviable, perched upon
a lofty tripod of slender sticks and picking at a roof full of fissures
and unsupported for many yards. ‘The colour of the salt is red and
white, red earthy or merely coloured layers being very numerous
in some of the beds. The main mass of the gypsum overlies the
salt, and is sueceeded by the purple sandstone and other groups in
their proper order. The Salt range geology is peculiar and differs
greatly from that of neighbouring countries, so far as they are
known, comprising as it does various consecutive palxozoic,
mesozoic, and tertiary formations, and even including among the
older rocks a group of Silurian age. Nevertheless, there is a
remarkable degree of continuity preserved throughout the deposits.
The range thus forms a continuous series, embracing alternations

* See Mr. Markham’s notice of these maps, p. 121 of ‘Memoir on the Indian
Surveys,’ (2nd Edition).

DD, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

of calcareous, earthy, and arenaceous deposits, chiefly marine, but
possibly in part of fresh water origm—a series comprising thirteen
main divisions, of which nine are distinctly referable each to one of the
thirteen principal formations known to geology, and the ages of four
are less accurately ascertained. The development of the whole range
is not at any place complete, the groups changing along their
outcrop in thickness if not also in character; from the fourth to
the seventh group in ascending order the series extends westwards
across the Indus.

For the four years ending 1871 the receipts of the Inland
Customs Department were Rupees 38,81,440 per annum, and as the
rate at which the salt is sold at the mines is Rs. 3.1 per maund, an
idea may be formed of the out-turn. Notwithstanding the enormous
waste that goes on, especially in regard to carriage, the salt being
reduced to rough spherical lumps to prevent the corners being
rubbed off during its transport in open nettings or hair cloth bags,
the supply seems practically inexhaustible. Coal is also found in
the range, the Kalabagh coal or lignite, which is of jurassic age,
being the best, as well as petroleum, building and ornamental

stones, and gypsum.

The trans-Indus extension of the Salt range is also described by
Mr. A. B. Wynne, in Vol. XVII. of the “ Memoirs.” Its geological
structure repeats in a great measure that of the western portion of
the Salt range proper, but with some important differences, the
purple sandstone, for instance, of the latter disappearing at
Kalabagh. Kalabagh itself is an interesting place, which has
always attracted the attention of visitors. It is thus referred to by
Thorburn, who states that the town was devastated by the Indus,
on the western bank of which it is situated, in 1841 :—

“The houses rise oue above the other on the hill side, nestling close packed in an
abandon of dirt and confusion amid the glistening carnation-coloured salt of the reeks.
Tt hasa municipality and an old standing grievance: for as Government levies a duty of
about 8s. 4d. on every hundredweight of salt quarried in the range, and as half the town
is built of sait and on salt, the people are fined heavily should they attempt to eat their
houses; and their cattle, when they loiter by the way in order to lick the rocks or the
house walls, are ordered to move on by stern-visaged constables whose mud and salt-
built sentry-boxes are perched about on every commanding knoll.”*

Both orographically and geologically the Salt range is continued
through the trans-Indus of the Bannu and Derajat districts to the
Suliman mountains, both sections including with many variations
palzeozoic, mesozoic, and cainozoic formations. The salt all belongs

* “Bannu,” p. 8, note.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 253

to the same horizon as that of the Salt range proper, alum also
occurs and is manufactured from the pyritous shales of the jurassic
and eocene formations, but the industry seems to have greatly
fallen off.

During 1879 Mr. Lydekker explored a large area of Ladak to the
east of his previous observations and determined several points
of interest, while Mr. Griesbach accomplished a very successful
season's work in the higher Himalaya of Kumaun and Hundes,
and despite the severity of the climate prevailing at this altitude
succeeded in mapping the snowy range between the Niti and Milam
passes.

The Records for 1879 contained 22 papers of various interest
with 11 maps and plates, two being articles by contributors
not attached to the survey; that on Hangrang and Spiti by Colonel
McMahon, and that on the old mines at Joga on the Narbada by
Mr. G. T. Nicholls of the Civil Service. Four parts of the “ Paleon-
tologia Indica”’ were issued during i879, one by Dr. Feistmantel on
the flora of the Gondwana outliers on the Madras coast, and another
by the same author on the flora of the Talchir-Karharbari beds,
one by Mr. Lydekker on the Reptilia and Batrachia of Indian
pretertiary formations, and the first part of the Salt range fossils
by Dr. Waagen.

Mr. Richard D. Oldham, the son of the founder and successful
director of the survey, was appointed by the Secretary of State as
an assistant in the survey, and took up duty with Mr. King in the
Godavari valley. The two native apprentices, Kishen Singh and
Hira Lal, having served their five years of probation with sufficient
credit and having acquired a serviceable knowledge of rocks and
minerals, received, on the recommendation of Mr. Medlicott,
permanent promotion as sub-assistants.

In 1880 Mr. C. L. Griesbach was sent to the Bolan pass and
Southern Afghanistan to report on the gold near Kandahar and the
petroleum traces near Sibi. The first task was, however, much
impeded (though eventually accomplished) by Ayub Khan’s revolt,
and Mr. Griesbach had to perform military duties for a time, after
which the rising of the Marris prevented his visiting the petroleum
locality at all, Jyimg as it does 40 miles east of Sibi.

Mr. Griesbach is certain that the hills between the Indus plain
and the Quetta valley are simply a continuation of the Kirthar
range, already described by Mr. Blanford in his geology of
Western Sind, while the range of hills which in turn bears the

254 GEOLOGICAL SURVRBY OF INDIA.

name of Suliman range, Marri hills, Brahuik and Khirthar ranges,
all form links of one great chain with a uniform geological structure.
Speaking generally, the area examined on this occasion by Mr.
Griesbach can be grouped into three divisions, viz. :—

1. The Brahuik area of Baluchistan, coinciding with the Jime-
stone facies of the older tertiaries ;

2. The Pishin valley, with its eastern and western ranges
(Ghaziaband and Khojak) falling in with the sandstone and
shales (flysch) facies of the eocene group; and, lastly,

3. The Kandahar and Shah Maksud ranges are formed of
cretaceous limestone and eruptive rocks of the same age.

Of special interest are the vast deposits of aérial origin, which not
only cover extensive tracts of country in the great deserts of
Registan, Seistan, &e., but also encroach rapidly on the more fertile
plains of Southern Afghanistan, the valleys of the Helmand,
Argandab, the lower Khakrez, and the great tracts lymg between
Kandahar and Quetta. The great deserts are formed of huge
accumulations of blown sand and other material, among which
a fine densely red clay is conspicuous. South of Kandahar this
loose material, constantly changing its position, 1s seen to surround
and creep up into the hollows, creeks, and fissures of the jagged
cliffs of limestone and trap. Every season material is thus added,
and the time must come when the whole Kandahar valley will
be covered by this deposit and be merged into the endless expanse
of desert to the south.

The gold near Kandahar occurs about three miles north of the city
in quartz veins, between the hippuritic limestone and the extensive
trap outbursts.* During the first months of the British occupation
the gold was obtained in considerable quantities by a native con-
tractor, who rented the mine from the Kandahar Government.
Apparently, the process of extracting the gold with mercury,
though rude, was paying, but the native workers, being ignorant of
all engineering science, went on blasting the rock with gunpowder
and sinking the shaft lower and lower, until the sides fell in and
buried the miners below. Part of the auriferous vein is still visible,
and about two inches thick, but Mr. Griesbach was told that it
thickened lower down to about two feet or more, and some of the
nuggets of goid obtained were of the size of a man’s fist. He
considers it highly probable that gold will be found all along the line
of trappoid beds, north and west of the city, but the then disturbed

* Described also at p. 30 of Bellew’s Seistan Mission, Calcutta, 1873,

GEOLOG{CAL SURVEY OF INDIA. DSS)

state of the country frustrated any effort on his part to test the
rocks. Gold is also found and worked in some fashion in the
Hazarah country and in various streams of Northern Afghanistan.

Amone other minerals found in Southern Afghanistan may be
mentioned copper, which is worked in the Shah Maksud range, lead
and antimony ores, argentiferous galena, and native silver, sulphur,
petroleum (east of Sibi, since examined and reported on), coal, and
eypsum. From olden times Kandahar has been celebrated as a
market where precious stones were sold to the merchants coming
from Shikarpur, but apparently only varieties of chrysolite and
chrysotile with some cornelian are actually found there, both being
derived from the amygdaloidal variety of the traps.

Mr. Blanford was officially deputed by the Government of India
to represent the Indian Geological Survey at the Congress held at
Bologna in 1881. This Congress had originated in a meeting of
geologists of various nations at Buffalo in 1876, who, in their turn,
arranged for an International Geological Congress at Paris in 1878,
for the purpose of deciding upon rules for the construction of
geological maps and for geological nomenclature and classification.
Out of this second meeting arose the Bologna Congress of 1881, to
which the questions at issue were referred, and which was attended
by about 200 members, of whom 1380 were Italians and 70 foreigners.
On the whole, if cannot be said that much was done towards the
unification of nomenclature, or of the colouring and signs for
geological maps. It is an obvious drawback to congresses of this
character that they are not strictly representative, and that their
resolutions can have no binding force on absentees or dissentients.
But it is very profitable to gauge, however tentatively, the general
feeling of an important scientific body, and to those who have to
pass most of their lives in remote regions like India, it is of. vast
importance to meet fellow-workers in similar fields and to exchange
ideas.

One of the most important events in 1882 was the proving of the
new coal field of Umaria,* at the west end of the South Rewa
Gondwana basin. The actual area of exposed coal measures is
small (about five square miles) in an angle between the gneissic rocks
and the great spread of newer Gondwana sandstone to the north-
east. ‘he outcrop ot coal had been known for many years, but its
surface appearance was unpromising. An extensive field was thus
opened to enterprise, Umaria being the nearest possible source of

* Noticed by Mr. Hughes in the ‘‘ Records ” for 188] (Vol. XIV., Part 4).

256 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

coal for the North-Western Provinces, and immediately west of the
immense coal field of Sohagpur, which district is also rich in
agricultural produce, and the natural entrepdt for the surrounding
forest tracts, while southwards from Sohagpur lies the least difficult
line of communication between northern and southern India, into the
plains of Chattisgarh, leading down the Mahanadi valley to Cuttack,
and up it over the plateau of Bustar to Vizagapatam. Again, an
opportunity was also offerec for successful iron manufacture, there
being probably no spot in India where such an abundant supply of
first-class iron ores exists as at Katni, on the Hast Indian Railway.
A survey for a line from Katni to the coal field was commenced.
The Shapur coal borings in the Satpura region proved unsuccessful,
but the cretaceous coal field of Darangiri, in the Garo hills, reported
on by Mr. La Touche during the preceding season,* proved good, the
quantity bemg very considerable and the quality serviceable.

Mr. Foote was engaged in Madura and Tinnevelli, principally in
completing his map of the coast region and joining this work on to
Dr. King’s in Travancore. Mr. Hacket took up work in the wilder
parts of the Arvali range in Southern Mewar. but being warned by
the Political Agent of the hostility of the Bhil tribes, he employed
the rest of the season very usefully in examining some intricate
features along the Vindhyan boundary north-east of Neemuch. In
Kathiawar a large area along the coast region, from Bhaunagar
to Madhapur, consisting mostly of trap and post-tertiary rocks, with
a remnant of tertiary beds on the western sea-margin, was examined
by Mr. Fedden.

The principal object of Mr. Blanford’s work in the field season
1881-82 was to endeavour to trace northward the well-marked series
of tertiary rocks of Sind, and to follow their continuation if possible
into the Punjab, where there is not the same clue to classification in
the presence of marime beds above the eocene. Before taking up
this work Mr. Blanford was called upon to report again upon the
coal deposits to the west of Sibi, so he marched by the Bolan pass
to Quetta, examining the coal seams of Mach on the road. From
Quetta to Sibi he returned by the Harnai route, and visited the
Sharag coal locality, after which he skirted the western boundary
of the Bugti hills, and then marched from Jacobabad to Harrand in
the Punjab, through the heart of the Bugti country. From Harrand
he proceeded northward along the eastern flank of the Suliman

* “ Records,” Vol. XV., Part 3.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 257

range to some distance north of Dera Ghazi Khan. Here a severe
attack of fever compelled him to leave and return to England.
Besides effecting some important alterations in Mr. Griesbach’s
work about Quetta, one of the results of Mr. Blanford’s work was to
show that post-eocene marine deposits of Sind do not continue north
to the Punjab border. It was also found that the main chain of the
Suliman is composed of hard whitish sandstones, apparently
cretaceous, overlying lmestones and limestone shales, with a few
fossils belonging to the same system. By this important piece of
reconnaissance the greater portion of the gap between Sind and the
Punjab was bridged over. Throughout the area no beds of older
age than cretaceous were observed; by far the greater portion being
covered with tertiary deposits, the cretaceous rocks protruding only
in the neighbourhood of Quetta to the westward and along the
Suliman range to the eastward. The efforts made to trace a con-
nexion between the tertiary deposits of Sind and those of the Punjab
by following the rocks themselves to the northward, were fairly
successful, and some interesting fossils, mammalian and molluscan,
were obtained from Lower Siwalik beds, at localities discovered by
Captain Vicary nearly 40 years previously in the Bugti hills.

On the termination of his short leave in Hngland Mr. Griesbach
obtained permission to visit some places on the Continent, the
collections made in Armenia by Staatsrath von Abich proving
especially interesting in their close relationship to some of the
Himalayan fossils. On his return Mr. Griesbach proceeded to the
Tibetan frontier, but the cold was so intense as to impede his
explorations considerably. Mr. Oldham, who accompanied the
Manipur-Burma Boundary Commission, made a complete traverse
of the main range into the great alluvial and tertiary basin of the
Chindwin river. He also marched from Manipur northward into
the Naga hills, returning by the Assam valley, the indications
proving that the range is altogether a secondary one, a mere fender
of the great Malayan crystalline axis.

During the year two parts of Vol. XIX. of the “ Memoirs” were
published, the first being a description, with numerous illustrations,
of the great Cachar earthquake of the 10th January 1869.

The circumstances of this earthquake were observed and noted by
the late Dr. Oldham, superintendent of the survey, but the materials
were not published till 1883, when they were collated and skilfully
discussed by Mr. R. D. Oldham. The shock, it appears, originally

i Y 20321. R

258 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

came on at Silchar at a quarter to 5 p.m., with a gently undulating
movement, which, however, rapidly increased until neither men nor
animals could keep their legs, but were thrown down; the water in
tanks and rivers was violently agitated, and the Barak river rose in
huge waves and wrecked numbers of boats. The landslips caused
were numerous and extensive, and many homesteads were carried
down into the stream. At Manipur the Political Agent found the
motion of the ground most violent; it seemed to rise and fall m
waves of about three feet in height, and the Raja’s palace as well as
other houses were ruined, and there was some loss of life. At
another place (Kussilong), about 90 miles from Chittagong, a corre-
spondent reported that “It burst with tremendous force. The
* undulations were very severe and lasted nearly two minutes.
* Tt seemed as if some mighty wave were sweeping on under the
‘* earth, and as it passed the solid earth rose and fell with a motion
“« distinctly visible along the banks of the river and in the hills
* beyond. The ground was seen to roll wave-like, the hills to reel,
** and the trees to wave to and fro. The spectacle was wonderful
«“ and fearful.” The extreme limits of the area over which the same
shock or group of shocks was experienced must have exceeded 650
miles from north-west to south-east, and 400 miles in the conjugate
direction of north-east to south-west. Allowing for those districts
from which no reports happened to be received, the area affected
must have been fully a quarter of a million of square miles, a
tolerable index to the vastness of the forces developed.

Mr. Oldham is of opinion that the shock originated in a fissure
above 20 miles long, running underneath an area about three or four
miles broad and from 20 to 30 miles long, situated in north latitude
26° and east longitude 92° 40’, on the northern borders of the
Jamtia hills. The mean depth of the focus was probably about
30 miles, and the velocity of the wave particle 20 or 30 feet per
second. ‘The rate of transit could not be satisfactorily determined.*

The second part of Vol. XIX. of the ““ Memoirs” issued during the
same year (1882) contained a list of the thermal springs of India,
compiled by the late Dr. T. Oldham, and brought out by his son.
The geographical position, latitude and longitude, elevation of the
locality above sea-level, and the temperature of the water of the
spring are all given. The list is far completer than the last one

* A catalogue of Indian earthquakes, from 833 A.D. up to 1869, was prepared by
Dr. Oldham and published in the “ Memoirs,” Vol. XTX.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 259

prepared by Mr. R. Schlagintweit,* containing as it does 01 names
of springs as against only 90 enumerated by Mr. Schlagintweit.

Five fasciculi of the Paleontologia Indica were brought out in
1882, comprising a description of the fossil flora of the South Rewa
basin by Dr. Feistmantel, the Siwalik and Narbada Hquide, being
Part 3, Vol. IL., of the Tertiary Vertebrata Series, by Mr. Lydekker,
a fasciculus on the Brachiopoda of the Salt range by Dr. Waagen,
and two fasciculi on the fossil] Hehinoidea of Sind by Professor
Martin Duncan and Mr. Percy Sladen.

During the year 1882 Mr. W. T. Blanford was obliged to
take sick leave to Hurope, and under medical advice he was
subsequently compelled to retire from the service. He had spent
27 years in the arduous work of the Geological Survey, in which
from the very outset he had taken a leading part. He wrote
part of the report on the Talchir coal fields, the first paper in
the “‘ Memoirs,’ which have since extended to twenty-four volumes,
containing numerous contributions from his pen. Besides his
regular geological labours, Mr. Blanford has done a vast deal
for the zoology of India, on which he is the highest authority.
He was twice deputed on special missions out of India—with the
army to Abyssinia, and with the Seistan Boundary Commissioners to
Persia: and published special accounts of his researches in both
those countries. He was twice (in 1878 and 1879) elected President
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and so long ago as 1874 he was
elected, at his first nomination, a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1876 Dr. Oldham, on retirement, recommended Mr. Blanford as
his successor as Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India;
of this he was deprived only by a small matter of seniority, and in
recognition of his high claims Government rewarded him with a
special personal remuneration above the pay of his appointment.
Personally, as well as professionally, Mr. Blanford’s departure was
much regretted by his colleagues and the Government.

Since Mr. Blanford’s return to England, he has undertaken the
editing of the “Fauna of British India,” at the request of the
Secretary of State, 5; volumes of which have already appeared.
It is designed to form a complete series of manuals of Indian
zoology for schools and for students, and will be the standard work
on the subject.

* Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XX XIII, p. 49, 1864.
R 2

266 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Of the work achieved during 1883 Mr. Griesbach’s was probably
the most interesting, dealing as it did with the main Himalayan
range and its grand formations. He completed the survey of the
Hundes basin to its western limit on the fianks of the eneissic mass
of the Porgyal mountain which separates Hundes from Spiti. For
some important horizons he satisfied himself of the identity of the
sections in Spiti (as partly determined by Dr. Stoliczka) and those
in Hundes. From this region Mr, Griesbach had te hurry late in
October to join the expedition to the Takht-i-Suliman, on the
North-West frontier.* This remarkable peak consists of the
cretaceous sandstones with limestones described by Mr. Blanford
as forming the crest of the range 80 miles to the south.+

In Jaunsar, in the Lower Himalayas, Mr. Oldham succeeded in
introducing two unconformable and almost wholly detached groups
above the Deoban limestone where a great gap had always existed
between the tertiaries in the Simla section and the Krol group, for
which no age later than the trias had been conjectured. Further
researches into the character of the granitoid gneiss of the
Himalayas were made by Colonel McMahon, leading to the con-
clusion that much of it is intrusive and must properly be called
gneissose granite.

An important contribution to the lterature of the year was
Mr. Lydekker’s volume on the north-west Himalayas (“ Memoirs,”
Vol. XXITI.), the researches in the field for which had been concluded
two years previously.

Mr. La Touche was to have taken up the examination of the coal
field in the Garo hills, his preliminary visit to which was described
in the “ Records,” Vol. XVI., page 164, but instead he was deputed
to accompany Colonel Woodthorpe’s party in the exploration of the
Dehing basin, a region of much interest, as it probably reaches
beyond the zone of tertiary rocks fringing the Upper Assam valley
and beyond the range of the Arakan-Manipur axis. Unfortunately
this plan was interrupted by the Aka raid, the party being diverted
into that territory and Mr. La Touche with it. The ground is
Himalayan ground proper not far to the west of the Daphla
district, visited by Colonel Godwin-Austen in 1865, and probably
like it in structure.

The eastern parts of the Madura and Tinnevelli districts were
examined by Mr. Foote, and a sketch of the geological features of

* See above, p. 147, 7 “Memoirs,” Vol. XX., Part 2.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 261

the region appears in the “ Memoirs,” Vol. XX., Part]. The districts
both form part of the tract lying between the water-parting along
the axis of the Southern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal. Alone the
sea-board there runs a belt of sedimentary rocks, and westward a
great band of crystalline rocks, while the greater part of the low
country occupied by gneissic rocks in South Madura and North
Tinnevelly is covered with a widespread deposit of regur or black
cotton soil. Along the coast from Cape Comorin to the Paumben
channel a series of marine rocks, generally calcareous grits, forms a
narrow and broken fringe. This formation was once widely
extended, but has been removed by denudation, while the outliers
and patches of beds which have been left testify to the fact that
since their formation under the sea the country must have under-
gone an elevation of close upon 200 feet, if not more. There is
evidence of a somewhat similar phenomenon in an upheaved coral
reef on the northern coast of Rameswaram island, between India and
Ceylon; and the same cause, in Mr. Foote’s opinion, upraised both
the island and the mainland. It is difficult to resist the inferenco
that the same upheaval led to the formation of what is known to
the Hindus as Rama’s bridge, and to Mussulmans and Christians as
Adam’s bridge, the long narrow isthmus which once united Ceylon
to India; while to the same action again may be attributed the
formation of the long line of islets running parallel with the south
coast of Madura. Local history claims that Rameswaram island
was once completely joined to the terra firma on both sides, and
that both the Paumben strait and the other passages to the eastward
were breached by a tremendous storm about 1480 A.D. The action
of the waves has broken the barrier into large flat blocks, which so
strongly resemble a series of gigantic stepping stones that it is easy
to fall in with the imagination of the author of the Ramayana,
which ascribed artificial construction to the bridge.*

The two great groups into which the soils of ‘Tinnevelly and
Madura are divisible are the red and the black, the former being -

* According to the famous old Hindu epic, the construction of the bridge was due
to the industry of the great army of monkeys and bears led by Rama and his long-tailed
friends, Sugriva and Hanuman, when they proceeded to invade Lanka (Ceyion), during
the war with Rama, the king of demons and the abductor of Sita, Rama’s wife.
The engineering part of the undertaking was specislly entrusted to the monkey Nala,
ason of Viwakarma, the famous architect. Perhaps the upheaval of Rama’s bridge
may have occurred within the semi-mythical time preceding some invasion of the
heretical Buddhist kingdom of Lanka (Ceylon) by the Brahmanical Aryans of the
mainland and their Dravidian allies.

262 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

generally the product of decomposition in situ of underlying
ferruginous rocks. A very curious feature connected with this red
loamy soil is the enormous number of white-ants’ nests, which are
of a bright red colour, attain a height of five to eight feet, and are
often so numerous as to affect very strikingly the character of the
foreground. There is no part of the south of India in which blown
sands play so large and important a part as in the Tinnevelly
district and along the south coast of Madura. They are of two
kinds—the red sand or feris and the white, which are ordinary sand
dunes. The former are attributed by Mr. Foote to the action of
the heavy and continuous gales prevalent (sometimes for four
months) during the 8.W. monsoon on the broad belt of deep red
loam which skirts the eastern base of the Ghats. It is evident that
these sands bear a great resemblance, though on a smaller scale, to
the red sands of the Nefud or great desert of Central Arabia
described by Mr. Palgrave, Lady Anne Blunt, M. Huber, and other
Arabian travellers. But the origin of the red sands of the Neftd is
still involved in uncertainty.

Mr. Mallet’s investigation of the iron ores in the Katni district,
in north Jabalpur,* shewed that all the other conditions for extensive
iron manufacture were favourable if suitable coal could be found.
Mr. Fedden, by prolonging the season’s work well into the hot
weather, was enabled to complete his survey of Kathiawar.
The area is principally occupied by Deccan trap, of which it was
not desirable to attempt a detailed survey throughout, so the work
lay principally in tertiary or post-tertiary deposits of the coastal
region, with some secondary rocks on the north-east margin.

Five parts of the “Memoirs” were published during the year.
Part 3 of Volume XIX. contained the catalogue of Indian earthquakes
mentioned above (page 258, note), and Part 4 Mr. Oldham’s account
of his examination of an area of about 1,800 square miles to the east
and in the north of the valley of Manipur, with the neighbouring Naga
hills. This country is densely covered with vegetation, and for whole
days one may march without seeing a single rock, while the want
of population or else savages of doubtful temperament offered great
impediments to Mr. Oldham’s researches. Geologically, the region
has no great feature of interest, and the economic minerals are
poor.

* « Records,” Vol. XV., Part 2.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 263

The other volumes issued during the year (XX. and XXII.)
contain the memoirs by Messrs. Blanford, Foote, and Lydekker,
already referred to.

The Records for the year (Vol. XVI.) embrace 24 articles of varied
interest with numerous maps and plates. Of the ‘“ Paleeontologia
Indica,” a full part containing a large section of the Brachiopoda
of the productus limestone of the Salt range, by Dr. Waagen, was
published; also a part on the tertiary Hchinoidea of Kach and
Kathiawar, by Dr. Duncan. Mr. Mallet issued a descriptive catalogue
of the systematic series of minerals in the museum, and a guide to
the economic mineral products, giving a very instructive account of
each class of substance, its use and distribution.

With the co-operation of Mr. H. F. Blanford, the Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of India, some simple seismometric
instruments were set up at Silchar, Sibsagar, and Shillong, forming
a group for the determination of centres of earth disturbance in
Assam.

During the year two able members of the Department retired.
Mr. Wynne, who had left India on medical certificate in 1880, had,
after several extensions of sick leave, to be finally invalided in 1883.
He had joimed the Indian Service in 1862, having already had
several years geological experience in Ireland. In India some
choice fields of work fell to him, such as Cutch and the Salt range,
excellent illustrated descriptions of which have appeared in the
“ Memous.”’ Mr. Lydekker, the other retirmg member, had had a
short but a very busy career. He joined the Survey in 1874, and
as soon as the collections were moved to the new museum and
amaloamated with those of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he under-
took the arrangement and description of the extensive series of
tertiary vertebrate fossils, large additions to which were made by
Mr. Theobald in the Punjab. Mr. Lydekker’s description of the
Siwalik fauna in the ‘“ Paleeontologia Indica” will form an enduring
record of his zeal and ability.

During the same year two new assistants joined the Survey,
Mr. E. J. Jones, A.S.R.M., and Mr. C.S. Middlemiss, B.A. (Cantab).

The Karnul cave explorations commenced by Mr. Foote, and
continued by his son Lieut. H. B. Foote, R.A., proved to be on the
whole encouraging, a large number of bones were secured, some of
animals that do not now inhabit the region, some human remains
and articles of human manufacture, the latter at the considerable

264 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

depth of 16 feet, but nothing to show that the caves had ever been
used as dwellings or as a place of sepulture. Mr. Foote was alxo
called upon to explore for coal along an intended line of railway
between Haidarabad and the Kistna. Between Bezvada and the
Singareni coal field, and from the latter to Haidarabad, the country
proved to be all of gneissic rocks, but Mr. Foote’s labours were
rewarded by the discovery of a strong lode of rich iron close to the
Singareni coal field.

Dr. King’s survey of the coal fields on the north-east confines of
Chattisgarh was described in the “ Records” (Vol. XVIL., Part 3).
In South Rewa regular mining explorations of the Umaria coal
field had been commenced under Mr. Hughes’s direction in 1883,
and the shafts proved so satisfactory that steps were taken to
establish a colliery there with a branch railway from Katni to
Jabalpur. Mr. Hughes also managed to complete the examination
of the southern coal fields of the Rewa Gondwana basin, the total
area of exposed measures proved to be no less than 1,800 square
miles.

Mr. Bose took up new ground in the basin of the upper
Mahanadi, but the results were not deemed satisfactory by Mr.
Medlicott, who indeed referred prominently to this as an additional
proof of the unsuitableness of natives of India for the faculty of
independent research and critical observation required to make a
good geologist. Mr. Medlicott adds that the Geological Suryey is
about the only branch of the puble service in which natives could
not as yet reasonably find employment.

Mr. Qldham submitted full progress reports of his work in the
Himalayan region, embracing a section from the plains to the base
of the main range; his detailed conclusions are summarised under
nine different heads in Mr. Medlicott’s report. Mr. Griesbach was,
unfortunately, taken seriously il] at Kohat, after the expedition to
Vakht-i-Suliman, but after recoverme his strength, at Simla he
was appointed to accompany the Afghan Boundary Commission in
the capacity of geologist. The results of the Takht-i-Suliman
observations were published in the “ Records” (Vol. XVII., Part 4),
and the same volume contains Mr. Mallet’s examination of ores
from the Andaman islands.

Harly in the season Mr. La Touche accompanied the expedition
into the Aka hills, north of Tezpur, in Assam. The dense vegeta-
tion prevented any observation of the rocks except in the stream

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 265

courses. The section was found to correspond with that observed in
the Daphla hills to the east by Colonel Godwin Austen, and
with that described by Mr. Mallet in the Bhutan Duars to the
west. Inside the tertiary zone there is a belt of carboniferous
Damuda strata bordering the schistose rocks of the higher hills.
Here too, as elsewhere, along the foot of the Himalayas, the coal
is so crushed as to be unserviceable. Later on Mr. La Touche
examined the Longrin coal field on the south-west edge of the Garo
hills. His report, which is published with a map in Vol. XVII. of
the “ Records,” Part 3, shows that the field offers an abundant supply
of very fair coal easily accessible on the very borders of the plain of
Sylhet.

In connexion with the record of Indian geological progress, men-
tion may be here made of a very instructive discussion of geological
homotaxis given by Mr. W. T. Blanford in -his address as
President io the Geological Section of the British Association on
the occasion of their meeting at Montreal. Being mainly illustrated
from Indian geology the paper was reprinted in the “ Records.”
Mr. Blanford is inclined to modify Professor Huxley’s statement
that “for anything that geology or paleontology is able to show
“* to the contrary, a Devonian fauna and flora in the British Islands
“ may have been contemporaneous with Silurian life in North
« America, and with a carboniferous fauna and flora in Africa.’’*
Granting such conditions to be possible for a terrestrial fauna or
flora, Mr. Blanford considers that the marine fauna would give
a much nearer approximation to synchrony. Mr. Oldham also
dealt with the same subject in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal for 1884 (Part II., p. 187), and illustrated from Indian
paleontology the great discrepancies in correlations of time from
fossil evidence. He also endeavoured to establish synchronous
relations of distant formations through the evidence of periods of
glaciation, and arrived at the conclusion that in early secondary
times the crust of the earth did not occupy the same position with
respect to the axis of rotation as it does now.

Two memoirs were published in 1884, Mr. Bose’s on the Lower
Narbada valley between Nimawar and Kawant, and Mr. Fedden’s
on Kathiawar, each with a map. They form Parts 1 and 2 of Vol.
XXI. In the “‘ Palzontologia Indica,” five parts of Series X., the
Indian Tertiary and Post Tertiary Vertebrata by Mr. Lydekker,
were published during tie year, forming a very valuable addition to

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. XVIIL, p. xlvi.

266 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

that branch of the Survey publications. Dr. Waagen also furnished
two parts (Nos. 3 and 4) of the Brachiopoda of the Productus
Limestone, and a huge fasciculus of Series XIV., with 18
admirably executed plates descriptive of the tertiary and upper
cretaceous fossils of Sind, was issued from the pen of Professor
Martin Duncan.

Some interesting contributions of ores, rocks, and other
geological specimens were made to the museum from the Inter-
national Hxhibition held in Calcutta, the principal presentations
being made by the Ministers for Mines in New South Wales and
Victoria, and the Tasmanian Commissioners.

During 1885 Mr. R. D. Oldham took a trip to Australia to enable
him to study the Gondwana rocks of that region, and his memo-
randum on the correlation of the Indian and Australian coal-bearing
beds is published in Vol. XITX., Part 1, of the * Records.” Dr. King
was chiefly engaged in directing the practical exploration of the
Rampur coal field, which is the southern portion of the Raigarh
and Hingir basin, formerly surveyed by Mr. Ball in 1876, but
unfortunately the coal has proved uniformly bad in quality.

During 1884-85 Mr. Foote was able to take up his survey in the
Bellary district, from which he had been called away in the
previous season to search for coal in the gneiss of Haidarabad. The
Sandur hills to the west of Bellary were the principal objects of
investigation ; they are formed by one of the bands of transition
rocks that traverse the peninsula with a N.N.W. trend, and are all
remnants of a once widespread formation which Mr. Foote now
unites and distinguishes as the Dharwar series, and shows to be
unconformable to the gneiss with which it has been intimately
associated by complete folding together. In the Sandur hills
there occur masses of rich hematite. Mr. Foote made a careful
examination of the well-known diamond field at Wadjra Karur, to
which special interest attached on account of mining operations
started there by Messrs. Orr and Sons of Madras. But in spite of
the occurrence of a peculiar trappean rock, declared to be identical
with the famous diamond matrix of Kimberley, no speck of the
gem was discovered. Mr. Hacket covered a large area (some
3,000 square miles) of new ground in Mewar, in continuation of
his previous work to the north. It is entirely composed of the
same obscure rocks—the schist hmestones and quartzites of the
Arvali system in transitional relation with gneiss and granite masses.
Mount Abu is a mass of coarse highly felspathic gneiss.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 267

Mr. Griesbach contributed to the February number of the
“Records” a small instalment of his observations with the Afghan
Boundary Commission. ‘The southern route taken to Herat crossed
the continuation of the tertiary and cretaceous formation previously
described by him at and west of Kandahar (“‘ Memoirs,’ XVIII, 1),
the hippuritic limestone being very prominent with copious intrusions
of basic trap and syenitic granite. In the axial range of the Siah
Koh and Doshakh, south of the Herat valley, paleeozoic rocks make
their first appearance, as represented by a carboniferous Productus
limestone, dipping northwards towards the Hari Rud valley. The
Paropamisus range, north of the valley, seems to be largely made
up of a great plant-bearing series which Mr. Griesbach provisionally
parallels with the Indian Gondwana system, conjecturing that it
overlies the carboniferous productus-limestone. In notes of a
year’s later date, published in the “ Records,” Mr. Griesbach adheres
to this general rock sequence, and describes its distribution in the
Binalat and other ranges of eastern Khorasan.

The result of Mr. Oldham’s observations in the Andamans is
published, with a map, in the “ Records,” and gives generally the
classification and distribution of the rocks, with a digest of all
previous explorations. Mr. La Touche was again despatched from
the Garo hills to take advantage of the topographical exploration
party to the head waters of the Dehing* on the extreme east frontier
of Assam. In that region the conditions are very unfavourable for
ceological observations on account of the dense vegetation. It has,
however, been ascertained that the whole upper valley of the Dehing
is occupied by tertiary deposits, chiefly sandstones, while the actual
crest of the ridges to north and east are of crystalline rocks. Un«
fortunately, Mr. La Touche did not accompany tke officers who
crossed the water-shed, consequently the opportunity of extending
the geological observations into the valley of the north-west branch
of the Irawadi. A good season’s work was done by Mr. Jones in
mapping the whole area hitherto known as the Pench coal field, and
for some distance to the west in the direction of the Shahpur coal
field, on the south side of the Satpura Gondwana basin. The field
is, however, remote and inaccessible. Further light was shed on the
geology of the Lower Himalayan region, where the absence of fossil
guidance has always proved a perplexity, by the discovery by

* See p. 79.

268 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Mr. Middlemiss of some fossils east of the Tal river. He ascribes
the normal position of this Tal group as above the massive limestone
and thus next below the nummulitic band. Mr. Middlemiss also
investigated the circumstances of the Bengal earthquake, and
secured some good observations in positions favourable for ascer-
taining the focus of the shock. The Kashmir earthquake, which
was reported on by Mr. Jones, was far more difficult to investigate
critically, owing to the rough mode of construction of the native
houses, the heavy earthen roofs having simply collapsed between
crumbling walls, leaving little trace of direction. The same cause
also made it most disastrous in respect of loss of life.

Dr. Feistmantel, the permanent Paleontologist of the Survey,
resigned his appointment at the termination of his two years’
furlough, having accepted a professorship at Prague. In his three
volumes on the Gondwana Flora this learned and energetic officer
has cleared up many difficulties connected with the principal rock
system of India, and suppled a standard for future work in that
branch of paleontology.

The work of the Survey had necessarily suffered from the absence
of a paleontologist, but, nevertheless, the co-operation of savants
enabled some important papers to be issued during the year. The
fossil Echinoidea from the Gaj or miocene series of Sind were
described by Professor Martin Duncan and Mr. Percy Sladen, and
two instalments of Dr. Waagen’s work on the Salt range fossils were
also published. Mr. Lydekker also brought out two parts of the
‘ Paleeontologia Indica,” dealing with Indian Pretertiary Vertebrata,
and a third part (No. 6 of Series X., on the Siwalik and Narbada
Chelonia) devoted to tertiary and post-tertiary vertebrata.

During 1886 Mr. Foote, whose work had been confined to the
Madras Presidency during the two previous seasons, mapped a con-
siderable area, in extension of his previous work in Bellary, both of
eneiss and of his Dharwar schistose series. The researches of
Mr. Foote’s son, Lieutenant H. Foote, R.A., in the Karnul cave
resulted in the discovery of very interesting fauna, which has
been described by Mr. Lydekker in the “ Palzontologia Indica.” A
large number of the species, according to this authority, are now
cither totally extinct or not living in India, and are not newer than
pleistocene. They display numerous affinities with African types,
i feature previously noted regarding the tertiary Siwalik fauna

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 269

of India. Dr. King’s regular work in the hills west of the Chattis-
garh plains was necessarily interrupted by his having to superintend
the coal explorations in the fields far to the east, which, however,
did not promise a fair supply of fuel. In the remote hill country,
far to the north of Korba, a large new coal field was traced out by
Sub-assistant Hira Lal; it is the western extension of the measures
noticed some yearsago by Mr. Ball at their eastern extremity as the
Lakanpur field. Mr. Hughes’ deputation in charge of the Umaria
colliery was followed by his examination of the rocks above the coal
measures, in which he found some new localities for fossils.
Mr. Jones’s work during the season of 1886 was the completion of
the survey cf the southern coal field of the Satpura Gondwana
basin. There are altogether 11 separate areas where the coal
measures group is exposed, seven of them being in the Chindwara
district, while four adjoining areas in the Betul district were mapped
and described some years ago.* The quality of the coal, as ascer-
tained from outcrop samples, was not very encouraging, and during
the two seasons work no recognisable fossils were found. Mr.
Hacket’s operations in Rajputana were confined to the older rocks,
the Arvalis and the Vindhyans, to the west of which, in the more or less
desert country of Jaisalmer, the existence of fossiliferous limestones
has been known for many years. Mr. Oldham was deputed to
explore in 1886 the northern extension of the jurassic strata towards
Bikanir, for the purpose of seeing whether he could fix upon a
Talchir bed, which all over India forms the base of the Gondwana
coal measures. Mr. La ‘Touche made good progress with his work in
the Garo hills, and his notes appeared in the “‘ Records” (Vol. XX.) ;
and Mr. Middlemiss investigated an obscure point presented by the
discovery of a long ellipse of crystalline schists surrounded by a
narrow fringe of newer strata, immediately east of the Ganges and
at the edge of the lower Himalayan region just inside the fringing
zone of sub-Himalayan rocks.

On the 1st November Mr. Griesbach returned to India with the
Afghan Boundary Commission not much the worse for his two years’
wanderings. His notes appear in the “ Records.” The geology of the
Herat valley is shortly described in Vol. XVIII., Part 1. Afghan
and Persian field notes, dealing with Eastern Khorasan and the
Herat province, are contained in Vol. XIX., Part 1, while a very

* “Records,” G. S. J., VIII, 1875.

270 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

full and valuable sketch of the geology of Afghan Turkistan appears
in Part 4 of the same volume. The fourth or concluding batch of
notes treats of the return march of the Commission from Turkistan
over the Hindu Kush and through Kabul to India.

In the little known region of Gilgit, Astor, and Baltistan, and the
country beyond, the observations made by Dr. G. M. Giles, though
not those of a professed geologist, supplied some valuable informa-
tion about a large area from the Pamir through Wakhan and
eastern Badakhshan across the Hindu Kush at its supposed roots,
and back through Chitral and Yasin. The whole of the large area
presented apparently an extension of the conditions known in
Baltistan ; no trace of a fossiliferous rock was seen ; crystalline and
schistose rocks greatly preponderated, with only a few less altered
slaty specimens. Throughout the eastern and central part of the
area an east-west strike was very constant, while on the west side,
i.e.,on what is represented as the axis of the Hindu Kush, the
prevailing strike of the rocks was north to south, though often
irregular. There remains a belt of unknown ground (over 150 miles)
between Charikar and Chitral to which peculiar interest attaches,
both from a geological and geographical point of view.

Several parts of the “ Paizeontologia Indica”? came to a natural
close with the end of the year, Mr. Lydekker, who has earned much
reputation in that branch, having pretty well cleared off all the fossil
vertebrata, though of course further collections have since been made.
With the fasciculus on the Echinoidea of the Makran series of the
Baluchistan and Persian Gulf coasts Professor P. Martin Duncan
completed a portly volume, forming Vol. I. of Series XIV., the
“Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous Fauna of Western India.” Dr.
Waagen made good progress with his important volume on the fossils
of the productus-limestone of the Salt range, one part (the
Coelenterata) being issued in 1886.

The year 1887 was marked by the retirement, on the 27th of
April, of Mr. H. B. Medlicott, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., after a con-
tinuous service of over 30 years in India. Mr. Medlicott became
Superintendent (a title afterwards altered to Director) after the
retirement of the late Dr. T. Oldham in 1876, and the admirable and
efficient manner in which he conducted the responsible duties of the
Department is amply borne out by the official records of the Survey.
In collaboration with Mr. W. T. Blanford, then Senior Deputy
Superintendent, he produced the first and second parts of the

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 271

‘Manual of the Geology of India,” since out of print. Besides his
part in the Manual, Mr. Medlicott wrote five of the memoirs of the
Geological Survey of India, which are works on special formations
or districts: but his peculiar genius for conducting the Survey and
for treating the multifarious questions which came before him is
more specially displayed in the ‘‘ Records,” to which he contributed
no fewer than 44 papers in all.* His long and valuable services
were thus acknowledged by the Government, on the receipt of his
last annual report :—

* As this is the last occasion on which the annual report will be submitted by you,
the Government of India desires to take the opportunity of placing on record its
appreciation of your long and valuable services, and to recugnise the zealous manner
in which you have discharged the duties of superintendence and direction, and the

devotedness with which you have supported the cause of Geological Science in India,
I am to add that the marked advance which has been made in the investigation of the

* The complete list of his non-official writings, as far as ascertainable, is as
follows :—

“On the Geology of Portraine, county of Dublin.”—Jour. Dub. Geol. Soc., V. 264,
1850-53.

“On the Sub-Himalayan rocks between the Ganges and the Jumna.’”—-J. A. S. B.,
XXX., 22.

“Note relating to Siwalik Fauna.”—J. A. 8. B., XXXIV., pt. 2, 63.

“On the action of the Ganges.”—P. A. S. B., 1868, 232.

“On a celt from the ossiferous ‘Pliocene’ deposits of the Narbada valley.”—
Pp A. S. B., 1873, 138.

“ Record of the Khairpur Meteorite of 23rd Sept. 1873.”"—J. A. S. B., XLUT.,
pt. 2, 33.

“Exhibition of a Meteorite from Raipur.”—P, A. S. B., 1876, 115.

“Exhibition of Meteorites recently fallen in India, with remarks upon them.’—
P. A. S. B., 1876, 221.

‘Remarks on Himalayan Glaciation.” P. A.S. B., 1877, 3.

“Note on Mr. J. F. Campbell’s remarks on Himalayan Glaciation.’—J. A. S. B.,
XLVI., pt. 2, 17.

“ }exhibition of the new Geological Map of India.”—P. A. S. B., 1878, 124.

“ Exhibition of some Geological specimens from Afghanistan.”—P. A. S. B.,
1880, 3.

** Exhibition of a specimen of rock-salt from the Chakmani Territory.”—P. A. S. B.,
1880, 123.

“* Note on Chloromelanite.’—P. A. S. B., 1883, 80.

“ Ncte on the Reh efflorescence of North-Western India, and on the waters of some
of the rivers and canals.”

“ Lithological Nomenclature.”—Geol. Mag. IV., 83, 1867.

“The Alps and the Himalayas: a Geological comparison.”—Quar. J. Geol. Soc.,
XXIIL., 323, 1867 ; XXIV., 34, 1868; Phil. Mag., XXXIV., 396, 1867.

* On faults in Strata.”—Geol. Mag. VI., 341, 1869, VIJ., 473, 1870.

ie) GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Geological conditions of India during your tenure of office is maa creditable to your
self, and that it is undouhtedly leading to the development of the mineral resources
of the empire, as well as the material extension of scientific knowledge.”

On Dr. King taking over the directorship in April 1887 from
Mr. Medlicott, he found the staff of the Survey still below the
normal number. The distribution over the vast area of the Indian
Empire was as follows :—

Mr. Foote on special deputation to the Mysore Government.
Mr. Mallet, Museum and Laboratory.

Mr. Hughes, special deputation with the Deccan Company,
Hyderabad.

Mr. Fedden, Vizagapatam.

Mr. Hacket, Rajputana.

Mr. Griesbach, just returned from the Afghan Boundary
Commission.

Mr. Oldham, Salt range.

Mr. Bose, Chattisgarh.

Mr. La Touche, Assam.

Mr. Middlemiss, Himalayas.

Mr. Jones, Upper Burma.

Two of the vacancies were subsequently filled up by the appoint-
ment of Dr. Fritz Noetling (Berlin University) as Palaeontologist,
and of Mr. Philip Lake (Cantab.) as assistant superintendent; on
the other hand, Mr. Huches’s engagement with the Deccan Company
continued until May 1888, and Mr. Griesbach was deputed for two
years to Afghanistan as geologist to the Amir of that country.
Mr. La Touche was also selected for work under the Kashmir
Government. These various calis from Native administrations were
of course in the nature of distinction; nevertheless, they formed an
interruption to the regular work of the Survey. Mr. Foote’s study
of the auriferous veins of Mysore resulted in a lengthy and valuable
report, founded on a rapid tour through the province. Mr. Fedden,
who was transferred to the Madras Presidency at the end of 1886,
took up work in the Vizagapatam district, with the endeavour to
fill in the large unsurveyed gap between the Godavari and the
Ganjam districts in the Northern Circar, and he had been going on
steadily with his work when he suddenly died at Vizagapatam on
the 27th December 1887. He was one of the oldest and most valued
members of the Department, and had only just attained the long
looked-for promotion to the Ist grade.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. Vile

Dr. King’s executive work closed with his boring experiences in
the Chattisgarh coal fields, one tract in which, near Korba, yielded
workable coal of good quality. The credit of the find was due to
Sub-assistant Hira Lal. Mr. Hacket continued his researches in
Rajputana, and Mr. Middlemiss steadily and energetically pursued
his proper work in the lower Himalayas about British Garhwal and
Kumaun, the results of which are given in a series of papers in the
** Records.”

On the application of the Kashmir Government for a geologist to
report on the sapphires in Zanskar, Mr. La 'l'ouche was detached
from his recess work in Assam. He was able to work fora month
at the spot which hes just below the snow line, and took the
advantage to examine the Jammu coal, originally discovered by
Mr. Medlicott, on which he was inclined to look hopefully. Mr. E.
J. Jones was fully occupied until the end of the season in examining
the principal coal fields in Upper Burma as well as the metalliferous
mines in the Shan hills, reports on which appeared in the ‘‘ Records.”
Another work by Mr. Jones claiming notice was the 24th volume of
the memoirs “Southern Coal Fields of the Satpura Gondwana
basin.” Mr. R. Lydekker’s description of the ‘‘ Hocene Chelonia
from the “Salt range’* was issued during the year, as well as
Mr. Mallet’s Part IV., ‘“ Mineralogy,’ of the ‘‘ Manual of the
Geology of India,’ a very fitting complement of that important
and useful work.

The Madras gold-bearing rocks occupied Mr. Foote during the
whole of 1888, and his observations thereon were published in the
* Records’ with a map showing the localities of gold occurrence in the
presidency. ‘The area over which these bands of transition rocks
occur in Southern India is enormous, extending N.N.W. and 8.8.E.
over 192 miles, while the number of spots in this huge tract which
have been mined in past times by a so far unknown people is very
remarkable. The story of the struggles and ultimate success of the
Kolar mines, which occur in the easternmost part of the Dharwar
rocks, is well known, and Dr. King favours the conclusion that other
gold fields of equal, if not superior, richness to these are still lying
fallow. The Singareni coal field was successfully exploited by
Mr. Hughes; the area proved greater than that of the Umaria estate
and the Karharbari field; the coal was good steam coal with little

* Jn Series ¥., Vol. 1V., Part I11,, of the “ Paleontologia Indica,”
+ Y 20391. 8

274 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

or no clinker, and containing only the average amount of ash, while
the entire series of the measures is within the easy reach of the
surface.

Mr. Lake was deputed to work out the geology of the west coast
in the long strip of country between Cochin and Karwar. One
noteworthy discovery made was that of an oil shale among the
strata underlying Calicut, indicating a possible relation with the oil
traced in the Alleppi mud bank and the smooth waters adjacent.
Mr. Bose was commissioned to make a thorough examination of the
Gosalpur manganese ores in the Central Provinces. He estimated
the total quantity of pyrolusite (manganese ores) at about 50,000
tons in addition to about 20,000 tons from neighbouring deposits, a
supply which may be described as practically inexhaustible. Mr.
Bose subsequently resumed work in Balaghat among the trausition
and Vindhyan rocks, while Babu Kishen Singh investigated the
limits of the Deccan trap in the Chindwara district, after which he
joimed Mr. Bose in the study of the more intricate but economically
important rocks of Balaghat. Mr. Hacket was unfortunately unable
to extend his observations sufficiently to the westward of Jodhpur
to touch on the Gondwanas. His work lay west of Mount Abu and
the Arvalis, but partly from the increasingly complicated associa-
tion of the very altered rocks in that region, and partly from failing
health which necessitated his retirement from the service, but little
progress was made towards a solution of the geology of the region.
Mr. Oldham procured specimens of flexible sandstone, a very peculiar
decomposition-form of certain quartzites belonging to the transition
series occurring at Kaliana in the Jhind State, for which frequent
inquiry had been made both from Europe and America.

Renewed search for materials required for the development of
the iron industry at the Barakar (Bengal) works was prosecuted by
Mr. Jones, and further progress was made by Babu Hira Lal in
mapping the extensive coal tracts of the western portion of Chota
Nagpur. Portions of the Rampur, Sirgujah, and Lakhanpur coal
fields and of the adjacent area were described; all the coal outerops
were examined and recorded, and assays were made of such seams
as were thought worth trying, some of them giving very fair
results. Attempts were also made to test the capabilities of two
of the coal fields of the Rajmahal hills, but the results were not
thoroughly conclusive. On this point Dr. King remarks that
skilled and experienced miners are rare in India, while boring plant

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 21D

is almost equally difficult to obtain. The best plan for coping with
these difficulties, he suggests, is to vest the conduct of these
operations in the hands of the Geological Survey, who would arrange
for sets of boring and mining plant to be stored at a convenient
centre, the actual duties being entrusted to a mining manager with
a small staff of subordinates, selected in some cases from young
men trained in an engineering school like Sibpur College. By this
means mining questions would be settled more quickly and econo-
mically, and a class of trained reliable men would be gradually
formed in India ready to fill the many posts now filled by highly
paid men imported from England or the Continent.

Dr. King paid a visit to Baluchistan and the Sind frontier to
inspect the coal outcrops and oil resources in those parts. At
Khost on the Sind-Pishin Railway thin seams of tertiary coal were
being worked at the outcrops a mile or so behind the station, but
in face of the very fitful continuity of the coal and the extremely
unstable character of the beds above and below, necessitating a costly
mode of holding up the workings, Dr. King recommended a close
stratigraphical survey of the valley before further extension of the
operations. As to petroleum, that brought to the surface by
Mr. R. A. Townsend at Khatan gave good promise, and Dr. King
says there are other likely localities among certain bands of the
tertiary rocks.

During the year Mr. La Touche’s deputation with the Kashmir
Durbar came to a close; he had not only given valuable information
regarding the sapphire rocks in the Zanskar district, but also on
the Jammu coal and the ironworks and ores near the village of
Soap in the Kashmir valley. On his return through Murree he also
furnished a report on the water supply of the station.

Owing to the demand for latest information respecting the
geological structure of the Himalayas, and to the fact that there
had been no general review of our knowledge thereof since the
publication of the ‘‘ Manual,’ Mr. Oldham put forward a valuable
paper in the “ Records” on the sequence and correlation of the pre-
tertiary sedimentary formation of the Simla region of the Lower
Himalayas. A later paper of his on the geology of the North-
Western Himalayas gives further observations in Spiti, Ladak, and
Kashmir. Mr. Middlemiss also contributed a further paper
(No. III.) on the study of the crystalline and metamorphic rocks
of the Lower Himalayas, Garhwal, and Kumaun.

5 2

276 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Mr, R. A. Townsend, superintendent of petroleum works in
Baluchistan, was deputed during the rains to look up the oil
indications in the neighbourhood of the Naga hills, the geo-
logical relations of which had already been dealt with in the
papers of Messrs. Medlicott and Mallet. Mr. Townsend’s report
on Makum was very encouraging. ‘The oil fields of Yenang-gyung,
Thayetmyo, and other places in Burma were examined by
Dr. Noetling, though this involved of course the temporary stoppage
of his proper work as paleontologist of the Survey. He also
recognised silurian rocks in the Shan hills, with the limestones of
which is associated a very important and extensive band of iron
ore, and his expedition to the ruby limestone tracts of Madya and
Kya-whyat yielded some satisfactory information. Mr. Hughes on
rejoining the Survey was also posted to Burma. In connexion with
his researches there he made a special visit to the mines of Perak,
after which he investigated the tin ores of Tenasserim.

The publications of the year comprised 16 papers (five of which
were of considerable economic interest) in the ‘‘ Records,” a very
useful bibhography of Indian geology compiled by Mr. Oldham,
and the concluding part of the “ Productus Limestone Fossils of the
Salt Range,” by Dr: Waagen.

At the International Geological Congress held in London in“
September 1888, the Indian Survey was represented by Mr. Medlcott
and Mr. W. T. Blanford, while Mr. Oldham also availed himself
of a brief term of privilege leave to exhibit there specimens of
interest from India. Mr. Blanford had also been officially deputed
by the Government of India to represent the Indian Survey at the
Congress in Bologna in 1881 (see page 255), and at Berlin in 1885.

In 1889 Mr. Foote examined the auriferous tract around
Chiggateri, and considered it well worthy of being systematically
prospected. He also investigated the economic geology of the
Sandur State, where are great beds of hematitic iron ore, affording
a practically inexhaustible supply of iron. The only difficulty in
the way appears to be the scarcity of fuel in the immediate neigh-
bourhood. On the southward slope of the western range of the
Sandur hills, Mr. Foote discovered an important argillite formation
very rich in nodular oxide of manganese or pyrolusite, capable of
being easily mined by open workings on a large scale. Mr. Lake
surveyed a considerable tract extending over some 1,000 square
miles in South Malabar, but was unable to complete the blank still
existing here in the geological map, as he was then transferred to

———

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. Qik

Baluchistan to explore for coal and oil. At the close of the working
season, and just as the S.W. monsoon was bursting on the coast,
Mr. Lake was deputed to Alleppi to study the action of the famous
mud banks there.*

The question of utilising the clays and coals occurring in the
neighbourhood of Jabalpur for pottery works has claimed attention
for years past, and Mr. Mallet made an exhaustive examination
which led to the satisfactory result of works being started at
Jabalpur by Messrs. Burn and Co. of Calcutta.+ Mr. Mallet also
made an interesting series of experiments on steatite from various
parts of India. This was in response to a demand preferred by the
Secretary of State, and the tests applied proved that the product of
the Karnul district of Madras was the most likely to compete
successfully with the costly material now imported from Germany.
Dr. King considers that if steps were taken to work quarries the
prospect of this new industry would be very hopeful.

The development of the gold industry in Madras has led to
attention being turned to Chota Nagpur, which from time immemorial
has been known for its native gold washings and occasional: finds of
decided fragments of gold, and a syndicate has been formed to work
the neighbourhood of Sonapet. Geological reports on the subject
already exist from the pen of Mr. V. Ball, but Dr. Noetling has
submitted a reportt containing some further information.

In Extra-peninsular India Mr. HE. J. Jones took up a further
examination of the outcrops of coal in the Sharigh valley, and came
to the conclusion that the Khost seam is still the one which can be
relied upon for fuel for that section of the frontier railway.
Mr. R. D. Oldham has been investigating the coal and oil condition
of the tract traversed by the railway, a task which has for the
present delayed the publication of his work in the Dehra and Simla
portion of the Lower Himalayas. Mr. La Touche was engaged on
more detailed reports on the coal fields of the Khasia and Jaintia
hills, and at the conclusion of the working season he was attached
to the Lushai column of the Chin-Lushai expedition, which investi-
gated the wild and obscure intermediate country between Chittag gong
pid Upper Burma.

* A full account of these banks and of the literature of the subject has been written
by Dr. King, and will be found in the “ Records of the Geological Survey of India,”
Vol. XVII., pp. 14-27.

+ Mr. Mallet’s report appeared in the “ Records” for May 1889.

{ See “ Records” for 1890, Part I.

278 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

The investigation and working of tin in Tenasserim continued
in the hands of Mr. Hughes, and towards the end of the year a
professional staff of Huropeans and Chinese miners were obtained
from the Straits Settlements. The conditions of tin mining in the
Mergui district are fully set forth in Mr. Hughes’s paper in the
“ Records” for August 1889.

In Upper Burma much was done by Dr. Noetling in the
rather rapid explorations which he had to make in regions known
for coal, oil, iron, and precious stones; while so engaged he was
also employed in framing suggestions for the Government for a
code of mineral concessions and leases. His most important works
were reports on the Yenan-gyung oil fields and Chindwin coal field.

In July 1889 Mr. Griesbach returned to India after his tour of
deputation to the Amir of Afghanistan. During his journey in the
previous year up the Logar valley to the Khurd Kabul valley,
Upper Wardak, Cherkh, Kharwar, Zanakhan, Ghazni, &c., the most
interesting geological work was the recognition of at least three
horizons, the rheetie with lithodendron (in Kharwar), the upper
jurassic (or possibly neocomian) plant beds near the Shutargardan,
and finally, well-developed nummulitics in Kharwar and Shilghar.
He examined the copper lodes of the Logar and Khurd Kabul areas,
the magnesite of the Logar and entrance to the Tangi Wardak, the
graphite of Cherkh, the iron and lead ores of Kharwar, and the
argentiferous lead ore of Zanakhan near Ghazni. It turns out also
that the entire Surkhab valley from near Doab-i-Mekhyari to near
Dahana Iskar is practically one big coal field with numerous thick
seams of good coal of triassic and rheetic age.

Dr. Waagen’s further contribution on the Salt range fossils in
Part I., Vol. IV. (Geological Results), was issued at the close of
the year. Several important modifications in the classifications
originally adopted have become necessary, owing to very interesting
discussions of fossils by Dr. Warth, the last and most remarkable
of these discoveries, that of trilobites, having been announced by
Dr. King, in the Records for 1889, p. 153.

During 1890 Mr. Foote, the only officer of the Survey left to
carry on the work in Southern India, completed the examination
of the southern half of the Bellary district,in quest of the auriferous
condition of the Dharwar series. The auriferous indications were,
however, not worthy of particular notice, though considerable
additions were made to the existing knowledge of the occurrences

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 279

of iron ore in the Dharwars. During the construction of the
Bengal-Nagpur Railway, a seam of coal was struck in the founda-
tion of a bridge on the Ib river, in the Central Provinces; but the
coal proved to be not of much better quality than that already
known in the field, though its uniformity and thickness were all
in its favour. In the Bengal Presidency the Daltonganj coal field
became the scene of fresh boring operations, while Mr. Bose
explored the coal area south of Kalimpong, in the Darjeeling district.
As arule, the coal is very high dipping and much crushed, while
faults are numerous; thus the working of it will be very difficult
and precarious. The quality of the coal is, however, good, and a
great part of it can be coked. In Baluchistan, Mr. Oldham added
very considerably to our knowledge of the coal, oil, and water
resources in British Baluchistan, and a special report on the more
favourable sites for petroleum explorations in the Harnai district
was published in the May number of the Records. A hopeful
specimen cf mineral oil was obtained from the Sherani country, and
Mr. Oldham was enabled to visit the spot during the late Zhob
Valley expedition in November last. The oil is clear, limpid, of a —
pale yellow colour, and issues from a band of hard unfossiliferous
sandstone, near Mogulkot, perfectly free from water. Mr. Oldham’s
general conclusions are that there can be no doubt of the existence
of oil of excellent quality and great value in the district, but that it
would be premature to undertake any expensive operations at
present. Exploration for coai in the Baluchistan region has been
“prosecuted in the Bolan valley and in the hills east and south-east
of Quetta. The best coal, as regards both quantity and quality, is
found in the Zarakhu valley.

The elucidation of certain obscure points in the geological history
and structure of the Salt range was left to Mr. Middlemiss, who was
seconded by Mr. Datta; the former also examined the coal tract in
the Hazara country. Tin exploitation is still being carried on in
Tenasserim under Mr. Hughes, but under considerable disadvantages
in the way of climate and insufficient means of communication.
Dr. Noetling has been engaged in directing the demarcation of the
oil-bearing tracts in the Magive, Mingyan, and Pakoku districts,
and in surveying the coal fields, ruby, and tourmaline mines in the
Shan States.

As may be inferred from the foregoing, the larger and more
important results in 1890 were in economic research. Still geological

280 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

investigation has not been allowed to stand still, and some advance
has been made in Baluchistan, the Punjab, and Burma, by Mr.
Oldham, Mr. Middlemiss, and Dr. Noetling. A discovery of fossils
in a series of limestones on the outskirts of the Shan plateau, east
of Mandalay, which he had already noticed as bearing a very strong
resemblance to certain limestones of the lower Silurian system of
Sweden and Western Russia is pronounced by Dr. King to be of the
grearest geological interest and importance as indicating that a
branch or arm of the Arctic portion of the ocean by which the lower
Silurian beds were deposited, reached at least to 22° N. lat. of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula; it is even likely that it extended still
further to the south, as the limestone beds of the Shan hills are
again met in Tenasserim.

Mr. Griesbach was engaged until October 1890 on his Memoir on
the Geology of the Central Himalayas, which will be issued very
shortly ; and has since been attached in the capacity of geologist to
the Miranzai Expedition.

During the same year (1890) the usual volume of the “ Records,”
consisting of 23 papers, has been issued; of these, 12 bear on
industrial or economic subjects. Vol.*X XIII. also contains the second
part (Madras and the North-West Provinces) of the Provisional Index
of the local distribution of important minerals, miscellaneous
minerals, gem stones, and quarry stones in the Indian Empire, which
has been much sought after.

One memoir was published, forming Part 2 of Volume XXIV.
In this, Mr. Middlemiss has contributed much new research to the
physical geology of the Sub-Himalaya of Garhwal and Kumaun.
The remarkable speculation arising out of a sudden deyelop-
ment of interest in the auriferous conditions of the Chota Nagpur
Province has created a great demand for those publications of
the survey which contain even a slight reference to the geology
of that region, and as a consequence, Vol. XVIII., Part 2, of the
Memoirs, and several parts of the volumes of the records are now
out of print.

A complete and detailed index to all the papers published in the
first 20 volumes of the Records has been “prepared during the past
year, and issued quite recently. This publication will prove of the
greatest use to those desirimg to consult the detailed papers on
Indian geological topics. A “ Bibliography of Indian Geology,” or
list of books published up to the end of 1887, has also been
published by Mr. R. D, Oldham.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 281

The tracts throughout the Indian Empire still awaiting geological
examination are of very large extent. In India proper, south of the
Himalayas, an area of about one-fourth is represented on the latest
“state of progress” map of the Geological Survey as having been
* mapped, reported on, and published.” - It is true that throughout
a considerable area thus represented, the topographical maps used
as a basis for geological surveying were very imperfect, and conse-
quently a more detailed survey may hereafter be necessary. But,
on the other hand, most of the tracts, such as coal fields, demanding
close mapping, have been completed, and an enormous area 1s occupied
by the ailuvial deposits of the Indo-Gangetic plain and by the
Deccan trap, neither of which, so far as is known at present,
requires to be surveyed in detail. The remainder of the unsurveyed
area 1s occupied to a great extent by gneissose rocks, the examina-
tion of which has been postponed partly because of the rarity
amongst them of useful minerals, partly because of the great
difficulties presented by them.

It is very difficult to form a trustworthy comparative estimate of
the work that remains to be done before the geological mapping of
the Indian Peninsula can be regarded as fairly complete, but
probably about half the work of actual mapping remains to be
done. ;

In the Punjab, Kashmir, and Sind, the progress has been greater,
though much of the work (as has been shown in the case of the
Salt range) willneed revision. Baluchistan is almost untouched. The
North-western Himalayas cannot be regarded as nearly half finished,
and of course the range east of Garhwal is, with the exception of
a few sections, chiefly in the lower ranges, geologically unknown.
Of the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, some portions of the
Assam hills and the province of Pegu, with the southern part of
Arakan, have been surveyed, all the remainder of Burma, including
besides Upper Burma, Martaban, and Tenasserim, together with
the enormous tract of country between Burma, the Assam valley,

_ and Eastern Bengal, is unsurveyed.

Roughly, it may be said that west of the meridian of Calcutta,
the mapping is half finished or nearly so; east of the meridian of
Calcutta only a very small proportion of the area, certainly not
more than one-sixth, has been geologically surveyed. A large
amount of exploration and of reporting upon useful minerals has

282 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

been carried out, but much of this reporting, which delays the
regular work of the survey, and at present appears to have com-
pletely stopped it, is necessary because the survey has not been
extended to the areas on which reports are required.*

There is still great uncertainty as to the total annual yield or
out-turn of the different kinds of minerals in India. With a
view to the improvement of our existing knowledge, a valuable
index of the local distribution of important minerals, miscellaneous
minerals, gem stones, and quarry stones in India, has been prepared
by Dr. King. The primary object of the list was to help the local
authorities in drawing up the returns for an annual statement,
showing the quantities and value of mineral products in British India,
which should be published in the “‘ Mining and Mineral Statisties of
the United Kingdom” of Great Britain and Ireland. The products
themselves are grouped by Dr. King under the following headings :
Important Minerals, including coal, iron ores, gold, petroleum, and
salt; Miscellaneous Minerals, including alum, antimony ores, arsenical
minerals, asbestos, bismuth and cobalt ores, borax, chrome ores,
copper ores, corundum, gypsum, lead ores, magnesia minerals,
manganese ores, mica natron, nitre, ochres, phosphates, platinum,
plumbago, soapstone, soda, salts, sulphur, tin ores, zine ores; Gem
Stones, including amber, beryl, diamond, garnet, jade and jadeite
quartz, &c., rubellite, ruby, sapphire, spinel, and Quarry Stones,
including clays, granite (gneiss, &c.), laterite, limestone (marbles,
kunkar, &c.), slate, and trap.

* Tam indebted to Mr, H. B. Medlicott and Mr. W. T. Blanford, the two greatest
authorities in this country on the subject of Indian geology, for the above statement
respecting the geological work that still remains to be done.

283

xaULD:
INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

The Indian Meteorological Department was officially established
by the Order of the Government of India, in the Department of
Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce, No. 56 of the 27th
September 1875. A few months before that, Mr. H. F. Blanford,
F.R.S., the Reporter and head of the Department, had made a tour
through Berar, the Central and the North-West Provinces, Oudh, the
Punjab, Bengal, and subsequently the Madras Presidency and the
Nizam’s dominions, visiting the principal observatories, and taking
steps to supply stations with instruments in which they were
deficient, to get all the barometers satisfactorily compared, and to
obtain trustworthy determinations of the elevations of the instru-
ments above sea-level.

At the time of the establishment of the Department there were
84 observatories in India and its dependencies (exclusive of Ceylon).
Two of these (a private observatory at Vizagapatam, and one
established by the Portuguese Government at Goa) were inde-
pendent of the British Government; eight were under special
superintendents, or attached to special Government departments,
and 74 were administered by local meteorological reporters or by
the provincial sanitary commissioners. The observatories were
very unequally distributed, being somewhat overcrowded in the
alluvial Sub-Himalayan plain, and unduly sparse over the whole of
Western India and some parts of the peninsula. But much valuable
information on the meteorology of the country might, nevertheless,
have been gathered from them, had the resulting data been com-
parable and accessible to persons in other presidencies.

Neither of these conditions were fulfilled, however, except
partially and very imperfectly, and up to 1876 it had been
impossible to collect and utilise the registers for discussing the
meteorology of India as a whole,

284 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

The reorganisation of the department, which was sanctioned on
the lines suggested by Mr. Blanford, involved :—

1. A redistribution of the observatories, and the provision of
suitable additional stations. Except under some special conditions,
it was proposed to arrange ag uniform a distribution of the obser-
vations as the circumstances of the country would admit of.

2. The rendering the data from all observatories comparable
inter se and also with those of known standards. To accomplish this,
a rigorous comparison of the instruments was requisite, uniformity
in the mode of their exposure and methods of reduction, and a
knowledge of the surroundings of each station.

3. The establishment of one or two observatories of a higher
class in the interior as well as on the coasts of India, to furnish
detailed and continuous registers, and also serve as depots for
verifying instruments, training observers for the minor stations, &c.

4. To more effectually supervise the work of all observatories,
by relieving the local reporters of a large part of their former
duties, which were henceforth to be undertaken by the General
Department. Also to provide an additional local reporter for
Western India.

5. To bring together the materials furnished by the observatories
in all parts of India, and, as far as possible, from adjacent regions,
for the purpose of discussion and publication, and this with the
least possible delay.

The number of observatories was to be raised to 95, eight of the
former observatories being abolished and 22 new stations being
established.

The whole were divided into three classes, as follows :—

I. Three first-class observatories, at Calcutta, Allahabad, and
Lahore, in addition to the Madras and Colaba observatories, which
were to remain under the independent management of their own
superintendents. These new observatories were to be furnished
with self-recording instruments; that of Calcutta with barograph,
thermograph, &c., similar to those of the Kew observatory, and
those of Allahabad and Lahore with the meteorograph of M. Van
Rysselberghe. These observatories were to be under the immediate
charge of the reporters.

II. Twenty-one second-class observatories, at which (with two
exceptions, viz., False Point and Saugor Island) observations were to

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 285

be recorded hourly, from midnight to midnight, on four days in each
month, and at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on all other days. The chief
object of this arrangement was to ascertain the diurnal variation of
the chief elements and to furnish the means of correcting registers
to true daily mean values. These stations were also to be furnished
with self-recording anemometers. ‘hey were as follows :—

2 in Assam - - - Sibsagar and Goalpara.

6 in Bengal - - - Patna, Hazaribagh, Cuttack,
False Point, Saugor Island,
and Chittagong.

2 in North-West Provinces - Agra and Rurki.

1 in Oudh - = - Lucknow.

3 in Central Provinces - Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Pach-
marhi.

4in Bombay - - - Belgaum, Poona, Disa, and
Karachi.

2in Madras” - - - Bellary and Trichinopoly.

1 in Burma - 2 - Rangoon.

At False Point and Saugor Island stations, which were established
chiefly for warnings of storms, the orginal plan of six-hourly
observations at 4 and 10 a.m. and p.m. was retained,

Ill. Seventy-one third-class observatories, at which two sets of
observations of the principal instruments were to be recorded daily,
at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The publications of the Meteorological Department were to
consist of an annual report on the meteorology of India for each
calendar year, giving the abstract of the registers of all stations,
together with a discussion of the meteorological features of the
year, illustrated by charts of temperature, pressure, and wind
directions, and also the original observations (corrected and reduced)
of some of the more important stations. The other departmental
serial was to be termed “ Indian Meteorological Memoirs,’ and to
include such of the work of the officers of the department as did
not properly come within the scope of the annual report.

The library of the Bengal Meteorological Office was transferred
to the general office, and was thus rendered available for both
departments. It has since been greatly enlarged by purchases and
presentations of works.

During the following year (1876-77) 11 new stations were
founded, and an important improvement was effected in the work

286 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

of the older observatories, by the verification of all the thermo-
meters and the withdrawal of all inferior instruments. A first
instalment of the tabulated observations in Indian seas, extracted
from the meteorological log-books in the Marine Department of
the British Meteorological Office, was received during the same
year, and proved to be of such extent and value that Mr. Blanford
strongly recommended the speedy completion of the work.

Progress was also made in the collation of the registers of rainfall
in former years. Unfortunately, the records for Northern India,
ranging from 1851 to 1860, had been made over to the Messrs. Von
Schlagintweit, to aid them in the preparation of their work on
magnetic and meteorological observations in India, and although
application was made to Mr. Hermann Von Schlagintweit-Saktilunski
for the return of the original registers, that gentleman practically
declined to let them go, except on conditions which were held to be
unreasonable. Eventually, however, on Mr. Blanford’s proceeding
on furlough to Europe, he availed himself of the opportunity to
visit Munich and obtain copies of the registers in question.

The meteorology of 1876 possessed a sinister interest in that in
the two southern presidencies the failure of the annual rains was
followed by wide-spread suffering and a heavy mortality, while
Bengal was visited by a terrible storm flood of almost unprecedented
destructiveness. With respect to the rainfall, it is certain that
from an early period of 1876 the distribution of pressure in the
Punjab and the Indus valley must have weakened, and perhaps
diverted, the summer monsoon that reaches India from the Arabian
Sea, and have given prevalence to the dry westerly winds that, as a
normal feature of the hot season, blow from Baluchistan across a
considerable part of the Bombay Presidency. Other causes also were
probably at work, but the mere fact that a great disturbance in the
normal distribution of the rainfall is found to accompany an
abnormal distribution of pressure, which distribution was manifested
some months in anticipation of the rainy season, is of considerable
importance.

A manual of instruction for the guidance of meteorological
observers was completed and issued during the year, together with
the tables of reduction specially drawn up for use in India. To
supplement this and encourage inquiry, a sketch of the meteorology
of India, accompanied by an introductory chapter on the physical
laws of the atmosphere and an outline of the physical geography of
India, was prepared by Mr. Blanford, the whole forming an octavo

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 287

volume of about 300 pages, and published under the title of the
* Indian Meteorologist’s Vade Mecum.”

Besides the Report on the Meteorology of India in 1875, the
publications issued during the year were—

Part I. of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs, containing three

papers, Viz. :—
(a.) On the winds of Calcutta ;
(b.) On the climate and meteorology of Kashghar and
Yarkand ;
(c.) On the diurnal variation of barometric pressure at
Simla.

Part I. of the Indian Meteorologist’s Vade Mecum.

The Meteorological Office for Bengal also published Mr. J. Hliot’s
report on the Vizagapatam and Bakarganj cyclones of October
1876. In this report, Mr. Hhot gave a very full discussion of the
formation and progress of these two storms, based on data collected
partly from ships which encountered the storm and partly from the
registers of the coast observatories. He also gave an account of the
disastrous flood which submerged the low alluvial tracts at the mouth
of the Meghna. But perhaps the most valuable part of the report was
that which dealt with the formation of cyclones. Previous theories
had laid it down that cyclones originated from the action of two
opposing winds, which resulted in a rotatory action. But as the winds
preceding the formation of a cyclone are generally very light, this
was practically a mechanical impossibility. Mr. Hliot’s theory, on
the other hand, ascribes the formation to the continued precipitation
of rain raising the temperature of the cloud-forming strata by the
emission of the latent heat of the condensed vapour and lowering
the atmospheric pressure.

Mr. N. R. Pogson published a tabular statement during the year
of the rainfall registered at the Madras Observatory in every month
during the previous 62 years. The data in this table were discussed
by Mr. W. W. Hunter, with special reference to the supposed
periodicity of droughts and famines in Southern India, in a
pamphlet which obtained a large circulation and attracted very
general interest. Mr. Blanford, however, after investigating the
question with a wider field of materials, was compelled to conclude
that Mr. Hunter’s results required some limitation.

The following year (1877-78) was marked by an important
addition to the work of the Department, 7.c., the transmission by
post daily of the 10 a.m. readings from nearly all the observing

288 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

stations. As, however, several of the distant observatories com-
municated very slowly with Calcutta, the charts compiled from these
giving the isobars, isotherms, wind direction, and rainfall were neces-
sarily often a fortnight in arrear. But as a step towards the trans-
mission of weather reports daily by telegraph, and the eventual
publication of weather probabilities, the new departure was important.
It also enabled the reporter to exercise a continuous and most useful
supervision over the daily work of each observer.

Altogether, on the 3lst March 1878, there were 103 observatories
at work in India and its dependencies (excluding Ceylon), and one
in the Persian Gulf. All, except the private observatories, were
furnished with barometers and thermometers, carefully verified and
adjusted to those of the well-known standards in India or in
Europe, and the elevations of by far the greater number of the
barometers had been ascertained with great accuracy, while the
preparation by the central office of the daily charts from the postal
returns was already beginning to throw light on the connexion
between the seasonal and daily atmospheric changes over the whole
of India.

Besides the General Report on the Meteorology of India for 1876,
and Part IL. of the Indian Meteorologist’s Vade Mecum, Part II.
of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs was issued, containing the
following papers :—

1. Storms in Bengal in 1876, with increased atmospheric pressure.

By J. Ehot, M.A.
. On the rainfall of Benares in relation to the prevailing winds.
By 8. A. Hill, B.Sc.
3. On the diurnal variation of the barometer at Calcutta and
Hazaribagh. By H. F. Blaaford.

Mr. Blanford also drew up from all the accessible records a
catalogue of the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal. This was com-
municated to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

A system of issuing daily reports of the weather in all parts of
India was set on foot experimentally by Mr. Ehot on the 15th June
1878, the observations recorded at 10 a.m. being telegraphed to
Simla. To facilitate the transmission of these reports, a special
telegraphic code was devised by Mr. Eliot and Mr. Pedler, which
gave the whole of the requisite information in six words.

This system was found so satisfactory that it was determined to
extend it to all observatories having telegraphic communication,

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 289

and furthermore to supplement it by an extended system of report
of the rainfall from stations other than those provided with
meteorological observatories. Arrangements were also made for
transferring to the Meteorological Department the duty of working
the time-bali on the semaphore tower of Fort William, which had
been previously performed by the Surveyor-General’s Department.

An important incident of the year was a tentative forecast of the
character of the monsoon season, made by Mr. Eliot (who officiated
for Mr. Blanford during his absence on furlough). The retardation
of the monsoon rains in 1878, following on their almost complete
failure in the North-West Provinces in the previous year, was a
cause of grave anxiety. Mr. Eliot’s opinion, on examination of the
whole subject, was that the advent of the rains would probably be
retarded, but that they would be more equally distributed than in
previous years. This prediction was borne out by the results.

The work sanctioned by the Secretary of State in 1875, of
copying the ship observations relating to the Indian seas that had
accumulated in the Marine Department of the London Meteorological
Office, was fast approaching completion, and by it the basis of a
knowledge of the general meteorology of the adjacent seas, com-
parable to the existing knowledge of the land observatories, was
being laid. The observations of the Department had finally
dissipated some of the long prevalent errors respecting the Indian
monsoons, such as, for instance, the idea that the summer monsoon
of India is caused by the heat of Central Asia, and blows towards
that region. But with respect to the seas, there was still no
accurate knowledge of the origin of the summer wind, and it was
still doubtful whether the general body of the southern trade winds
crossed the equator and fed the monsoon, or whether, on the other
hand, the North Indian Ocean was not the chief source of the
vapour supply, and the connexion of the monsoon with the southern
trades only fortuitous and partial. Another problem awaiting
solution in the study of the meteorological marine logs was the
possible deficiency of pressure over parts of the ocean as bearing
on land droughts such as those of 1876.

Owing to the increasing attention attaching to the connexion
between solar physics and meteorology (a matter discussed so long ago
as the beginning of the century by Sir John Herschel), Mr. Blan-
ford entered into communication with Professors Norman Lockyer and
Balfour Stewart, and, at their suggestion, obtained the Secretary of
State’s sanction for the purchase of a new form of actinometer for

1 ¥ 20321. aN

290 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

measuring the solar heat. Mr. Blanford also took the opportunity
during his stay in Europe to study and practise the process of solar
photography as elaborated on a large scale by Mr. Janssen, the
Director of the Physical Observatory at Meudon.

Mr. Meins, a trained solar photographer, had been despatched to
India in 1877, and was engaged in taking daily photographs of the
sun’s disc up to the date of his death in 1879. This unfortunate event
caused a delay of nine months, but at the close of 1879, Sergeant
White, of the Royal Engineers, was sent to India to continue the
work, under the superintendence of Mr. J. B. N. Hennessey, M.A.,
F.R.S. A large photo-heliograph, suitable for taking pictures of
the solar disc 12 inches in diameter, was subsequently supplied to
the Dehra Observatory under the direction of the Surveyor: General’s
Department (see page 234).

The Report on the Meteorology of 1877 was prepared by
Mr. Ehot. Like the Reports of the two previous years, it included
a general description of the meteorological features of the year,
with comparative tables showing the average values of the several
meteorological elements derived from past years, and the anomalies
or differences in 1887, descriptions of the newly-established
stations, and the geographical co-ordinates and elevations of ail
stations. The report was illustrated by 12 charts in coloured
lithography, showing the mean distribution of temperature,
atmospheric pressure, and wind direction in each month of the
year. According to a notice in the Journal of the Austrian
Meteorological Society, under the very competent editorship of
Professor Hann, the annual volume on the Meteorology of India
at this time already ranked with that of the Russian Empire in the
extent and comprehensiveness of its data, while it appeared at a
very much earlier date.

Part III. of the Meteorological Memoirs was issued in 1879,

contaiming the following papers :—
1. On the variations of rainfall in Northern India by
S. A. Hill, B.Se.
2. Meteorological and hypsometrical observations in Western
Tibet, recorded by Dr. J. Scully, with a discussion by
Henry F. Blanford.

Mr. Eliot also published a Report on the Madras cyclone of 1875.

The year 1879-80 completed the first lustrum of the existence of
the Department. Up to March 1880, 117 stations in India and
neighbouring countries had been established, not including the

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 291

observatories in Ceylon. There still remained, however, some
portions of the country in which they were somewhat sparsely
scattered, but most of these were the wilder tracts where no suitable
stations existed.

The Famine Commission Report issued during the year 1880-81,
gave emphatic expression to the objects of the department and the
practical importance of meteorology. After giving a summary of
what is known respecting the distribution of rainfall in India and
the variations to which it is subject, the Commissioner remarked :—

« As at present no power exists of foreseeing the atmospheric changes effective in
producing the rainfall, or of determining beforehand its probable amount in any season,
such as would admit of timely precautions being taken against impending drought, the
necessity becomes the greater for watching with close attention the daily progress of
each season as it passes, for ascertaining with accuracy and promptitude the actual
quantity of 1ain in all parts of the country, and for forming the best and earliest judg-
ment possible from the facts as they occur, whether the supply will be sufficient or
otherwise. For the present, at least, as far as the rainfall directly affects the subject
under consideration, these are the only precautions that appear possible. Within the
last few years a very satisfactory system of meteorological observations has been
established all over British India, and, in our opinion, it is of primary importance that
it shall be maintained in complete efficiency, and shali so far be strengthened aad
improved as to ensure the early and punctual supply of information to the executive
Governments, and to the officials in all departments concerned with the agriculture of
the country, or the preparations required to meet famines, as to the actual progress of
the periodical seasons of rain in all parts of the provinces, for which these Govern-
ments or officers are respectively responsible. So far as it may become possible with
the advance of knowledge to form a forecast of the future, such aids should be made

use of, though with due caution.
“ We are also satisfied of the importance of the diffusion of more sound and accurate

knowledge of the causes and mode of occurrence of the periodical rains, on which
the well-being of India is so largely dependent, not only among the officers of the
Government but also among all classes of the community. Any measures which the
Goyernment may find possible with a view to the publication and diffusion of such
knowledge cannot fail to be highly beneficial.”

In the annual return of the rainfall prepared in 1879 for the
information of the Secretary of State, considerable tracts were
unrepresented, owing to the absence of registers. Measures were
therefore taken during the following year to supply these deficien-
cies, and to establish rain-gauge stations in the Tributary Mehals of
Orissa, Chutia Nagpur, South Rewa, the eastern districts of the
Central Proyinces, Jaipur, Bastar, and also in Khairpur, on the
borders of Sind. An endeavour was made to do the same in
Western Rajputana. Rainfall registers for the past six years were
also obtained from several stations in Haidarabad, so that this
territory was as well represented as most other parts of India.

292 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

A system of storm-warning, by means of telegraphic report to
Bombay from seven stations on the west and three stations on the
east coast, was brought into operation on the 13th June, the inclu-
sion of eastern stations being rendered necessary, as it was known
that the storms which are felt on the west coast of India originate
in many cases over the Bay of Bengal. In Bengal an improvement
in the provincial system of reports was introduced by Mr. Elot, the
number of stations sending daily telegrams to Caicutta being increased
from 7 to 15. All with the exception of Dacca were situated on the
coasts of the Bay of Bengal. Arrangements were also made for
lithographing the Calcutta daily reports and issuing them about
3 p.m. to the port authorities, the chamber of commerce, merchants,
and newspapers. ‘The reports were accompanied by a lithographed
chart of the Bay of Bengal.

The observations of the temperature of the ground at Alipore, at
the surface, and at depths of 1 foot and 3 feet respectively, disclosed
the fact that the mean annual temperature of the ground was not
less than 5° in excess of that of the air. These observations also
showed that the ground acts as a reservoir of the heat received from
the sun, which it stores up and slowly gives forth to the atmosphere.
Subsequent research showed that the ground temperature is subject
to slow but not inconsiderable fluctuations, which depend evidently
much more on the rainfall than on any variation in the radiant
intensity of the sun. ‘The importance of these deductions, from an
agricultural point of view, led to the institution of similar observa-
tions at Allahabad.

The remaining portion of the observations extracted from the
meteorological logs in the possession of the London office was
received in 1880-81. It consisted of all the observations recorded
in Indian seas north of the equator, between Hast longitude 50°
and 100° up to the end of the year 1878, and the data were reduced,
corrected, and tabulated according to the months and squares of
1° latitude and longitude, and arranged in 154 data books, one for
each 10° square in each month. The discussion of this large
mass of material therefore now became possible, and was eventually
undertaken by a special officer, Mr. Dallas, who had been trained in
the London Meteorological Office, and was appointed, partly for this
purpose, in 1882.

Part IV. of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs was published
during the year. It contained a paper by Mr. F. Chambers on the
winds of Karachi. being a discussion of three years anemographic

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 293

records at that station, illustrated by eight plates. Mr. Hill pub-
lished a table giving the monthly total rainfall at each station in the
North-West Provinces for 1880, the number of rainy days in each
month and the average monthly rainfall of each place.

Owing to the prevalence of haze in fine dry weather, the actino-
metric observations taken for two years at Alipore were less
successful than had been hoped for, and on the recommendation of
the Solar Physics Committee, Leh, in Ladak, was selected as being
situated, as was hoped, inaclearer atmosphere and at a height above
the disturbing influences of the haze of the plains.

During the year Mr. Eliot devised a new and improved system of
storm signals for the port and signalling stations on the Hugli,
below the port. The knowledge of such storms had by this time
advanced sufficiently to enable Mr. Eliot to a certain extent to predict,
their course, a‘matter of great importance to outgoing ships. The new
system of signalling made provision for this specialinformation. In
connexion with the Bombay storm-warning system Mr. I’. Chambers
drew up an interesting list of some 70 storms of the west coast,
which was published in Vol. II., Part 1, of the Indian Meteorological
Memoirs.

In 1881 Miss E. Isis Pogson was appointed meteorological super-
intendent to the Government of Madras, a step which resulted in
the prompter transmission of the Madras registers to headquarters,
and less delay in the preparation of the annual report.

The first volume of the Meteorological Memoirs was completed by
the publication of Parts V. and VI., containing two papers by
Mr. Hill on the Meteorology of Allahabad and on that of the North-
western Himalaya, and a discussion of the hourly observations of
the barometer at Goalpara, Patna, and Leh, by Mr. Blanford,.

The following year was marked by efforts to obtain information
respecting the extent and thickness of the Himalayan snows, a
physical feature which appeared to exercise considerable influence
on the meteorology of the plains, and to which attention was first
directed in 1877. In April 1882, a communication was made by the
Government of India to the local governments of the northern
provinces, requesting that the attention of the civil officers and
Residents of Hull States might be particularly directed to this
matter, and it was recommended that monthly reports on the
state of the snows on the passes and higher ranges of the interior
should be drawn up from information obtained from native traders,
travellers, and others, and communicated to the central office.

294 INDIAN METEOROLOGY. ~

The observed facts are thus described by Mr. Blanford :—

“A fall of snow on the hills is followed, as scon as the weather clears, by a consider-
able rise of pressure over the mountains, and frequently ulso over the north-western
plains, and this rise is accompanied by a steady wind on the plains, from north along
the foot of the hills; from north-west on the more distant plains. In the cold weather
and early spring, when there is often rain simultaneously on the plains, there is also a
considerable fall of temperature ; but in April frequently, and generally in May, there
is no vain on the plains, and any fall of temperature is restricted to the immediate
neighbourhood of the hills. In these months the cooling effect of the snow is local,
but it is also persistent ; and since the snow reflects a large portion of the sun’s rays,
and that which is absorbed does not raise the temperature of the surface, nor that of
the air resting on it, above the freezing point, this air remains denser than it would be
over a bare rock surface. Jt floats away as a north-west wind at a high level, towards
the plains communicating its high pressure and southward movement to the lower
strata, and thus the whole mass of dry air moves towards the region of low pressure
(which then exists over the plains of Behar, Bengal, and the peninsula), constituting
the dry land winds, usually characteristic of the spring, and in seasons of unusual
snowfall lasting into the summer months. These winds are hot, the heat being
absorbed from the dry strongly-heated land surface, and the lower strata, thus heated,
mingle by convection with the bigher, while the latter descending are also heated,
partly by the compression, which the air necessarily undergoes, partly by beinz
brought within the heating influence of the ground.”

During the same year a chart of the average rainfall of India was
drawn on a map of 64 miles to the inch and displayed at the
Amsterdam Exhibition, and also prepared for reproduction by
lithography. The chart accompanying it shows the names of 985
places, with the average rainfall of each to the nearest integral inch,
while the distribution of rainfall is shown by eight tints, representing
respectively the areas with an annual fall below 5 inches and successive
increments up to above 100 inches. The only general rainfall charts
of India previously published were, first, that drawn in 1872 by Dr.
(now Sir) D. Brandis, the late Inspector-General of Forests, when
engaged in the preparation of his work on the Indian Forest Flora,
and published in Vol. II., No. 7, of Ocean Highways, and, second,
a revised edition of the same chart, prepared in Mr. Blanford’s
office and published in 1878.

Progress was made by Mr. Blanford with the discussion of the
rainfall data of past years and by Mr. Eliot in the study of the
origin and development of storms, by his paper (printed in Part I.,
Volume II., of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs) on a small
cyclonic storm which originated over the Bay of Bengal, and thence
travelled northwards across Bengal in the third week of November
1878. He showed that the origin, existence, and motion of the
storm were due entirely to the atmospheric conditions of the area

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 295

which it actually traversed, and the course of the cyclone across
Bengal took place where the air-motion was relatively least, prior to
its advent.

The arrival of Mr. W. L. Dailas, appointed Scientific Assistant
to the Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India, enabled
the important work of reducing and discussing for publication the
marine meteorological observations collected during the 20 years
1856-75 by the London Meteorological Office to be taken up, and
a beginning was made with the barometic and wind data of the Bay
of Bengal for the month of January.

With regard to the collection of current meteorological data for
the Bay of Bengal this was undertaken by Mr. Eliot. Observations
were regularly recorded with duly verified instruments on board the
light-ships off the mouth of the Hugli, and a form of return
showing the meteorological information which it is desired to
obtain was handed to the captain of every vessel. A large number of
captains duly responded to this appeal, and information of great
value was derived from their returns On the whole the extracts
proved that the weather in the whole extent of the bay (excluding
the Andaman sea) was fairly indicated by the observations taken at
the coast stations, and that the progress of every important storm
might be traced and followed with more or less exactness, almost
from its origin, from the shore observations.

Among the more important incidents of the year 1883-84 should
be mentioned the arrival of Sergeant Rowland and Mr. Shaw at
Ich, in November 1883, for the purpose of instituting actinometric
observations there. For some months previously they had been
undergoing most valuable training at the hands of Mr. Hennessey
at Dehra.

A body of valuable information with regard to the question of
the influence of the Himalayan snowfall on the dry westerly winds
in Northern India was obtained from officers stationed in the Hill
States, and the abnormal features of the snowfall in the spring and
winter months enabled Mr. Blanford to frame forecasts with regard
to the duration and nature of the dry winds in the plains, which
were fairly justified by the events. During the year observatories
were established at Kailang, in Lahul, at an elevation of 10,000 feet
above the sea, and to the north of the second survey range, and also
at Chamba.

Among the more notable publications of the year were Part II. of
Vol. II. of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs, containing a memoir

296 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

by Mr. Blanford on the storms of the west coast and on the
land-formed cyclone of Gujrat of July 188], and a very
important paper by Mr. Hill on the normal temperature of
Northern India.

The observatories in existence in 1880-85 were classified by
Mr. Blanford as follows :—

Low-level observatories in India.
Hill observatories.
Himalayan valley observatories.

Extra-Indian observatories.
Ships.

Of the first four classes there had been 117 in 1880, and these
were increased to 128 in 1885. exclusive of 22 observatories in
Bengal, which were established in connexion with the provincial
system of telegraphic weather report.

The actinometric observations at Leh, after 17 months, did not
prove so successful as had been anticipated, for owing to the cloudi-
ness of the skies, Leh turned out, during a large part of the year, to
be even a less favourable station than Mussoorie. Fifty-two com-
plete sets of three daily observations and six long series, together
with 64 imperfect sets of the former and 14 of the latter, were the
total result of the 17 months’ work. It was, therefore, deemed in-
expedient to continue the experiment, and arrangements were made
for Sergeant Rowland and Mr. Shaw to return to India at the close
of the season.

Before 1884 all the officers of the department had been Europeans,
who had either received a special education in science or had been
trained in the technical work of a meteorological office. During
that year it was resolved as an experiment to train an educated
native to prepare the daily weather reports. Lalla Ruchi Ram
Sahni, a native of the Punjab, who had taken his B.A. degree in
Physical Science and had passed for an M.A. degree, was selected
for the post.

In the spring of 1884 the snows on the North-Western Himalayas
were more extensive and later than they had been in any previous
year since 1878, and Mr. Blanford, predicted a somewhat retarded or
weak and interrupted monsoon. So far as the rains of the early
part of the monsoon of North-Western India were concerned the
forecast was fully justified by the events. After a general burst in
the latter part of June the rains of all Western and North-Western

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 297

India were entirely suspended for three weeks or more, and even up
to August they were somewhat defective in the Punjab. But the
conditions there existing did not operate throughout the whole of
the monsoon and the latter months brought abundant rain. Nothing
was said in the forecast respecting the deficiency of the Bengal
rainfall in the latter part of the season, nor that of the Deccan
and Carnatic. The causes of that deficiency were obscure, and,
therefore, reserved for future investigation.

On the 26th July 1884, heavy floods occurred in the rivers Tapti
and Narbada, which resulted in the submergence of a portion of
the city of Surat. These were followed on the 31st by the flooding
of the Subarmati, Mahi, and neighbouring rivers which discharge
into the gulf of Cambay, causing serious breaching of the Bombay
and Baroda Railway. Again, on the 3rd September, the same rivers
were in flood with like disastrous consequences. All these floods,
and also a flood which occurred in September 1882, were the
consequences of small cyclones of the south-west monsoon type,
which either travelled to Western India from Bengal or the Central
Provinces, or in the last instance had travelled up the west coast at
the end of August. It was accordingly arranged that the super-
intendents of observatories situated near the head waters of the
Tapti and Narbada should be instructed that in the event of the
rainfall exceeding 3 inches in the 24 hours an urgent telegram
should be sent to certain Bombay officers, and also that premonitory
warnings should be sent from the Simla, giving notice of the
approach of a storm to the Central Provinces, Central India, and
Gujrat. At the same time the Meteorological Reporter from
Western India was requested to take up the question of the floods
and investigate the circumstances attending their origin, with a view
to the greater efficiency of the system.

An important addition was made during the year under review
by Mr. J. Eliot to his previous admirable work on the law of storms.
Taking as his basis the daily weather charts of India, drawn up in
the office since 1877, he took out the track of every storm generated
over the Bay of Bengal between the months of May and December,
during the five years 1877-81 (46 in all), and discussed them in a
memoir of 216 quarto pages, illustrated by seven plates, issued as
Part IV. of Vol. Il. of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs.

In regard to marine meteorology, Mr, Dallas completed, during
1884-85, the set of monthly charts showing the distribution of
barometric pressure, the prevalent winds, and marine currents of the

298 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

Bay of Bengal. The January chart was lithographed on a reduced
scale as a specimen of the work, and circulated to the port officers,
Marine Weather Institutes, and some ship commanders for criticism,
some valuable suggestions being offered in reply.

Up to 1835 the daily weather reports had been issued at Simla
from the lst May to the 1st October, and at Calcutta during the cold
season, but in this year it was arranged for the work to be carried
on permanently at Simla in future.

Before 1885 there were only three observatories fully equipped
with autographic instruments for furnishing either a continuous
register or one repeated at short intervals: these were the Govern-
ment observatories at Calcutta (Alipore), Bombay (Colaba), and the
Maharajah’s observatory at Jaipur. During 1885-6 a fourth was
established at Allahabad, and a portion of the instruments for a fifth
at Lahore were received shortly after, a suitable building having
been already provided.

Some further additions were made to the stations transmitting
regular returns of rainfall to the Central Office, some being of
especial value as representing the arid region of Western Rajputana,
which but a few years since was an almost complete blank on the
charts of recorded rainfall. Improved returns of the Himalayan
snowfall were also received from hill stations on the north and
western frontiers.

Attempts had been made to estimate the prospects of the monsoon
rains from the snowfall reports, and the wind and pressure distribu-
tion in the period immediately before the rainy season in each of the
preceding two or three years. In 1885, Mr. Blanford’s prediction
on the 21st May was that the influx of the monsoon rains on the
west coast and in Southern and Western India generally would be
retarded, and this was amply borne out by the subsequent history of
the season.

Some time before Dr. Brandis’s retirement from the office of
Inspector-General of Forests with the Government of India, he
conferred with Mr. Blanford as to the establishment of observatories
in connexion with the forests, with a view to ascertaining the effect
of forests more especially on temperature and rainfall. As a result
an observatory was established at the Forest School at Dehra Dun,
which should serve as a model for the forest observatories and also
as a training school for observers. In July 1884, the first pair of
comparative observatories was started at the Forest Nursery, Ajmir,
in the following years various other pairs were established near

INDIAN METZOROLOGY. 299

Ajmir and Dehra. The tendency of the results was to show that
the existence of forest increases the rainfall. My. Ribbentrop, the
officiating Inspector-General of Forests with the Government of
India, starting from the fact that extensive tracts of forest, previously
devastated by jungle fires with a view to the nomadic system of
cultivation practised by the hill tribes, had been brought under
protection in 1875, and that thereby the area of vigorous forest
growth had been enormously increased, was led to inquire whether
this measure had sensibly affected the rainfall. Mr. Blanford’s data
showed that the rainfall of the years subsequent to 1875, when
compared with that anterior to that date, manifested a large increase,
attributable to the preservation of forests. Subsequently, however,
some doubt was thrown on the trustworthiness of the registers of
the earlier years, which had led to this conclusion.

On the 22nd September 1885, a cyclone, small in extent, but
accompanied by a high storm, devastated the settlement of Hukitolla,
at False Point, in Orissa. The terrible destruction of life and
property which resulted from this storm, aroused public attention
to the subject of storm warnings to the coast ports, and led to the
adoption of measures for extending the system. It was therefore
arranged that whenever the telegraphic reports showed the existence
of a storm over the bay, an intimation to that effect should be sent
to the port officers of the chief places on the Indian coast, who should
be instructed to depend on their own observations of the wind and
barometer for taking all necessary precautions.

During 1885-86, Part I. of Vol. III. of the Meteorological
Memoirs was issued, containing the first part of a memoir on the
rainfall of India. Three other memoirs, viz., one by Mr. Eliot,
on the Akyab cyclone of the 12th to the 17th May 1884; one by
Mr. Blanford, on the diurnal variations of the rainfall of Caleutta ;
and one by Mr. Dallas, on the meteorology of a sea tract to the south
of the Bay of Bengal, were also printed.

As a consequence of the annexation of Upper Burma, an enormous
tract of country, of the meteorology of which scarcely anything
was previously known, was in the same year brought under the
operations of the department. Three fully equipped meteorological
observatories were established at Mandalay, Bhamo, and Kindat,
and in addition rainfall registers were received for a portion of
the year from ten other stations. ‘The three principal observatories,
however, very inadequately represented the enormous tract added to
our possessions, and it was felt that it would be soon necessary to

300 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

increase their number. One other observatory commenced work
during the year, 7.e., at Coco Island, which, being situated between
Diamond Island and Port Blair, and close to the cradle of most of
the violent storms that occur at the change of the monsoon, formed
a valuable addition to the Indian system.

Preparations were also made for establishing an observatory
at Baghdad, in connexion with the British Political Residency, and
proposals were also afoot with respect to a fresh observatory at
Srinagar. <A third rainfall register from Baluchistan (7.e., from
Pishin) was obtained, so that the Baluch highlands were thus
represented as adequately as other parts of India.

The investigation of the vicissitudes of Indian rainfall, made
by the light of all the numerous rainfall registers that had
accumulated in the Meteorological Office relating to the last 22
years, were concluded during the year under review. The result
shows that in the Carnatic there is really a tendency to drought at
intervals of about 11 years, but not necessarily cf such intensity
as to be disastrous. In all other parts of the peninsula such
regularity was not shown by the numerous registers consulted.
But this appeared to arise from the cyclical variation being much
more liable to disturbance by seasons of copious or deficient rainfall,
which are due to other and non-periodic causes. The most im-
portant law relating to the droughts of previous years in Northern
India, and which appeared to hold good equally of temporary and
prolonged suspension of the rainfall, was that they were preceded
by heavy snowfall on the Himalaya, particularly the North-west
Himalaya. Such was the case before the famines of 1868, 1877,
1878 (Kashmir), and also in the period preceding the temporary
droughts of 1880 and 1883.

A volume of weather charts of the Bay of Bengal, exhibiting the
barometric pressure, winds, and currents prevalent in every part
of the sea, and as far south as the equator, in each month of the
year, was published during 1886-87. The work was prepared
by Mr. Dallas, from the data furnished by the meteorological logs
collected by the London office between 1855 and 1878 and copied,
tabulated, and reduced at the cost of the Government of India.
Each chart was reduced to convenient dimensions, and accompanied
with a page of description, giving statistical and other details.
These publications have been much appreciated by the naval and
mercantile marine.

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 301

Mr. Hill communicated to the Royal Society an important paper
on “Some anomalies in the winds of Northern India, and their
** relations to the distribution of barometric pressure,’ * which
was published in the Philosophical Transactions.

In May 1887 Mr. H. F. Blanford went on furlough, and Mr. J. Elict
acted as meteorological reporter to the Government of India,
Mr. Pedler acting as reporter to the Bengal Government. Shortly
after taking charge, Mr. Eliot was asked to submit proposals for
the more efficient working of the department. Mr. Hliot’s report
was duly submitted to Government, together with a memorandum
from Mr. Blanford approving most of the suggestions. After some
delay, Government sanction was eventually given to various changes,
of which the following were the most important :—

(a.) The discontinuance of the solar and_ terrestrial radiation
observations, except at a few selected stations;

(b.) The adoption of 8 a.m. as the hour for the observations
embodied in the weather telegram transmitted daily to
Simla, Calcutta, and Bombay ;

(c.) The tabulation of all the observations hitherto recorded,
in a form admitting of easy reference, and the calculation
of daily averages of air pressure, maximum and minimum
temperatures, aqueous vapour pressure, cloud, and rainfall.

(d.) The extension and improvement of the methods of collecting
rainfall data for the information of the Government of
India, and the adoption of a uniform system of rainfall
registration throughout India.

These changes were all recommended on well considered grounds,
which were explained at length by Mr. Eliot. For instance, with
reference to the collection of rainfall data, he pointed out that the
rainfall stations communicating with the Imperial Government were
only 497 in number in all, while those communicating with the
provincial governments were 1,890 in number. Next, there was an
utter want of uniformity in the hours and methods of rainfall
observation. The measurement of rainfall was initiated, like so
many other Indian institutions, provincially under the revenue
authorities, and it had never been systematized for the whole of
India. A striking instance of the difficulty and inconvenience of

* An abstract of this was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society for
January 1837.

302 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

dealing with unsystematized observations cropped up im connexion
with the question of the influence of forests on rainfall. The rain-
fall statistics of the Central Provinces for the previous 20 years,
if they could be accepted as true, would have established most
conclusively that the extension of forests had been accompanied by
a marked increase in the average rainfall of the forest districts.
But when Mr. Blanford proceeded to make further inquiry into the
value of these rainfall returns, the Chief Commissioner for the
Central Provinces in his reply had to acknowledge that, owing to the
uncertainty as to the gauges used in past years and the carelessness
in registration, the records were unreliable. The effect of this
unsystematic registration was to postpone the decision as to the
influence of forests on rainfall in that area for another 20 years.
Improvements were also made by Mr. Eliot in the daily weather
report, which was in future to be accompanied by a chart. By the’
Ist April 1888, copies were issued to 228 Government officers in all
parts of India, and to a limited number of meteorological bureaux
and authorities in Europe and America. The daily weather report
and chart in its new forin compared not unfavourably with those
published by the meteorological departments of Hngland, France,
Italy, Algeria, Austria, Germany, Australia, and the United States.
It also possessed a special value as dealing almost entirely with a
tropical region, and one where the most striking example of the
semi-annual system of south-west and north-east monsoons occurs.
In November 1886 the duty of issuing storm warnings to the
Burma and Madras ports was entrusted to the meteorological
reporter to the Government of Bengal, and this had been accepted
by Mr. Eliot, with the proviso that certain arrangements should be
made for rapid telegraphic communication between the Calcutta
weather office and the distant port officers and observatory superin-
tendents at the Burma and Madras ports during stormy weather.
The charts of the Arabian sea, prepared by Mr. Dallas from the
data collected by the Board of Trade from ships navigating that
sea during the period 1855-78, were published during the year
1887-88, in exactly the same form as the charts of the Bay of
Bengal. Part IV. of Volume IV. of the “Indian Meleorological
Memoirs,” giving a list of storms during the years 1882-S6,
with brief descriptions similar to the list published in Part VL.,
Vol. IL, and intended as a continuation of that list, bringing
the information up to date and followed by a full account of

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 303

the three cyclones of November and December 1886 in the Bay of
Bengal, was issued in February 1888. An account of the Balasore
cyclone of May 1887 was prepared as the first part of a new publi-
cation of the Department, called the ‘‘ Cyclone Memoirs.”

Special attention was paid by Mr. Eliot to the condition of the
barometers used at various stations, and steps taken to remedy the
irregularities discovered.

in publishing the summary of the winter snowfall, and the
monsoon forecast based chiefly upon it, Mr. Eliot announced in the
first week of June 1887 that the general indications were favourable
in North-east and North India, and somewhat unfavourable in
Southern India. He predicted early and abundant rain in Northern
India, and more especially in Upper India, and more or less deficient
rains in the Poona, Sholapur, Belgaum, and adjacent districts.
The forecast was in general agreement with the actual character of
the monsoon.

During 1885-89 there were some important changes effected in
the Department. Part of these had been sanctioned tentatively in.
the previous year, and as they were found to work smoothly,
Mr. Ehiot eventually submitted his final proposals, which were
sanctioned with effect from the lst January 1889. They were as
follows :—

(1.) The permanent retention of 8 a.m. as the hour for the obser-
yations telegraphed daily to Simla, Calcutta, and Bombay for the
various daily weather reports issued by the Department, and the
discontinuance of the 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. observations at 88 of the
157 observatories maintained by the Department. The change of
the general hour of the morning observations from 10 a.m. to 8 a.m.
enables the Simla Office to issue the daily weather report in the
afternoon of the same day, and the Bengal reporter to issue the
Bay of Bengal report at about 11 a.m. or at the beginning of the
office day to Calcutta merchants, shippers, &c. The acceleration in
the publication of the daily reports was much appreciated in
Caleutta and Bombay, as well as by the Government of India.

A great change was also made with regard to the returns used
for scientific discussion in the annual report. Inasmuch as in the
case of 88 stations the previous records were vitiated, owing to
careless observations or imperfect instruments, it was decided to
discontinue the 10 and 16 hours observations at these stations, and
to continue them only at the remaining 69 stations, the metecro-

304 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

logical returns of which could be accepted as of the highest standard
of accuracy, and as forming a reliable basis for scientific discussion
in the annual report. This had the effect of increasing the accuracy
of the report, diminishing its bulkiness by more than half, and
considerably expediting its appearance.

In consequence of these changes, the following re-classification of
the observatories became necessary :—

lst.— Hirst class Observatories, including Calcutta, Allahabad, and
Lahore, at which continuous registration is effected by auto-
matic methods, and Mussoorie or Simla, at which special
actinometric observations of a strictly scientific character are
taken.

2nd.—NSecond class Observatories, at which a set of observations is
taken daily at 8a.m., and telegraphed to Simla, Calcutta, or
Bombay, for the preparation of the daily, weekly, and monthly
reports, issued as early as possible for the information of the
public, and two sets of observations daily at 10 a.m. and
4 p.m.

3rd.—Third class Observatories, the great majcrity of which will
take daily a set of observations at 8 a.m. only, to be telegraphed
to Simla, Calcutta, or Bombay.

The other important changes sanctioned were :—

(II.) The permanent adoption of the system of telegraphing
rainfall information to Simla introduced tentatively im 1888, and
the establishment of a uniform system of rainfall registration
throughout India.

(III.) The permanent transfer of the working and control of the
Bombay Coast Storm Signal Service to Simla and the establishment
of a local system at Bombay, in order to give early weather informa-
tion to the commercial community of Bombay.

In connexion with this, arrangements were made by Mr. Ehot for
the preparation at Bombay of daily weather reports and charts
similar to those prepared in Calcutta, and Mr. Hutchinson, who had
succeeded Mr. Chambers in the local reportership for Western
India, was initiated into the methods employed at Simla and
Calcutta. ‘The first report issued to the Bombay public was that
for Monday, 14th May 1890. It found much favour with the
Chamber of Commerce, who, with the Government, found the funds
for the undertaking.

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 3805

(IV.) The extension of the existing system of collecting meteoro-
logical information from the captains of vessels navigating the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The necessity for the extension
of the work of observation in this direction had been long recognised.
Tt is absolutely essential for the investigation of the causes of the
origin of cyclonic storms. Hitherto information had been mainly
sought of the weather during cyclones, but not of the antecedent
weather and conditions which led up to and originated these storms.
Information of the weather in the Indian Seas is even more
necessary in dealing with the causes which affect the strength of
the great rain-giving currents of the south-west monsoon. These
currents advance from the sea into India, and their strength and
variations of strength probably depend as much upon conditions
in the sea area from which they advance as in the land area of
India itself. It was hence necessary that observations of the weather
in the sea area should be collected as regularly and systematically
as for the land area.

(V.) The introduction of arrangements for the collection of
special observations during storms, and the recognition of these
observations as part of the duties of observers by special payments
for these observations. The work of observation with regard to
storms had been previously very defective. It was recognised in the
rules drawn up many years before by Mr. Blanford for the guidance
of observers that it was part of their duties to take frequent
observations during storms but they neither received any pay for
this special work, nor was any deduction made from their pay, if
they neglected the duty of taking these observations. It was hence
voluntary unpaid work, and as its performance was attended with
much physical discomfort, it was almost entirely neglected. As,
however, storms form on the whole the most important feature
of the weather, the registration of meteorological observations
during their existence was clearly as absolutely essential as of the
regular observations.

(VI.) The introduction of arrangements for the utilisation of
the services of duly qualified scientists in Hurope for the discussion
of some of the more important series of observations which have
accumulated in the Calcutta Offce during the past 13 years.
This was rendered necessary by the great increase of work
thrown on to the Simla and Calcutta Offices. Among several

1 Y 20321. U

306 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

important complete series of observations in the Calcutta Office
awaiting discussion were the following :—

(1.) Hourly observations taken during a large number of years
(varying from 10 to 18) at 26 second-class stations. These
observations have cost Government upwards of a lakh and
a half of rupees.

(2.) Anemographic observations taken for several years at
14 stations in different parts of India by means of self-
recording instruments.

(3.) The continuous series of observations taken at Alipore,
Allahabad, and Jaipur during past years by self-
registering instruments.

In order that these observations, accumulated at much cost and
labour, should be promptly utilised, Mr. Eliot suggested the adoption
of the plan already been tried by the Geological Survey Department
and found to work very satisfactorily. There are several distin-
euished meteorologists in Europe who have ample leisure for the
discussion and investigation of any of the series of observations in
the previous list, and would probably be glad to undertake the work
for a moderate remuneration. An annual grant was therefore
sanctioned by Government for this purpose.

(VIT.) The re-adjustment of work and establishments at the
central and local meteorological offices, and the adoption of certain
changes for increasing the efficiency of the Calcutta and Simla
offices.

The following parts of the Indian Meteorological Memoirs were
issued during 1888-89 :—

Parts III. and IV. of Vol. I1I., completing Mr. Blanford’s very
valuable monograph on the rainfall of India. Part V. of Volume IV.
containing an account of the cyclone of May and June 1881 in the
Arabian Sea, drawn up by Mr. Chambers.

The Handbook of Cyclonic Storms in the Bay of Bengal for
the use of Sailors has also been issued recently. The following
were also prepared :—

1. Account of the cyclonic storm of August 1888, prepared by
Mr. Pedler. This will form Part II. of the Cyclone Memoirs.

2. Account of the cyclonic storms of September 13th to 20th,
1888, and of the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and the Vaitarna
storm in the Arabian Sea in October and November 1888, drawn up
by Mr. Eliot. This will form Part II. of the Cyclone Memoirg,

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 307

and will, with Part II., give an account of the most important
cyclonic storms of the year 1888 in the Indian seas.

3. A short paper by Mr. Dallas on the relation between sunspots
and weather as shown by meteorological observations taken on
board ships in the Bay of Bengal during the years 1885-78.

4. An account of the storm of the first week of June 1887, in the
Arabian Sea, compiled by Mr. F. Chambers.

The present arrangements for issuing storm warning signals are
the following :—

Ports on the Burmah, Bengal, Ports on the West Coast of
and Madras Coasts warned by India warned by the Bombay
the Bengal Reporter :— Reporter :—

(a.) Bengai ports— (a.) Bombay ports—

Caleutta and River Karachi.
Hooghly. Bhaunagar.

Chittagong. Daman.

Orissa ports, including Bombay.
Pooree, False Point, Ratnagiri.
Chandbally, and Bala- Goa.
sore. Karwar.

(b.) Burmah ports— Vingorla.
Moulmein. Kumta.
Rangoon. (b.) Madras ports—
Bassein. Cochin.
Akyab. Mangalore.

(c.) Madras ports— Calicut.
Bimlipatam.

Gopalpur.

Vizagapatam.

Cocanada.

Masulipatam.

Madras.

Negapatam.

Tuticorin.

During a cyclonic storm which crossed the coast of Kathiawar in
the early part of November 1888, the coasting steamer Vaitarna
was lost, and the court of inquiry recorded the opinion that if a
proper storm warning system had been in force, with communica-
tions to most of the northern ports, intimation could have been
conveyed in time to have enabled the Vaitarna to avoid the cyclone.
This was a striking proof of the seriously defective organisation of

308 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

the Bombay system, and prompt remedial measures were taken as
far as possible by Mr. Eliot. A local daily weather report and
chart is now published and issued daily; a new storm signalling
system has been devised, and steps have been taken to improve the
representation of Kathiawar in the meteorological system.

On the 8th May 1889, Mr. H. F. Blanford retired, after a
connexion with the Meteorological Department of 22 years. He
was appointed Meteorological Reporter to the Government of
Bengal in June, 1867, and initiated the local meteorological system
and the storm warning service for the port of Calcutta after the
experience of the cyclone of October 1864. When it was determined
to combine the various provincial systems into a common Meteoro-
logical Department for the whole of India, Mr. Blanford was called
upon to report on the best means of carrying this into effect. His
suggestions were approved, and he was appointed Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of India. The series of Annual
Reports and Papers written by him for the Indian Meteorological
Memoirs form a most valuable contribution to meteorological
science. Since his retirement he has published “ A Practical Guide
“to the Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon, and Burma, and
“ the Storms of the Indian Seas,” which gives an admirable
summary of the results of meteorological observations taken in
India, and presents in a clear and interesting manner tie more
important features of the clmates and weather in India. The
Government expressed its high value of his services in the
following terms :—

“T am to take this opportunity to record the high estimate whieh has been formed
by His Excellency the Governor-General in Council of the zeal and ability displayed
duriug the several years of his incumbency of the office of Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of India by Mr. Blanford, who has now retired
from the service, and who was practically the founder of systematic and uniform
meteorological observations in India.”

During 1889-90, six third-class observatories were established
within India itself, while observations were also obtained for the
first time after a long interval‘from the observatory at Trivandrum
maintained by the Maharajah of Travancore, and from that at
Bhavnagar maintained by the Thakur of that State. Voluntary
observatories were established at Shortt’s Island near Chandabally,
and at Lungleh in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, during the past year,
and useful observations obtained therefrom. From the distant
station of Zanzibar some excellent observations were obtained for
over a year from Dr. Charlesworth, the Medical Officer, but he was
then, unfortunately, invalided home, and Mr. Eliot thinks it may

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 309

be well, under the circumstances, to devote the cost to maintaining
fresh observatories in Burma. At the Seychelles, another distant
and isolated station, arrangements were made for joming with the
Director of the Mauritius Meteorological Service, and so obtaining
improved observations. A set of instruments were supplied in
March 1888 to Dr. Woolbert, Medical Officer attached to the military
officers on special duty on the Perso-Afghan frontier, in order that
a series of observations might be taken at Mashhad, on the Perso-
Afghan frontier. These have been received from September 1889,
and are of very considerable interest. Mr. Eliot has also taken
steps to establish observatories at Perim and Paumben. The former
is much wanted in order to furnish meteorological data of the
southern part of the Red Sea, of which is not sufficiently representa-
tive, and the latter in connexion with the Bay of Bengal Storm
Signal Service. Additional observatories are much wanted in
Burma, in order to elucidate the meteorology of that area, and
ascertain the part it plays in deflecting the south-west current of
the Bay of Bengal, and in producing variations in its strength, and
the distribution of rainfall in North-Hast India. But it is
undesirable to open out new observatories in that province until
railway or telegraphic communication has been extended to all the
more important districts. Certain parts of India too are imper-
fectly represented, for instance, the north-west coast of Kathiawar,
certain parts of the Deccan (North-Hast Haidarabad), the eastern
districts of the Central Provinces, and certain portions of Chota
Nagpur, Rajputana, and Central India.

Progress is being made in the introduction of a uniform system
of rainfall registration, and in 1889 a common hour, 8 a.m., was
adopted. Rainfall charts and statements of a far more compre-
hensive character than before are now prepared, giving an
accurate and fairly complete view of the progressive distribution of
rainfall over the country. A weekly summary is published in the
“ Gazette of India,” and rainfall charts drawn by hand are prepared
weekly for the Viceroy and the Agricultural Department. Mr. Eliot
has, however, suggested further changes of importance, including
the adoption of a common type of rain-gauge (7.e., Symons’)
throughout India, the supply and testing of all rain-gauges by the
Meteorological Office before issue, more frequent inspections, the
examination of all rainfall data for elimination of errors, and the
annual publication of the rainfall data for the whole of India in a
complete form for the use of engineers, irrigation officers,
meteorologists of all nations, sanitary authorities, and generally

310 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

speaking, all persons interested in the subject. These reforms are
now under the consideration of the Government.

A seasonal forecast, based partly on information of the snowfall
in the mountain districts of Northern India during the previous
cold weather months, and partly in the distribution of pressure in
April and May, was prepared by Mr. Eliot, and published in the
“Gazette of India” on the 18th of June. The main conclusions
regarding the south-west monsoon of 1889 were as follows :—

(1.) The weather conditions in May over the land area, and the
character of the cold weather snowfall were both favour-
able to the probable occurrence of an early and strong
monsoon.

(2.) Conditions were unusually favourable for heavier rain than
usual over the whole of North-East India, including
Burma, Assam, Bengal, Behar, and the greater part of the
North-Western Provinces.

(3.) The conditions in the Peninsula were, on the whole, favour-
able, and hence it was probable that the Bombay monsoon
current would be at least of normal strength, and give
normal rainfall over the Peninsula generally.

(4.) The conditions in Upper India, and more especially the
Punjab, were more or less unfavourable ; and

(5.) So far as could be judged from the observation it was, on the
whole, probable that Ganjam and the Northern Circars
would receive at least normal rainfail.

A comparison of the statements of actual rainfall results with
the forecast shows a very fair agreement. In fact, with the
exception of Burma and Bengal, where the rainfall was normal
or very slightly in defect, and in the North-West Provinces where
it was considerably in excess, the forecast was fully verified.

The Bay of Bengal Storm-Warning Service was satisfactorily
performed during the year, cautionary telegrams heing despatched
in good time in every case. Ample warning was also given from
Simla to the west coast ports under the new arrangements for the
Bombay Storm Signal Service. In the Bay of Bengal one of
the most pressing needs in connexion with storm-warnings is the
question of telegraphic communication with Port Blair, in the
Andaman Islands. Not only are the largest and most intense
cyclones generated in the centre of the Bay near the Andamans, but
the proximity of the ports of Bassein, Moulmein, and Rangoon to
this cradle of storms, and their distance from Calcutta from
which point, nevertheless, they have to be warned, has induced

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 3ll1

Mr. Eliot to record his strong opinion that it is desirable, if not
absolutely necessary, for the warning of the Bengal and Madras
coasts and almost essential to the proper and complete protection of
the Burma coast that the cable should be laid. ‘lhe Government
have, however, not felt justified in sanctioning such large outlay,
considering that such telegraphic communication was not urgently
required at the moment for any other object than for meteorological
purposes. Consequently this important measure is necessarily
postponed for the present.

The general administration of the observatories and offices during
the year 1889-90 was in the hands of the following officers :—

Names.
{

| Province.

John Eliot, Esq., M.A., |
F.R. Met. Soe. |
W. L. Dallas, Esq. - |

}

Lala Hem Raj - -

C. Little, Esq., M.A.
J. H. Gilliland, Esq.,
B.A. (Offg.)

A. —Pedler, Esq.,
F.C.S.

C. Little, Esq., M.A.
(Offg.)

A.
Esq.

S. Hutchinson, |

Miss Isis Pogson, F.R.
Met. Soc.
|

Dr. G. C. Chesnaye -) |
Dr. J. Richardson |
Dr. J. G. Pilcher -

Dr. C. Little - =
Dr. D. Sinclair =

Office.
Meteorological Reporter to the
Government of India.
First Assistant Meteorological |

Reporter to the Government of
India.

Second Assistaut Meteorological
Reporter to the Government of
India.

Personal Assistant, the Meteoro-
logical Reporter to the Govern-
ment of India.

| Meteorological Reporter to the
Government of Bengal.
Meteorological Reporter to the
Government of the North-
Western Provinces and Oudh.
Meteorological Reporter to the
Government cf the Punjab.
Metecrological Reporter for
Western India.
| Meteorological Reporter to the
Government of Madras.
Sanitary Commissioners, Central
Provinces.

Sanitary Commissioner, Berar
Sanitary Commissioner, Burma — -

|
{
|
lower Office.

|
J

Bengal and Assam.

North-Western Pro-
vinees, Oudh, Raj-
putana, and Central
India (part).

Punjab.

Bombay, Berar, Raj-
putana, and Central .
India (part).

| Madras, Mysore,
| Coorg, and Haidar-
| abad.

Central Provinces.

- | Berar.

| Burma,

312 INDIAN METEOROLOGY.

CoLABA AND MapraAs OBSERVATORIES.

The Government Observatory at Colaba is under the direction
of Mr. Charles Chambers, F.R.S. It is devoted principally to the
record and publication of facts and the prosecution of inquiry in
terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, to astronomical observation
for the purpose of time-keeping, and to the signalling of time for
purposes of navigation. The results of the observations are pub-
lished annually in the form of a quarto volume. The autographic
instruments, which are maintained in continuous action, are the
following :—l. Declination magnetograph. 2. Horizontal force
magnetograph. 3. Vertical force magnetograph. 4. Barograph.
5. Thermograph, dry-bulb and wet-bulb. 6. ea
7. Anemograph, direction and velocity.

The harbour clock and time-ball are worked by alsoinio: current
from the Observatory, which is also charged with the custody of a
store of Indian Government and Admiralty chronometers. Chrono-
meters of merchant ships are also received for rating.

There-ig also an astronomical observatory at Madras, until
lately under the direction of Mr. N. R. Pogson, C.I.E., who held the
post of Government Astronomer from 1860 until his death on June
23rd, 1891. This observatory gives uniform time to the greater part
of India for railway and other purposes, and its lougitude* is the fixed
point of the departure of the Trigonometrical Survey of India.

From the period of his takmg charge up to 1885, Mr. Pogson
discovered the following six minor planets between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter :-—

Name. Date of Discovery. Period of Revolution.
Y. M. D.
Asia - - 1861, April 17 2) 3) 4)
Freia - - 1864, February2 - 6 3 23
Sappho - - 1864, May 3 - 3 5 22
Sylvia - - 1866, May 16 =) (6) <6) 20)
Camilla - 1868, November17 6 6 7
Vera - - 1885, February 6 - 5 4 24

Asia was so named on account of its being the first astronomical
discovery made in that quarter of the globe. Freia was first dis-
covered by Professor D’Arrest, at Copenhagen, 1862, October BAS:

* Its latest determination of Elonpinde, as mentioned on page 213, is $0? 1 14’ 50°03” E.
of Greenwich,

INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 313
but was lost owing to insufficient observations having been secured
to render the calculation of its orbit definite. It was re-discovered
independently at Madras. <A bright telescopic comet was found at
Madras, 1872, December 2nd. It remains a disputed point whether
this was a re-discovery of the lost periodical comet of Biela, or
whether the comet was a new one. Eight new variable and tem-
porary stars were also discovered, particulars of which, including
name, limits of magnitude, and period of variation, will be
found at page 520 (note) of Vol. I. of the Madras “‘ Manual of
Administration.”

The death of Mr. Pogson as now necessitated a reconsideration
of the position, organisation, and equipment of the Madras Obser-
vatory, as well as the question of the utilisation of the large mass of
observations awaiting publication. This matter is now under the
consideration of Government. Mr. C. Michie Smith, F.R.A.S.,
F.R.S. (Hdinb.), 1s in temporary charge of the Observatory.

314

XIV.
THE STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

The last decade has witnessed the completion of an important
undertaking in regard to our statistical knowledge of India, for
the statistical survey commenced under the auspices of Lord Mayo,
and placed under the supervision of Mr. (now Sir William Wilson)
Hunter, was brought to a successful conclusion. It was the
first systematic project cf the sort, and at the same time, through
loval co-operation, it was exhaustive. A brief review of the
previous efforts in the same direction, condensed mainly from
Sir W. W. Hunter’s account, as given in the preface to the
Tmperial Gazetteer,’ is here desirable.

So far back as 1S07 the Court of Directors of the Hast India
Company wrote to their representatives in Bengal “that a
“ statistical survey of the country would be attended with much
“ utility, we therefore recommend proper steps to be taken for the
“‘ execution of the same.

The first attempt to make a statistical survey of Bengal dates
from 1769, four years after the province came into the hands of
the East India Company.

During the present century the Company issued a series of
instructions for a systematic investigation into the resources of
their dominions, the latest orders being three years before the
administration of India passed from the Company to the Crown.
During the ten years which followed the transfer of power, a new
set of efforts was made, the chief being the inquiries in the Central
Provinces, under the direction of Sir Richard Temple. At last,
in 1867, the Government of India, under instructions from the
Secretary of State, ordered an account to be drawn up for each of
the twelve great provinces of India.

The provincial administrations struck out widely divergent lines
for this scheme. It was just as if (Mr. Hunter remarked) a
command had been issued from some central power for a statistical
survey of all Europe, and each nation set about its execution on a

STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 315

separate plan. It became apparent that vast sums of money would

be expended, wlile considerable uncertainty existed as to the
results. In the meantime, the Royal Asiatic Society pointed out
that when the local accounts came to be digested, there would be
no basis for comparative statistics, and much “ of the original work
* would have to be gone over again de novo.” This opinion was
shared by the Governor-General in Council, and Mr. Hunter was
directed to visit the various local governments and “ submit a
* comprehensive scheme for utilizing the information already col-
“ lected, for prescribing the principles, and for the consolidation
“into one work of the whole of the materials that may be
“ available.” The previous efforts were reviewed by the Viceroy
in a resolution dated 8th September 1871, the weak point being
shown to be the absence of a central organization, and the want of
a settled plan.

Mr. Hunter’s scheme was submitted to the Governor-General in
Council in 1869,* and received the approval of the Government,
who further secured for the execution of the design the supervision
of the designer. Mr. Hunter, who had been attached to the Bengal
Secretariat, and acted as Under Secretary to the Supreme Govern-
ment, was appointed Director-General of Statistics with a view
to the construction and execution of a Statistical Survey of
India. The object of the undertaking was to provide a
storehouse of statistical information for the controlling body, for
administrators in India and for the public, and the operations were
to extend over ten separate Governments, which, with their
Feudatory States administer a territory 1,500,000 square miles, and
govern a population then estimated at 200,000,000 ssuls, but since
found to be at least 255,000,000. Roughly speaking, this area and
population may be likened to those of all Hurope, excepting Russia.
With the view of uniformity in the supply of materials, Mr. Hunter
drew up six series of leading questions, illustrating the topo-
graphical, ethnical, agricultural, industrial, administrative, and
medical aspects of an Indian district. These served as a basis for
the statistical survey throughout India. In this way the unpaid
co-operation of the administrative staff throughout the 240 districts
of India was enlisted, the best local knowledge was brought to

* Plan for a Statistical Survey and an Imperial Gazetteer of India. Printed at the
Home Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 144 pp., folio, 1870.

316 STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

bear, while in each province a paid editor was answerable for the
completion of the provincial account; the general supervision of
the undertaking resting with Mr. Hunter, as Director-General of
Statistics to the Government of India.

The district forms the administrative unit in India, and the
province the administrative whole. The statistical survey groups
all the district materials into fifteen provincial accounts or
gazetteers.

The Feudatory States and Chiefdoms, exceeding 300 in number,
with 50,000,000 of people, were from the first placed outside of the
scope of the statistical survey, as it was thought the native princes
would have misunderstood any attempt at systematic investigations.
Steps were taken, however, to collect some of the information
already existing with regard to Native States ; but no regular survey
was attempted, and a census of the territories did not exist, there-
fore, as a whole, the results as to feudatory India are far inferior to
the rest. This was due to the political exigencies of the case, which
were of course beyond the control of the Director-General of
Statistics.

The reduction of the numerous volumes of the Statistical Survey
to a practicable size for general reference was the last stage of the
undertaking, the results of this being the nine volumes of the
‘«‘ Tmperial Gazetteer.” A list of towns, rivers, mountains, historic
sites, religious resorts, commercial fairs, harbours, or other places
of importance, were compiled from returns contributed by the
provincial editors and district officers. Hleven thousand names were
thus arranged in alphabetical order and printed in a folio volume,
and after that they had been checked by the local governments,
about 8,000 places were selected for inclusion in the “ Imperial
Gazetteer.’ A few model articles were also drawn up for the
euidance of the contributors, showing paragraph by paragraph the
method of treatment. In this way the preparation of the work was
arranged for.

The bases of the statistics in the Gazetteer were the figures
of the census of 1872, but in certain provinces reliance had to be
placed on enumerations taken in 1867 to 1871. while the adminis-
trative and trade statistics were brought up to 1875 and even as far
as 1880.

In its historical aspect, Mr. Hunter considered that the work was
deficient, and the following extract from his preface to the

STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 317
Gazetteer throws an interesting light on what was requisite and
what was actually achieved in this direction :—

“Tf the history of India is ever to be anything more than a record of conquest and
crime, it must be sought for amongst the people themselves. Valuable historical
materials had been collected fur the Statistical Survey, and ia 1877 the Secretary of
State for India decided that a wider scope should be allowed me for their use in the
‘Imperial Gazetteer.’ I have done my best to give effect to that view, and it will be
seen that for the first time in these volumes that every Indian district has its own
history. The true territorial unit of Indian history is, indeed, much smaller than the
British district. For example, he who would study the history of Oudh must search
for it in the pargana or parish; in other parts of India the zaméndar or estate is the
historical nnit ; in others the chiefship, while in a few the rural districts were mere
appendages to the great cities. Had it been permitted me to subject the rural annals of
India to systematic inquiry, as I wished, a rich harvest would have been gathered in.”

The latitudes and longitudes of the different localities were supplied
by the department of the Surveyor-General of India, while areas,
distances, and similar data were furnished from the same source.
The statistics were not strictly comparable and not thoroughly
accurate, but India was then and is even now in its infancy as
regards statistical data. When the survey was begun no one knew
exactly the population of a single province of India, or of a single
district of Bengal. In the latter province the census of 1872
suddenly disclosed the presence of 22,000,000 of British subjects,
whose existence had never previously been suspected. The popula-
tion of Bengal and Assam up to that time reckoned at 40,000,000
was ascertained in 1872 to amount to 67,750,000 of souls.

A uniform system of spelling of Indian proper names had long
been discussed, and was one of the essential preliminaries of the
“ Tmperial Gazetteer.’ In the old gazetteers the same word appeared
under many forms, one town being spelt in eleven different ways, not
one of which was correct, and in order to be sure of finding a place,
a student had to look it up under every possible disguise. A know-
ledge of the vernacular languages of India and of Sanskrit is neces-
sary to enable one to spell the native names correctly in the native
alphabets, and a scientific system of transliteration into the English
characters was a further essential.*

* There is a strong plea for the correct and uniform orthography of proper names in
Mr. 8. E. Peal’s “ Note on the Origin and Orthography of River Names in Further
India” (sce Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 90 of 1889). Major
Raverty too is a doughty champion in the same cause, see his “ Notes on Afghanistan,”
passim. Dr, Burgess has recently contributed a suggestive article on the same
subject to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Magazine. See also “‘ Report on
Uniform System for speiling Foreign Geographical Names” (Navy Department),
Washington, 1891.

318 STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.

Round this question there had raged a battle for over a hundred
years. Sir Wiliam Jones, the first scientific investigator of the
subject, showed that there were practically two systems of exhibiting
Asiatic words in English, the ‘‘ scientific” and that subsequently
called “ phonetic,” the first being based on “ scrupulously rendering,
“ letter for letter, without any particular care to preserve the
“* pronunciation,” while the second proposed ‘‘ to regard chiefly the
“ pronunciation of the words intended to be expressed.”

In the early years of British rule, the Indian proper names were
written down simply by ear, without any attempt at correctness, and
Mr. Markham, in his chapter on the orthography of Indian names,
in the “ Memoir,” gives some amusing instances of this, such as
“Sir Roger Dowler” for Siraju’d-daulah; Crotchy for Karachi
(Kurrachee), and “Isle of bats” for Allahabad. But when the
British officers came to study the eastern tongues a reform was soon
initiated. Major Davy, a Persian scholar, was a strong supporter of
a phonetic system, and his plan was adopted in the “ Institutes of
« Timur,” which was published in 1784. Major Davy’s contempo-
rary, Mr. Halhed, on the other hand, advocated and adopted a
scientific system in his code of Hindu law, compiled under the
orders of Warren Hastings in 1775.

Sir Wilham Jones, not satisfied with Mr. Halhed’s system, devised
the alphabet which bears his name. He provided for all the sounds
used in Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian, by the adoption of the Roman
or Italian sounds of vowels. Sir William’s modification of the
scientific method was called, after himself, the Jonesian system.
Other champions arose; Dr. John Gilchrist and Mr. Henry T.
Prinsep maintaining the superiority of the phonetic system, while
Sir Charles Trevelyan and numerous missionaries upheld the scientific
or Jonesian system. The contest was transferred, in 1858, to the
columns of the ‘“‘Times” and other journals, and Mr. Monier Williams,
Professor Garratt, Mr. Eastwick, Mr. Marshman, Colonel Meadows
Taylor, and the Rey. J. Barton, supported one view or the other,
but with no decisive result.

In 1868 a proposal was made by Mr. Burgess through the Bombay
Geographical Society for the preparation of a vernacular and English
index of Indian geographical names.* Sir William Hunter was
instructed to prepare a system with a view to uniformity in the

* English indexes of all villages in the Bombay and Bengal postal circles have since
been carried out at the instigation and largely under the direction of H. E. M. James,
Bo.C.8.

STATISTICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 319

spelling of these names, and his plan was eventually adopted for
the gazetteer and for general use. No practicable scheme could also
combine absolute precision. The Roman alphabet has, for instance,
but one letter for the consonant 2; the Sanscrit has four letters for
it in its various modifications as a dental, lingual, palatal, and guttural.
Again, the Indian alphabet has two separate letters for d,
two for ¢, and three for s andsh. Indian names could, therefore, be
represented only in an approximate manner in our tongue without
the manufacture of a new Roman alphabet, with additional letters,
by means of accents over the vowels, dots under the consonants,
italics, or the hike. In the system laid down by Sir William Hunter
and adopted by the Government of India, dotted consonants are
rejected, as few accents as possible over the vowels are used, and,
generally speaking, everything is avoided which would give the
alphabet an un-English look. Moreover, names of important
places which had attained a historical or literary fixity of spelling
were retained in their popular form, such as Calcutta, Madras,
and Bombay. The method did not attempt to reproduce such
fine distinctions as the four Sanscrit 7’s or such consonants as the
dental and lingual¢andd. But a uniform value was assigned to
each vowel, namely, a and w as in rural; e as in grey, méchant; and
i and o asin police. The accented d, ¢, and @ represented the long
forms of the same yowels in Sanscrit, or the sounds in the English
far, pier, and lure.

The process of adoption of the uniform spelling of the geographical
names in all Indian Government publications has necessarily been of
slow growth. But the existence of a standard work of reference like
Sir William MHunter’s “Imperial Gazetteer” has been a great
step towards uniformity of spelling, and all new maps issued by the
Surveyor-General’s department follow the prescribed spelling, so in
process of time we may not despair of seeing absolute uniformity
attained wherever India is mentioned.

The second edition of the “ Imperial Gazetteer,” produced in 1885,
took as its starting point the census of 1881, which was also the
first complete and fairly synchronous census of India. Its adminis-
trative statistics refer chiefly to the years 1882-84, but in certain of
the larger questions dealt with the facts were brought down to
1885.

320

XV.
INDIAN ARCH ZOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

The archeological remains of India, apart from their artistic
interest, are invaluable to the student of history, but it is only
within comparatively recent years that their conservation has been
undertaken by Government. This is regrettable, for, as has been
truly remarked, delay in such matters is irreparable. ‘ Paintings
fade from walls, sculptured edifices are destroyed by the vigorous
growth of trees and by ruthless modern builders in want of
material, coins and inscriptions are mislaid or effaced, and all the
works of man suffer more or less under the hand of time.”* The
earlier notices of Indian antiquities were those of passing travellers,
in whose time the knowledge of the languages, literature, and
history of the country was too scanty and undeveloped to enable
them to appreciate the true significance of the monuments and ruins
which they beheld. It was not till the foundation of the Asiatic
Society at Calcutta in 1784, under the auspices of Sir Wilham
Jones, that any real attempt was mae to critically examine Indian
archzeological remains. Since then the proceedings and journal of
that body and of kindred societies at Bombay and Madras have

* Markham’s Memoir on the Indian Surveys, p. 236. I must remark, however, that
the practice of carting away and utilizing the fragments of old temples of high antiquarian
interest for ordinary modern building purposes has by no means been confined to native
builders. So far back as 1784 Mr. Charles Graut, a resident at Malda, wrote as follows :—
‘“T imagine a number of stones sufficient for the pavement of the New Church, may be
“ collected from the ruins of Gour . . . all the remains of Gour are unquestionably
“ the property of Government, which we may dispose of at pleasure as was the custom of
“ the Soubahdars.” (Historical and Ecclesiastical Sketches of Bengal. Calcutta, 1831,
p. 188.) Fergusson in his “ Indian Architecture ” makes mention of an inscribed Asoka
pillar converted by some utilitarian officer into a roller for the station roads at Alla-
habad. (See page 53.) Again, in 1885, a French archeologist drew attention in the
columns of the “'Temps”’ to a gross act of vandalism, whereby no fewer than 40,000
cubic feet of stone, the ruins of decayed temples and palaces forming the ancient city
of Chandravati, the early capital of Gujrat, were carted away by railway contractors.
This is corroborated in Mr. H. Cousens’ progress reports on his tour in 1889-90 in
North Gujrat. The general subject was brought to the notice of the Government of
India, Home Department (June 10, 1886), and a Circular (No. 4, P.W. of September 8,
1886) was issued for the better protection of remains from destruction by railway
contractors, &e. &e.

INDIAN ARCH OLOGICAL SURVEYS. 321

become the repository of a mass of information on the subject. The
first archzeologists were scholars of the type of Sir William Jones,
Charles Wilkins, Henry Colebrooke, Francis Gladwin, William
Chambers, and Colin Mackenzie*, followed by F. Buchanan-Hamilton
and Horace Wilson; and the detailed investigations of these accom-
plished savants are admirably told in the pages of Mr. Markham’s
“Memoir.” ‘Their labours were preceded and supplemented by a
most meritorious collection in six laree folio volumes of aqua-tint
drawings (1795-1807) by the artists, Thomas and Wiliam Daniell
and James Wales, of the principal monuments and edifices of
Hindostan.

The next conspicuous name in the history of Indian archeological
research is that of James Prinsep, who became Secretary of the Bengal
Asiatic Society in 1832, and to whose industry and genius we owe
the decipherment of the edicts of the great Buddhist King Asoka.
Prinsep was also one of the first to discover positive dates in early
Indian history. His labours were seconded by Mill, Masson,
B. H. Hodgson, Burt, Kittoe, Postans, and others of minor fame,
while his zeal and scholarship have been emulated by his contem-
poraries and successors, the more distinguished of whom have
been Cunningham and Maisey in Upper India; Meadows Taylor, and
Wilson in Bombay; Dr. B. G. Babington and Sir Walter Eliiot in
Madras; and Dr. Burgess for Western and Southern India. But it
is to James Fergusson that the elucidation of Indian architecture
and art is mainly due, a task for which his genius and taste
as well as his extensive journeys and researches over the whole
expanse of India had admirably qualified him. Apartfrom a number
of papers in the transactions of learned societies, he was the
author of an important work, entitled ‘“‘ History of Architecture,”
in which Indian architecture is classified and expounded. The
following are the principal heads:—l. Prehistoric Remains, such
as cairns, cromlechs, and other cognate remains of unknown
age, constructed by an unknown people, and scattered widely in
different parts of India. 2. Buddhist Remains.—A wide interval
separates the cairns and cromlechs from the Buddhist remains, for
the Aryans who composed the Vedic literature built nothing that

* Dr. Burgess, in a learned paper on “ Archzological Research in India,” read by
lim before the Oriental Congress at Stockholm, in i889, says that Mackenzie visited
nearly every place of interest south of the Krishna river, and prepared over 2,000
measured drawings of antiquities, carefully laid down to scale, besides facsimiles of
100 inscriptions, with copies of about 8,000 others in 77 volumes. Of the drawings, the
only portions published are those from Amravati, and in “Tree and Serpent Worship.”

1 ¥ 20321. Ke

322 i INDIAN ARCHASOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

has endured to our time. For five centuries from 250 B.C. nearly
all monuments in India are Buddhist and Jaina, consisting of rock
inscriptions, Jats or pillars with inscriptions, topes or stupas, rock-
hewn temples, and viharas or monasteries, the most important being
the Sanchi tope in Bhopal in Central India, described Ly Cunningham
and Fergusson, and the Amravati tope near the mouth of the
Kistna, also described im the “ Tree and Serpent Worship,” and
by Dr. Burgess. 3. Dravidian Architecture.—This style extends
over all India south of the River Krishna, and the temples are of
vast extent and magnificent design. They are recognisable by their
pyramidal form, distinction of storeys, and separation into com-
partments by pilasters. 4. Bengali Architecture.—These temples, on
the other hand, have no irace of division into storeys, no pilasters,
and a curvilinear outline with a polygonal base. The style first
appears in the sixth or seventh century, and the best examples are
found at Bhavaneswar, in Orissa, and round the temple of Jagannath,
and thence across India zs far as Dharwar. 5. The Chalukya style of
Architecture prevails in Gujarat, Kanara, Mysore, and Rajputana.
The Hallabid temple, one of its finest examples, was built at the
same time as Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals. and is considered by
Mr. Fergusson te be among the most marvellous exhibitions of
patient human labour the world has ever produced.* 6. The Jaina
temples are numerous and elaborate, and have been described by
Mr. Burgess. The most noticeable examples are at Satrunjaya,
Girnar, Mount Abu, and Sadri, and they are found along the
western Deccan as far as Belgaum, as well asin Bengal and the
Central Provinces. 7. Lastly, the Muhammadan or Saracenic Archi-
tecture, in the form of beautiful mosques and tombs, is scattered
over nearly all parts of India except the extreme south. They range
over distant periods, and combine the general features of Muham-
madan with the impress in details of local native art. Striking and
beautiful examples are to be seen at Jaunpur, Ahmadabad, Bijapur,
Delhi, and many other spots. The tomb of Akbar and the Taj
Mahal, which represent the Mogul architecture, are even more widely
known, and have been thoroughly examined.

Tn connexion with this subject, it may be useful to mention that
Mr. Burgess classifies the buildings of Western India as follows :—

1. Buddhist remains.
2. Brahmanical and Jaina Cave Temples

* See History of Architecture, IT., p. 609.

INDIAN ARCHABOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 323

3. Rude and Sculptured monuments, &e.

4. Temples, &c. in the Dravidian or Southern style.

5. Temples in the Chalukya, Rajput or Northern style.
6. Medizeval remains.

7. Modern Hindu remains.

8. Musalman remains.

The following extract from his notes on the peculiarities of the
various eras and styles, though somewhat lengthy, is interesting,
and will serve to illustrate the above classification.

* The earliest architectural remains are those of the Buddhists, ranging from about
250 B.C. to the seventh or eighth century A.D. chiefly in the form of rock-cut
tempivs und monasteries. The dahgoba—large cylindrical structures with a domed
top surmounted by a capital—and the arched roofs of the Chattya or temple-caves are
characteristic marks of Luddhist caves, so also is the prevalence of the Chaitya window
or horse-shoe-shaped arch as an ornament; though in a modified form, this is also
found in early Brahmanical buildings and caves. The viharas or monasteries have
usually cells round them often with stone benches or beds insi(e.

“ The style and subjects of sculpture, where there is any, will also generally indicate
whether a cave is Buddhist or Brahmanical, and it should be so described. In Sindh
there are, at least, two Buddhist éopes, huge dahgobas, usually of brick; and there are
possibly a few ruined temples in the northern zillahs of the Presidency that may have
been Buddhist ; all such remains should be carefully inquired for and reported on.

* Caves —Jaina cayes are sometimes so like the later Buddhist caves at Ajanta that
they are difficult to distinguish by those not versed in their peculiarities. Those at
Dbarasifva are of this character; generally the nudity of the images, their snakes, and
ringlets at once mark them.

* Brahmanical caves are not so numerous as the Buddhist ones, but they are quite as
interesting, and search might bring more of them to light. They range probably from
the 5th to the 8th century A.D. Instances of S’aiva caves are to be seen at Elephanta
and Joges’wari near Bombay, at Elura, and at Aihole and Badami in Kaladgi, and two
fine Vaishnava ones at the last-named place. Brahmanical caves, so far as yet known,
consist of halls with a single cell or shrine, and occasionally, as at HKlephanta, with one
or two small cells for utensils, &e., but without rooms for inonks along their sides,
The sect to which a caye belonged is determined by the sculptures ; the Linga, Ganapati,
S/iva, Bhairava, Arddhanari, Ravana, Bhringi, Parvati, Mahisasuri, &c., figuring
prominently in S’aiva, and Vishnu, Varaha, Nrisinha, Virabhadra, Garuda, &e., in
Vaishnava caves.

* Monuments—In Belgaum, Kaladgi, and elsewhere there are scattered groups of
dolmens, formed of large rough slabs set on edge with a huge capstone laid over them ;
there are, perhaps, al-o to be found barrows or mounds, as in Shorapur, marking
ancient places of sepulture. So little is known of them from competent investigators,
that it is desirable to know more about their numbers and distribution over the
country ; of the local traditions respecting their origin; of the different names, such as
Kodi Kols, &c., by which they are known; and that those that have escaped destruc-
tion at the hands of vulgar curiosity, or the hammcrs of Wadaris, should be carefully
protected. Similar remains should be lcoked for in all districts. One dolmen was
recently discovered in Northern Gujarat. x6

324 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

“ Upright monumental stones or menhirs are less common than the table-stone or
dolmen, but instances of their existence should be noted.

“ Paliyas and sati stones in Gujarat and Kachh and the padukas or footprints of
Sadhus are too numerous to register; but there are many varieties of cach, and
instances of the oldest and finest in each class should be noted. On the older piiliyas,
too, are sculptured the style of dress and warlike accoutrements of olden times—chain
armour, horses in mail, bows and arrows, swords of various sorts, shields, javelins, &c.,
and not unfrequently the names of reigning princes, &c., with dates. Copies of some
of these would be very useful. For example, if the paliya of Likhé Phulani exists at
Adkot and can be read, the date and era on it would settle an important point in the
chronology of Kachh and Gujarat. Such as are likely to be of interest should be
noted.

« Styles.—The Dravidian style of Hindu architecture prevails chiefly in the southern
districts of the Presidency and of the Haidarabad territory, and is characterized by its
massiveness in walls, pillars, &c.; the principal architectural lines in the roofs and
spires are horizontal, making the latter resemble storeyed pyramids; and the vertical
breaks in the wall line are of but slight projection, sometimes set off with slender
pilasters with or without sculptures between. In the eavlier remains of this style the
pillars are generally very thick and square or octagon, with heavy bracket capitals; in
the latter they are sometimes round, and generally remarkable for the number of
horizontal members on the shafts and bases; the capitals (except the abaci) are
circular with bracket sur-cupitals. The remains in this style belong to the period
between the 5th and early part of the 13th century. As examples of it may be
mentioned the Kailas temple at Elura, the Seven Pagodas near Madras, and all the
temples in the first report of the Arch@ologica! Survey of Western Iniia—only one
at Pattadkal, represented in Plate XLVL., has a spire in the Chalnkya style.

“The Chalukya style ranges from the 9th to the middle of the 14th century,
and is characterized generally by more elaborateness of ornament, by balconies and
roofings supported by richly-carved brackets, by the outer faces of the walls of shrines
being broken up into a series of projecting corners with equal faces, and by pillars
square in section with a projecting face on each side, or like a square pillar with a
slightly narrower but very thin pilaster added to each side. These latter, however,
while the typical section was retained, were liable to great modification from the great
amount of sculpture often lavished on them. The spires are proportionately loftier
than those of the southern style, with a couple or more of successive projections on
each side: the faces and lines of projection are vertical at first, but higher up they full
inwards with a gentle curve towards the summit, which is crowned by a hadas or finial
varying in form and size with the locality and age of the building. The walls are
often elaborately carved with belts of figures, and the stones are carefully fitted and
clamped inside, but without mortar. Some of the finest examples of this style are to
be found in the gates at Jhinjuwada, the gates and Hira Temple at Dabhoi, the temple
at Mudhera, and Rudra Mala at Siddhpur in Gujarat, and in the Jaina Temples at
Mount Abu, in the small temple at Amaranath near Kalyan, and in some shrines at
Pattadkal and Aihole in Kaladgi.

“ To these two seems to have succeeded what may be called the medieval style
combining some of the features of each, and covering the period from about 1140 to
1600 A.D. ‘To it belong most of the Jain temples and the later Hindu temples in
Gujarat, and those temples usually described as ‘Hemadpanti’ in Khandesh, Berar,
and the Haidarabad territory, dating from about the 12th to tiie middle of the 14th

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 320

century. These tempies and the bauris or wells and reservoirs of the same style and
age have been very imperfectly examined; and as they often present features of
considerable interest, “all such examples, both of temples and reservoirs, should be
carefully noted.

** In the modern Hindu styles from the 17th century there is considerable variety ;
the Muhammadan curved arch is often introduced; forms derived from the Dravidian
have travelled northwards, and plaster and mortar take the place of sculpture and
careful jointing. In some cases, more frequently in civil than sacred edifices, however,
very beautiful wood-carving is introduced, such as is to be seen in many parts of
Gujarat: the best examples of this might be noted.

* On the styles of the Muhammadan buildings in the Presidency and neighbouring
States, little need be said; the cusped arch and the dome are their common
characteristics, but the style of the Ahmadabad and that of the Bijapur buildings
present points of marked difference. A description should be given of the more
notable Muhammadan buildings at such places as they exist, with notes of the form,
size, and any special peculiarities, whether of style or ornamentation.

“* Perforated stone-work occurs in old Hindu buildings; but specimens remarkable
for the variety of bezutiful design are chiefly to be found in the Muhammadan works
of the 15th and following centuries at Ahmadabad and Aurangabad, and, doubtless, in
other scattered localities where Muhammadans of wealth have at any time been
settled.”

Such are the principal epochs and styles into which Indian archi-
tecture has been grouped by Mr. Fergusson and Mr. Burgess, and
which the patient researches of individual observers have done so
much to illustrate. Fora record of the latter we must refer our
readers to the pages of Mr. Markham’s Memoir, where copious
and detailed references to the published accounts of these investiga-
tions up to 1875 are given.*

During the last fifteen years the work of General Alexander Cun-
ningham and Dr. James Burgess deserves most prominent mention.
The former was an old friend of James Prinsep, and inspired by a
like antiquarian taste and zeal he sketched out a plan (published in the
Journai of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, XVII., Pt. I., p. 535) for an
Indian Archeological Survey as far back as 1848. Fourteen years
after, Lord Canning gave his sanction to a scheme, the object of
which was the preservation of the ancient monuments of Upper
India, the rendering them easy of access, the acquisition of correct
copies of inscriptions and pieces of sculpture, and the facilitating the

* A valuable means of reference to the archeological and scientific labours of Indian
sayants is furnished by the “ Centenary Review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal” from
1784 to 1883. The history of the society is written by the late Dr. Rajendrala
Mitra, C.J.E.; the archeology, history, and literature by Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle; and
the natural science by Babu P. N. Bose. The work was published at Calcutta
(Thacker, Spink, & Co.) in 1885.

326 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

studies of antiquaries and historians. General Cunningham was
placed in charge cf the operations. His first investigations lay in
the country adjoining the course of the Ganges, and forming the
ancient kingdom of Magadha, the centre of Indian Buddhism
during its period of ascendency. During this early epoch, two
Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian (A.D. 399-414) and Hwen Thsang
(A.D. 629-45) visited India, and the localities, cities, and monuments
described by them form important historical and topographic
landmarks, which it bas been the special aim of modern students and
comparative geographers to identify. General Cunningham has
observed that as Pliny follows the route of Alexander, so an
inquirer into Indian archzology should tread in the footsteps of the
two Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian and Hwen Thsang. Dr. Burgess,
too, remarks that there was no Indian Herodotus, Strabo, or
Pausanias, and ihat we learn more of the history and ancient
geography of India from these two Chinese travellers than from the
whole vast field of Sanskrit literature.

During his first season, 1861-62, General Cunningham identified
a number of ruins of Buddhist structures, especially at Buddha
Gaya, which, owing to the number and importance of its remains,
has since at intervals occupied the attention of himself and his
assistants. The following season was spent mainly at Kalsi, where
an impression of King Asoka’s inscription, containing the names of
five Grecian kings was taken, and at Mathura and at Delhi. The Punjab
was the scene of General Cunningham’s explorations in 1863-64,
during which he made good progress in identifying the cities and
peoples described in the expedition of Alexander the Great from
the west bank of the Indus downwards, examining every site
mentioned either by the Greek writers or by Hwen Thsang, and
giving detailed accounts of Taxila, Manikyala, and of the scene
of Alexander’s great battle with Porus on the Jehlam. The work
of the following season lay among the ancient cities between the

* Lord Canning’s mirute, dated 22nd January 1862, said, It will not be to our
“ credit, as an enlightened ruling power, if we continue to allow such fields of
“ investigation as the remains of the old Buddhist capital of Bihar, the vast ruins of
“ Kanauj, the plains round Delhi, studded with ruins more thickly than even the
“ Campagna of Rome, and many others, to remain without more examination than
“ they have hisherto received. Everything that has hitherto been done in this way
« has been done by private persons, imperfectly, an1 without system. It is impossible
** not to feel that there are European Governments, which, if they had held our rule
“© in India, would not have aliowed this to be said.”

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. Oh

Jumna and Narmada, and an interesting account of the Dhamnar
caves was drawn up. General Cunningham had now examined and
described the ruins and inscriptions in nine of the ancient kingdoms
of Hindostan.* But in 1866 the appointment of archeological
surveyor was abolished by Lord Lawrence, and for a time General
Cunningham’s useful investigations were suspended, while he him-
self returned to England. The interval was, however, profitably
employed by the General in the preparation of an important and
learned work on the ancient geography of India, in which the
routes of Alexander and Hwen Thsane were traced and numerous
historical sites identified.

In 1867 public interest in the conservation of ancient monuments,
and the collecting of photographs thereof, again revived, and the
Government of India issued a circular to the local governments,
expressing their sense of the importance of taking steps in that
direction, and calling for lists of monumental remains and works of
art in the various provinces. The Government were prepared to
assist in the purchase of private photographs, and to expend a sum
of Rs. 52,000 a year for parties in the four largest provinces to make
models, plans, photographs, and descriptions of the imore important
buildings}. The Science and Art Department added the weight of
their recommendation in the same direction, and even offered to
share expenses, laying stress at the same time on the expediency
of making casts as well as plans and photographs of the finest
monuments.

The local governments placed the work under the heads of the
Schools of Art; and in Bengal a party was sent to Orissa and took
casts at Bhavaneswar temples, and, during the second season, at
Khandagiri caves. The superintendent of the Bombay School of
Art went to Amaranath, near Kalyan, in the Konkan, and took a
series of casts and also made a number of excellent drawings,
afterwards published in the “ Indian Antiquary,” III., 316-320. In
connexion with this scheme also, Capt. H. H. Cole was sent to
Sanchi, and made casts of the eastern gateway there, of which
copies are to be seen in the South Kensington, Edinburgh, and
Dublin National Museums.

* General Cunningham’s four reports for the years 1862-65, were re-published in
two volumes at Simla in 1871.

+ Government of India, Home Department Resolution, No. 14-931 of 24th February
1868,

328 INDIAN ARCHMOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

The general interest thus shown was gratifying, but the impor-
tance of conducting the researches in a more systematic manner,
and on some definite plan became apparent. A suggestive and
weighty despatch was addressed by the Duke of Argyll, then
Secretary of State, to the Indian Government*, which led to a
resolution being passed to forma central establishment to collect the
results of former investigations, to train a school of archeologists,
and to direct and systematise local and private efforts. This central
establishment appears, however, not to have been carried into effect.
The direction of the department charged with the work of surveying
was offered to General Cunningham, whose invaluable services were
thus again fortunately secured to India.

The next year (1871) saw General Cunningham with his two
assistants, Messrs. J. D. Beglar and A. C. Carlleyle, beginning work
by a survey of the two great capitals of the Mogul Empire, Delhi
and Agra. In 1872 Mr. Carlleyle was deputed to Rajputana,
Mr. Beglar to Bundelkhand, while General Cunningham visited
Mathura, Buddha Gaya, Gaur, and other sites. The explorations
at Delhi, Agra, and in the Doab are described in Vol. LIT. of the
series of reports, and the same work contains General Cunningham’s
plan for the execution of the survey. The fourth volume consists of
the detailed reports on Delhi by Mr. Beglar, and on Agra by
Mr. Carlleyle, while the fifth deals with General Cunningham’s tour
in the Punjab in 1872-73, durmg which an extensive collection was
made of Buddhist sculptures of the Indo-Scythian period.

In 1872-73 Mr. Begiar made an examination of the old course
of the Son River, which appears to have run parallel to the
Ganges for many miles, Pataliputra or Palibothra (Patna), the
capital of the Gangetic Provinces, being probably situated in the
long narrow strip between the two rivers. Mr. Beglar thinks,
however, that the actual site of ancient Pataliputra is now under
the waters of the Ganges, which, like the Son, shifted its course
some little time before the Muhammadan conquest. It is difficult
otherwise to account for the total disappearance of the fort, palaces,
towers, and other buildings. The modern city of Patna dates only
from the time of Shir Shah, 1541 A.D. A visit was also paid by

* India, Despatch No. 4 (Public), dated 11th January 1870. See also Government
of India Resolution, No. 649-650 of 2nd February 1871, and Proceedings of Sub-
Committee, Public Service Commission, Scientific Departments, pp. 27 ff.

INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 329

Mr. Beglar to the ancient temple of Buddha Gaya,* to Barakar,
Telkupi, and other localities of archeeological interest in the ancient
kingdom of Magadha.t

In 1873-74 and 1874-75 General Cunningham traversed nearly
the whole of the western half of the Central Provinces,{ his first
attention being directed to the magnificent stupa of Bharhut,§
half-way between Allahabad and Jabalpur. Proceeding through
Bilhari, a town formerly of considerable importance, as shown by
its ruined temples and fine tanks, and Rupnath, where lies one of the
short rock-cut inscriptions of Asoka (see p. 369), General Cunningham
made some researches at the great fortress of Singorgarh, a place
famous for the unprovoked attack made by the Muhammadan
Governor of Kara on the brave Hindu Princess Durgavati, whose
ereat wealth had excited the cupidity of her neighbours, and for the
great battle which ensued (1563 A.D.), resulting in the death and
defeat of Durgavati. General Cunningham also inspected the
curious Buddhist caves at Bhandak, near the Warda River, and
the fine group of temples at Markandi on the Wain Ganga River.
He also treats in his report of the country of the Gonds, called
Gondwana by the Muhammadans, which occupies the southern part
of the region traversed during the two seasons. The true Gond
country, however, is of larger extent, and consists of the long table-
land which gives rise to the Tapti, the Wardha, the Wain Ganga,
and the Narmada. In ancient times the region would appear to
have been called Gauda or Gaur, and General Cunningham identifies
the people with the Phyllite (leaf-clad) Gondali of Ptolemy.
The tenth volume of the Archzeological Survey of India Reports,
issued in 1880, treats of two tours by General Cunningham in
Bundelkhand and Malwa in 1874-75 and 1876-77, the chief points
of interest in which were the discovery of several monolith capitals

* A complete monograph on Buddha Gaya by the late Dr. Rajendrala Mitra, C.I.E.,
was published in 1878, This work was reviewed by Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji and the
editor, in the Indian Antiquary for 1880, pp. 113 f. and 142 f., and in Fergusson’s
Archzology in India (1884), pp. 84, &c. There are short accounts of Dr. Mitra’s
antiquarian labours in the “ Times” of July 30th and “ Atheneum” of August Ist,
1891.

{ Mr. Beglar’s Report, with a preface by General Cunningham, and illustrated by
plans and illustrations, forms Vol. VII. of the Archeological Survey of India
Reports.

t Vol. IX. of the Archeological Survey of India Reports.

§ Described by General Cunningham in a separate work published by order of the
Secretary of State for India in 1679.

330 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

and other remains of the time of Asoka and his successors,
and of numerous specimens of the architecture of the Gupta
period. The General also visited Khajuraho, in the small native
State of Chatarpur, for the purpose of examining the Ghantai
temple which, on the occasion of his previous inspection, he had
considered to be a Buddhist structure, but which Mr. F. C. Black,
C.H., after careful examination, pronounced to be a Jaina temple.*
This opinion was accepted by General Cunningham on his re-exam1-
nation of the building and its surroundings. Fresh visits were also
paid to the great Buddhist stupa at Sanchi, and a good number of
pillars which formerly supported the circular colonnade were dug
up, besides 21 new inscriptions. An interesting square temple
at Deogarh, apparently of 7th century date, with all the
characteristics of the style of the Gupta period, and first brought
to notice by Captain Charles Strahant in the course of his survey
operations, was also carefully described.

During the next year General Cunningham examined many
curious remains of Hindu architecture and sculpture of all ages.
Of the old Buddhist times there are the ancient mounds of Panch
Pahari, or the “ Five Hills,’ close to Patna, from whence Akbar
viewed the city when he was besieging Daud Shah, the last king of
Bengal. Of the same age are the old iemples and stupas of
Sravasti and Tandwa. Of the Indo-Scythian period there is a very
curious group of sculpture from Tusaran Bihar, near Allahabad.
Two inscribed stone pillars at Bilsar in the Doab belong to the
Gupta age, while the period of Muhammadan rule was well repre-
sented by the grand old masjids at Budaun of the time of Ititmish,
A.D. 1202-09, by the magnificent masjids at Jaunpur, built by the
Shargi kings in the 15th century A.D.,{ and also by the tomb of
Sher Shah at Sasseram, possessing the largest dome in Northern
India, and picturesquely built after the Hindu fashion in the middle
of a sheet of water. Two identifications made by General
Cunningham during the tour were of great historical interest in
regard to the early career of Buddha. One was the famous
Uruvilwa forest of vilwa or bel trees, whither Sakya Sinha

* See Mr. Black’s paper in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XLVIIT.,
Part I., 1879.

7 Report on the Topographical Surveys of India. 1870-71, Appendix A., Gwalior
and Central India.

+ Subsequently visited and described by Dr. Fiihrer and Mr. Ed. Smith (see page 339).

‘ea

INDIAN ARCH EZOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 331

retired for contemplation, and where he finally attained to Buddha-
hood. The place is now represented by the small hamlet of
Urel, which is a simple contraction of the Pali name Uruwel, the
bel forest, and the whole neighbourhood abounds with bel trees.
The other identification is that of Nawal, near Bangarmau, as the
Nava-deva-kula of Hwen Thsang. Another visit was also paid by
the General to Buddha Gaya for the purpose of examining the
surrounding country and making a survey of the ancient sites, and
to the vicinity of Patna for the purpose of identifying various
references to Pataliputra made by Fa Hian, Hwen Thsang, Arrian,
and other old authorities.

The twelfth volume of the series presents us with the results of
tours in 1874-75 and 1875-76 in the Central Doab and Gorakhpur by
Mr. A. C. L. Carlleyle, First Assistant, Archzological Survey. In
the Doab he examined the great mound of Indor Khera, eight miles
to the 8.8S.W. of Anupshahr on the Ganges, where he found a copper
plate inscription of the great King Skandagupta, dated in the year
146 of the Gupta era. He also discovered an ancient fort at
Sankara on the Budb Ganga and other historical places in the same
neighbourhood. Mr. Carlleyle claimed also to have discovered at
Bhuila Tal, the site of the famous town of Kapilavastu, the birthplace
of Sakya Buddha, for many centuries the most venerated of all
the holy places of Buddhism. This supposed identification was
accepted on a subsequent visit by General Cunningham, who
traced there various minor sites associated with the life of Sakya
Muni. The identifications were eventually, however, quite disproved
by Dr. Fuhrer.

During the same seasons (1874-76) Mr. Beglar was exploring
the little-known tracts between Chattisgarh and Cuttak, as well as
some interesting places in Rewa and the Central Provinces on the
west, and in Orissa on the east. At Ranipur-jural in the State of
Karund, there is a very fine example of the Indian Hypcethral
temple, of which very few specimens exist, besides many other
temples of various periods. The most ancient places visited by
Mr. Beglar were the famous sites of Khandagiri, Udayagiri, and
Dhauli with their well-known rock edicts of Asoka. The groups of
numerous caves at Mara, about 100 miles 8.E. of Rewa, are without
inscriptions, but are interesting from their extent, as well as from
their position, in the heart of a very wild and picturesque country.
Of much later date are the fine Brahmanical temples of Chandrehi

332 INDIAN ARCH OLOGICAL SURVEYS.

and Turturia, of which some views are given in Mr. Beglar’s Report.*
When these temples were built, the arts of architecture and
sculpture in the Central Provinces must have been quite as
flourishing as in any other part of India. The temples at Markandi
on the Wain-Ganga River, and of Boram Deo in the Kawarda State
of Chattisgarh, also bear witness to the same fact. General Cunning-
ham concludes, therefore, that the whole of this part of the country
must then have belonged to the powerful Kulachuri Rajas of Chedi,
and not to the aboriginal Gonds, whose power was confined to the
hills.

Mr. Carlleyle continued, during the seasons 1875-77, his task of
endeavouring to identify sites in the Gorakhpur district connected
with the early history of the great teacher, Buddha Sakyamuni. He
made a complete exploration of the ruins at Kasia, which General
Cunningham had already identified with the ancient city of Kusi-
nagara, where Buddha died.t This view is, however, questioned by
Professor Oldenburg and others. The ensuing seasons{ were devoted
by Mr. Carlleyle towards following up the further route pursued by
Hwen Thsang, who after terminating his visit to Kapilavastu and
its sacred neighbourhood, next proceeded in a south-easterly
direction to pay his adorations at the various spots where Buddha
had passed, after he had left his native place to enter upon the lite
of an ascetic. The districts, parts of which were traversed by
Mr. Carlleyle during the three seasons 1877-80, were Gorakhpur,
Saran, and Ghazipur, and in the course of his survey he discovered
another inscribed pillar of Asoka at Rampurwa in the Terai, at the
foot of the Nepal hills. The inscription is letter for letter the same
as that on the two pillars near Betiya. The pillar is lying
prostrate, and in its fall the capital was broken, and the lower part
of the bell was found attached to the shaft by a massive copper
bolt, proving that the Hindus were probably aware of the
destructive properties of iron when used as a fastening for stones.
General Cunningham believes that the art of stone-cutting was
known to the Hindus before the time of Alexander.

In 1878-79 General Cunningham turned his attention to the
Punjab, with the object of seeing several of the rather out-of-the-

* Vol. XIII. of the Archeological Survey of India (Cunningham), Calcutta, 1882.
+ Vol. XVIII.
{ Detailed in Vol. XXIZ.

\ INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 333

way places which he had not previously visited, so as to complete
as far as possible, a general exploration of the province. The
temples at Baghanvala, Malot, and Ketas, were visited by Mr.
Beglar, who then proceeded to Ali Masjid to excavate the various
Buddhist remains, which had been discovered on the occupation of
the place by the British army at the time of the Afghan Campaign.
General Cunningham examined all the sites to the south of Manik-
yala, which had been visited by General Court, and then proceeded
to Shahdheri, the supposed ancient Taxila, to explore some spots
that had been left untouched by General Ventura. Besides mis-
cellaneous objects, such as figures and ornaments, thousands upon
thousands of old Indian coins are found among the ruins of Taxila,
which seem to indicate that the Hindus were in possession of a real
coinage at the time of Alexander’s expedition. After visiting
Kafirkot. the General inspected the site of Rohri, where the floods of
the Indus had cut away part of the bank, and revealed the remains
of an old stupa with numerous Buddhist figures and heads in
stucco. The fort of Amb, within the Salt Range, which was visited,
still possesses some Hindu temples. The great mound at Jehlam
had been described by both Generals Court and Abbott; recent
diggings for the railway had brought to light relics dating from the
time of the Greeks, and also from the most flourishing period of
Kashmirian rule. Passing through Lahore, the General visited the
lofty mound of China, 11 miles from Amritsar, which he identifies
with the Chinapati of Hwen Thsang, and crossing the Beas River,
explored various old sites in the ‘Jalandhar Doab and east of the
Sutlej. South-east of Ambala, General Cunningham discovered
the village of Topra or Tobra, from which Firoz Shah removed
the great monolith of Asoka; and his tour was brought to a conclu-
sion with the examination of the old battle fields famous in Hindu
history which are grouped round Thaneswar.*

The following season was devoted by General Cunningham to a
tour in Behar and Bengal from Patna to Sunargaon. He first
visited Buddha Gaya where he had the good fortune to pick up two
dated inssriptions, one fixing the accession of Dharmapala, the
second Prince of the Pala dynasty of Bengal in 831 A.D. At
Jahngria, the rock sculptures and rock-cut temple of Kahalgaon are

* Vol. XIV., Archeological Survey of India—Report of a tour in the Punjab in
1878-79. By Alex. Cunningham, Major-General, C.8.L, C.ILE. Calcutta, 1882.

334 INDIAN ARCHAHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

very interesting, the Jatter more especially on account of its peculiar
style, which differs widely from the highly decorated shrines
of the medieval period. The Muhammadan buildings at Gaur and
Hazrat Pandua, the two western capitals of Bengal, were carefully
studied.*

Gaur les about 150 miles north of Calcutta. In former days
when the Ganges flowed past the city, Gaur was the great
mart where all the sugar of the northern districts was collected
for exportation. But since the city was deserted by the Ganges,
the sugar is brought to Rahanpur. Gaur was the capital of Balal
Sen and his descendants and their successors, the Muhammadan
governors and kings of Bengal. General Cunningham thinks that
the old Hindu city must have been about 4 miles in length, with a
mean breadth of about 14 miles, while the rums of the Muham-
madan city extend for a length of 11 miles along the Bhagirathi
river. When tbis river dwindled to a mere rivulet, and the refuse
of the city was no longer swept away, a deadly pestilence broke out
in 1575, and carried off fourteen of Akbar’s principal officers and
the governor of the province. Since then, Gaur became gradually
deserted, and at the end of the last century had become an uninhabited
waste, covered with great forest trees and thick jungle, swarming with
tigers, leopards, and wild boars, and full of swamps teeming with
mosquitoes and crocodiles. But about 15 years ago Government
offered the lands almost rent free, and the offer being eagerly taken
up by the people, much of the jungle was cleared away. The ruins
are very extensive, and are found scattered about the citadel, the
city, and the suburbs. They include massive gateways, ramparts,
mosques, and other structures illustrative of the prosperous period
of the Muhammadan occupation. General Cunningham claimed also
to have discovered the site of the ancient capital called Paundra
Varddhana by Hwen Thsang in Mahasthan on the Karatoya river.+

* Gaur has been described by the late Mr. J. H. Ravenshaw in a costly volume,
excellently illustrated by forty-four of his own photographs, and twenty-five plates of
inscriptions. ‘The untimely death of the author in 187+ delayed the publication of the
book until 1878.

+ Mr. E. V. Westmacott, B.C.S., in January 1874 liad identified Paundra
Varddhana with Panjara-Borddhonkuti, or Ponrowa and Borddhonknti (Indian
Antiquary, Vol. I11., p. 62, and Beal’s Hwen Tsiang, Vol. I1., p. 194). General
Cunniugham’s tour in Behar and Bengal in 1879-80, is described in Vol. XV. of the Series
of Reports of the Archwological Survey of India. The Report contains also some
interesting notes on the history of Bengal froin the earliest known times down to the
16th Century.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 335

The season of 1880-81 was devoted by General Cunningham to a
tour in North and South Behar.* Part of the season was spent in
clearing the Buddha Gaya tempie, in the course of which the
sites of many of the holy places described by the Chinese pilgrims
and some traces of the original temple of Asoka were identified.
The raised promenade or cloistered walk along which Buddha took
exercise was identified, as well as the vajrdsan, or famous “ diamond
throne,’ on which Buddha was said to have sat under the Bodhi tree.
The result of the researches at Buddha Gaya, made in November
1880, and again in February 1881, were fully described in a special
joint work by General Cunningham and Mr. Beglar. The following
season (1881-82) found General Cunningham in’ the Central
Provinces, exploring the old cities of Rajim, Arang, and Sirpur, the
last of which he believes to have heen the ancient capital of the
country of Maha-Kosala, or Chattisgarh, as it now called, and
obtaining copies of their ancient inscriptions. The remains of these
three ancient sites differ from other temples in Northern India, not
ouly in their plans, but in their decorations. They present no grand
entrance to the front, which is quite open to the full breadth of the
nave or hall, the only access being by small flights of steps from
the sides. Their spires also are not so lofty as those of the medizeval
temples, and their external ornamentation bears a strong resemblance
to that of the great Buddhist temple at Buddha Gaya. But the
sculptures on the pilasters are all of Brahmanical subjects. From the
inscriptions from these old cities General Cunningham was enabled to
frame an outline of the history of Maha-Kosala, from the 8rd or 4th
Century of the Christain era down to the conquest of the country by
the Marathas. He also paid a visit to the great temple of Boram
Deo, which is one of the finest buildings in the Central Provinces,
both in size and in richness of ornament, but which turned out to
be much more recent than previously supposed. The tour finished
at Mathura, where General Cunningham was fortunate enough to
find a half life-size alto-relievo statue of Herakles strangling the
Nemzan hon. It appears to have heen copied from some Greek
original, and has apparently formed one side of an altar.+ The
group is now safe in the Calcutta Museum, after having been used
as a cattle trough for years.

* Volume XVI., Archeological Survey of India.

t+ Vol. XVII. of General Cunningham’s Reports, dealing with the above tour is
accompanied by a note on the aboriginal race of the Sauras or Savaras, and another
note on Demon worship, which is intimately connected with the history of the same
race.

336 INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

During the cold season of 1881-82 Mr. Garrick made a tour
for the purpose of photographing and exploring the old temples
at Markandi. He also examined the remains of an old Buddhist
monastery at Barmayan, which General Cunningham is inclined to
identify with the monastery built by the Maharaja Sri Gupta
for the use of the Chinese pilgrims who visited India. After
visiting the ruins of the ancient city of Gurgi, in Rewa territory,
Mr. Garrick was deputed to inspect the excavations being made
by a company of sappers in the Yusufzai district. Charsada,
the ancient Peukalaotis, about two marches north-east of Peshawar,
forms a central point of historical interest, well meriting further
research.*

The season of 1882-83 was taken up with the exploration of
Eastern Rajputana.r In Alwar, General Cunningham visited the
old capitals of Tejara, Rajgarh, and Paranagar, with various border
forts, famous for centuries in the history of the Meos of Mewat,
who, until their conversion to Muhammadanism, so successfully
resisted the arms of the Muhammadan kings of Delhi. The
principal remains of the Meo rulers, consist of mosques and tombs,
A visit was paid to the great fort of Tahangarh, in the Karauli
territory, which had previously been unnoticed, although it was
formerly one of the great forts of Upper India. It is now quite
deserted, and is filled with thick jungle, and infested by tigers. While
in this neighbourhood, General Cunningham visited the batile field
of Khanwa, where Baber defeated the great Hindu prince Sangram,
and his ally Hasan Khan. He also found the Baoli well, built by
Baber on the spot where he poured out all the wine in his camp, in
fulfilment of along neglected vow. In the Gwalior territory the
chief place visited was the great Jaina temple of Dubkund. It lies
in the very heart of deep jungles, and has 35 small chapels round
the main building. The whole season’s tour was very fruitful in
Muhammadan inscriptions.

General Cunningham’s last two tours in Bundelkhand and Rewa
during the cold seasons of 1883-84 and 1884-85 are recorded in
Vol. XXI. of the Archzological Survey of India. In the course of
these he visited many places which had not been reported upon by
the officers of the Department. The most notable of these

* Vol. XIX., Archeological Survey of India.—Report of a tour through Behar,
Central India, Peshawar, and Yusufzai, 1881-82. Calcutta, 1585.

+ Described in Vol. XX.

INDIAN ARCHHXOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 337

places were the great forts of Kalanjara and Ajaygarh, the strong-
holds of the Chandels of Mahoba and their religious capital of
Khajuraho. which possesses the most famous collection of
magnificent temples in Upper India. Two important inscriptions
were also found, one at Lakhima, dating from shortly after the
death of Skandagupta. and the other, still older, found on the
Ginja hill, about 40 miles to the 8.W. of Allahabad, and dating
apparently from the Seleukidan era, A.D. 140.* .

In 1885 General Cunningham resigned his post as Director-
General of the Archeological Survey. He had served no fewer
than 54 years under Government, haying been appointed Lieutenant
‘In the Bengal Engineers on the 9th June 1831.+ He was present
at the battle of Punniar in 1848, and at the battles of Chilianwala
and Gujrat in 1848-9. Cunningham was twice employed in Ladak,
and his valuable work on that country is still a standard authority
on the subject. In 1861 he was appointed Archeological Surveyor
by Lord Canning, as mentioned above (see page 326), and, with a
brief interval of four years (1866—1870), he was continuously
engaged on these important duties up to his retirement. General
Cunningham thus summarized his own labours :—

“T have identified the sites of many of the chief cities and most famous places of
ancient India, such as the Rock of Aornos, the city of Taxila, and the fortress of
Sangala, all connected with the history of Alexander the Great. In India I have
found the sites of the celebrated cities of Sankisa, Sravasti, and Kausambi, all
intimately connected with the history of Buddba. Amongst other discoveries [ may
mention the Great Stapa of Bharhut, on which most of the principal events of Buddha’s
life were sculptured and inscribed. I have found three dated inscriptions of King
Asoka, and my assistants have brought to light a new pillar of Asoka, and a new text
of his Rock edicts in Baktrian characters, in which the whole of the 12th edict, which
is wanting in the Shahbazgarhi text{ is complete.

‘<7 have traced the Gupta style of architecture in the temples of the Gupta kings
at Tigowa, Bilsar, Bhitargaon, Kuthera, and Deogarh, and I have discovered new
inscriptions of this powerful dynasty at Eran, Udayagiri, and other places.

«Jn illustration of my explorations and discoveries, I have published the following
works :—

. The Temples of Kashmir.

The Bhilsa Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India.
. Ladak, Physical, Statistical, and Historical.

Geography of Ancient India.

. Coins of Alexander’s Successors in the Kast.

Om wl

* Vol. XXL, Parts I. and II. Archzological Survey of India.
+ He was son of Allan Cunningham, the well-known poet and man of letters.
{ The twelfth edict has since been discovered at Shahbazgarhi, and published in the
“ Epigraphia Indica.”
r Y 20321. Ye

338 INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

“6. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. I., Inscriptions of Asoka.
« 7. Stupa of Bhavhut.
“ 8. Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for the Calculation of Dates.”

These works, it may be observed, were, in addition to the series
of 23 volumes of the Archzological Survey Reports, written by
General Cunningham and his assistants, and reviewed in the present
chapter.

In accepting General Cunningham’s resignation, the Governor-
General in Council “ had much pleasure in tendering to that officer
“ the thanks of the Government of India for the distinguished
“ service rendered by him during an unusually long career.”
General Cunningham was created a K.C.I.H. soon after, and in
1887 a special pension of Rs. 2,000 per annum, in addition to his
military pension, was rendered to him for his distinguished services
as Director-General of the Archeological Survey.

On the retirement of General Cunningham the Department was
re-organised on a plan proposed by him. The Northern Provinces
were divided into three charges or circles, each being entrusted to a
surveyor, with asuitable establishment. In the Madras and Bombay
Presidencies, the existing arrangements were left undisturbed under
Dr. Burgess, but that officer was constituted the head of the entire
Survey Department, and the channel for the submission of the annual
reports of each survey party to the Government of India. The
surveyors, in addition to the strictly archeological portion of their
work, were placed on the footing of professional advisers to the local
governments in regard to the repair and restoration of buildings of
antiquity. These arrangements were sanctioned for a period of five
years from the Ist October 1885, but were modified early in
1886 by the appointment of Dr. Burgess as Director-General for all
India. Efforts were now made by Dr. Burgess to utilise some of
the material already collected. Provincial surveys had been con-
ducted at a good deal of expense, both in the Punjab and North-
Western Provinces by officers of the Public Works Department for
several years previously; and much attention had been devoted
to the great monuments of Agra, Jaunpur, Delhi, Lahore, &e.
On examination of the drawings, however, Dr. Burgess found
that the details on which so much of the real character and
style of architectural art is dependent had not been drawn
with sufficient care. Many of the smaller measurements were
in error, and the proportions of ornamental work, mouldings, &e.
overlooked. In the case of Jaunpur it was found that the whole

INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 339

had to be re-measured and re-drawn. This work was entrusted to
the architectural assistant of the North-West Provinces survey, Mr. H.
W. Smith, who conducted a very careful survey in 1886 and 1887.

The report on “ The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur, with notes
on Zafarabad, Sahet-Mahet, and other fplaces in the North-
Western Provinces and Oudh,” appeared in 1889.* The bulk of
the letter-press was by Dr. Fuhrer, and the architectural descriptions
were by Mr. Smith, while Dr. Burgess acted as controlling Editor.
To the manuscript of his report Dr. Fiihrer added a bulky appendix
of 46 Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit inscriptions collected during
his tour. Many of these were unknown before, and some were of
ereat historical importance, especially in settling the question of the
time of the first appropriation of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu
temples by the Muhammadans.

Jaunpur possesses much historical interest, as along the banks of
the Barna are the sites of large cities, destroyed by fire. On the
Gumti stood vast temples which perished on the first inroad of
the Musalmans; but what founders and what antiquity these cities
and temples boasted none can now say. The chief attractions of
Jaunpur are its masjids, which are unique in style and grandeur,
their general features being exemplified by those of the Atala Masjid,
which consists of a courtyard, on the western side of which is
situated a range of buildings, the central one covered by a dome,
in front of which stands a gate-pyramid or propylon of almost
Egyptian character and outline. ‘The three sides of the courtyard
were surrounded by colonnades, and on each side was a handsome
gateway. ‘These Jaunpur examples are well worthy of illustration,
«« and in themselves possess a simplicity and grandeur not often met
‘* with in this style.” +

Dr. Fithrer remarks of this town :—

“Tfin a visit to Jaunpur there be melancholy, yet is that melancholy free from pain.
You stand amid ruins, but ruins detiled by no painful memories. Not here does each
building recall centuries of blood, and lust, and crime. From the pinnacles of the Jami
masjid you look down on the ghost of a noble city : trees growing where once stood
the palaces of princes. From the mound of the Fort, now so desolate, you look down
on the fair valiey, bright with the meanderings of the Gumti, adorned with trees and
the thickly set tombs of men, many, doubtless, heroic men, though their deeds be
forgotten, guia carent vate sacro. As you look down from the upper chambers into
the central hall of the Jami masjid, when, as the evening draws on, the deepening gloom

* With 74 plates; printed and published by the Superintendent of Government
Printing, India. Calcutta (Thacker); London (Triibner and Allen), 1889.
{ Fergusson :—History of Indian and Mastern Architecture, pp. 522-524.

Nee2

340 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

and the dimmer distance makes you feel as standing in a noble shrine of a more familiar
faith, the voice of some worshipper below, echoing through the vaults, carries you back
to a time when, through the same lattice, some queen looked down on king and nobles
gleaming in the light of pendant lamps, with the gold and jewels of an Eastern court,
as they listened to the words of some saintly philosopher seated on that very pulpit.”
Other places visited and described in the same volume by
Dr. Fithrer are Zafarabad, Ayodhya, Bhuila Tal, and Sahet Mahet.
But the plans, elevations, and other lithographs all treat of the
Jaunpur masjids, which form the most interesting feature of the
work. Dr. Fuhrer has since made tours in Bundelkhand, Jhansi,
Rohilkhand, and Allahabad districts, and has completed the exca-
vation of the Kankali mound at Mathura, begun by Dr. Burgess
in 1887, discovering many very ancient and important Jain
inscriptions and sculptures. Mr. Smith, the architectural assistant in
this circle, also made careful drawings, in 1886-87, at numerous sites
in Bundelkhand; in 1888, at Budaun ; in 1888-89, at Kalpi, Irich,
Urchha, and Lalitpur; and in the following two seasons, a most im-
portant series of the richly decorate darchitecture of Fathepur Sikri.

In 1885-86, Mr. J. D. Beglar, General Cunningham’s former
assistant, made a tour in Bengal, but his report was not altogether
satisfactory. Mr. H. W. B. Garrick was engaged during this and
the following season at Sasseram and Rohtas, making architectural
drawings of the monuments at these places; in 1888-89, he made
a tour through northern Bengal, and obtained good facsimile
impressions of two sets of the Pillar Hdicts of Asoka, and of
so much of that on the Rampurwa Pillar as was practicable,
the pillar lymg on its face. In 1887-88, Mr. Begiar was principally
employed at Gaur and Pandua, and made a considerable number of
drawings.

Mr. Rodgers joined the Survey of the Punjab in January 1886,
and during that season and the following two, he made surveys
at Nurpur, in the Kangra valley, and in the Jalandhar, Ambala,
and Hissar districts, making a very considerably number of
drawings and impressions of inscriptions, which it is intended to
publish. He also made a large collection of ancient coins. In
1888-89, he made a tour in Karnal, Ambala, and Ludhiana districts,
during which his staff prepared a large number of drawings.

Archeology has suffered greatly in India, as elsewhere, from the
appropriation by private persons of such antiquities as come to light
from time to time. Sculptures, rings, coins, engraved seals, gems,

INDIAN ARCHZOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 341

and other relics have been occasionally carried off by officers of Govern-
ment, both civil and military,* for their friends and to present to dis-
tinguished visitors and tourists, or to adorn their houses and gardens
at home, at Simla and elsewhere. The demand and prices offered
for such objects have become so great that natives are induced to
search for them everywhere, both in British territory and in Swat, and
neighbouring sites, where ancient Buddhist buildings of high interest
exist, and owing to the random fashion in which the excavations
are made, sculptures get mixed up, and their history and meaning
are lost. Dr. Burgess mentions a case of three interesting, but
practically unknown, statues of royal personages, which were trans-
ferred to the mess house at Mardan. Two of them were doing duty
as jambs to the fireplace, and had been coated with Day and Martin’s
blacking to make them shine properly. Dr. Burgess advised an amend-
ment of the Treasure Trove Act VI. of 1878, which would make it
illegal, asin Greece, Italy, and Denmark, to export antiquities without
an official permit. But the Government, on consideration of the ques-
tion (see Resolution and Circular = Arch. Proceedings, R. and A.,
dated 25th March 1889), did not see their way to adopt so drastic a
course, and decided to call the attention of the local governments to
the provisions of the Treasure ‘rove Act, which permits the govern-
ment to claim possession of treasure exceeding ten rupees in value.
With regard to antiquities of interest which could not be brought
under the definition of ‘‘ treasure”’ in the Act, they advised negotia-
tion with the finder with « view to purchase.

An important appeal had been made to the Secretary of State in
July 1873 in the shape of a memorial. signed by many of the most
eminent statesmen and men of letters of the day, and urging the
necessity of adopting systematic measures for the preservation
of historical monuments in India. A few months before, the
Government of India had pointed out, in a circular to the Local
Governments, that it was the duty of ail executive engineers
to report upon the best measures for protecting from decay any
public monument or building of interest, whether public or private.
With a view to obtaining complete information regarding the
architectural and historical monuments of the Bombay Presidency,
Mr. Burgess was requested to frame provisional lists for the different
collectorates of the Bombay Presidency and for Kathiawar, Gujrat,

* See Memoranda of Dr. Burgess and Major Keith in the Proceedings of the
Government of India (Kt. and A. Department), No. 3 (Arehxology), April 1889,

342 INDIAN AKCHAMOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

the Central Provinces, and Berar; and a revised batch of those
provisional lists* was published in 1875 as one of the fasciculi
memoranda of the Archeological Survey of Western India.

A list of the remains in Khandesh was prepared by Mr. Propert,
the collector, and issued in 1877{ as No. 7 of the fasciculi of the
Western India Survey, and the same year saw the publication
of some ‘“* Notes” by Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Bo. C.S., assistant collector,
Ahmadnagar, on the antiquities of the Talukas of Parner, San-
gamner, Ankole, and Kopargaum, together with revised lists of
remains in the Ahmadnagar, Nasik, Poona, Thana, and Kaladgi
Zillas. These were issued as No. 6 of the same series of fascicult.
The latter was accompanied by a useful memorandum by Mr. Burgess,
giving practical suggestions for identifying and correctly describing
the local antiquities. The complete lists appeared in No. 11.

Among the other fasciculi of this series, No. 9 (1879) contains
notes on the Bauddha Rock-temples of Ajanta, their paintings and
sculptures; and on the paintings in the Bagh caves in Central
India; illustrations of modern Bauddha mythology; and the San-
skrit inscription now at Cintra, with 31 plates. This contains a
full description of the famous frescoes of the Ajanta caves. No. 10
(1881) contains inscriptions from the cave temples of Western
India with descriptive notes, a Silahara copperplate grant, and
three Sanskrit inscriptions now in possession of the American
Oriental Society. This is illustrated with 52 plates chiefly
fac-similes of inscriptions, and was compiled jointly by Dr. Burgess
and the late Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji, Ph. D. The last addition
to the series is No. 12 (1891) on the newly discovered Budd-
hist caves at Nadsur and Karsambla (with seven plates) by
Mr. tH. Cousens.

In April 1880 the Government of India placed Captain
H. H. Cole, R.E., on special duty for the purpose of examining the

* The first edition of this List, with a Memorandum en the Survey of Architectural
and other remains had been submitted to the Government of Bombay in August 1870,
and was reprinted in the Minutes of the Government of India in March 1871.

yj No. 4. Provisional Lists of architectural and other archzological remains in
Western India including the Bombay Presidency, Sindh, Berar, Central Provinces,
and Haidarabad. By Jas. Burgess, Bombay. Government Central Press, 1875.

+ Architectural and archzological remains in Khandesh in 1877. bombay Govern-
ment Central Press. No.8 of the same series of Memoranda contains a descriptive
list of Archxological Remains in Sindh, with plans of Tombs, compiled from returns
by the District Officers, 1879. For No. 11, see p. 316.

INDIAN ARCHKOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 343

condition of the monuments of Lahore, Delhi,* and Agra. Captain
Cole instructed draughtsmen to measure and draw the structures,
and submitted a report. In the following year, Captain Cole was
gazetted Curator of Ancient Monuments in India, and received
instructions to inspect the principal monuments throughout India,
a duty which occupied him up to the 7th April 1882. His first
report; contained a brief history of some of the chief measures
taken during the century to preserve the monuments of India, lists
of remains, and of works of reference, and some rather interesting
detailed notes on structures and antiquities in the various provinces
visited by him during the year.

The second report appeared in 1888.{ It furnished a list of the
drawings, sections, elevations, and plans made by Major Cole’s
officers, and an account of his own rounds of inspection, besides
archzeological reports from several of the Local Governments. In
more than one of the provinces some useful steps had been taken.
Mr. Grant Duff, Governor of Madras, had been touring through the
Southern Presidency, and his visit had given an impetus to archeo-
logical conservation and research. A special officer was appointed
to undertake the repairs of the Madras monuments, the appointment
being offered to, and accepted by, Mr. F. C. Black, C.H.,§ who forth-
with proceeded to Hampe or Bijayanagar, and the Seven Pagodas.
At Bijayanagar the work of conservation was vigorously taken in
hand, and 110 buildings cleared of jungle; and at the Alaiva or
Shore Temple at Seven Pagodas, the sand was cleared away from
the walls of the outer enclosure. For Central India, Major Keith
was appointed Assistant Curator, and was despatched to Sanchi to
effect clearances, to re-erect the fallen gateways of the Great Tope,
and carry out other repairs. This work was put in hand, and by

* A work on ‘‘ The Archeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi” (284 pp. 8vo.),
was produced by Mr. Carr Stephen, in 1876 (Ludhiana). It contains a description
and history of every object of antiquarian interest in the place, beginning with the
site of the semi-mythical India-prastha, the capital of Yudishthira, which is supposed
to date back to 1450 B.C., and concluding with the tomb of the Emperor Akbar IT.,
who died in 1887 A.D.

{ Published at the Government Central Press, Simla, 1882.

{ Second Report of the Curator of Ancient Monuments in India for the year
1882-3. Calentta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1883.

§ Mr. F. C. Black contributed several papers on archeological subjects to the
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He died in 1889. A brief record of his
public services will be found in the Minutes of Proceedings of the Institute of Civil
Engineers, Vol. XCVIIL., p. 402.

344 INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

the end of the year quite a transformation had been effected. In
the Punjab a grant of Rs. 38,000 was allotted out of the Govern-
ment of India grant, and Lieutenant Abbott, R.H., was placed im
charge of the operations, which consisted of the restoration of
various important monuments and buildings at Lahore, Delhi, and
in the Jalandhar district. xcavations were also carried out in the
Yusufzai district, north-east of Peshawar, and several new
sculptures, iliustrative of the Greeco-Baktrian style of art were
brought to light. Illustrations of some of these are appended
to Major Cole’s report. In the North-West Provinces, the opera-
tions were mainly entrusted to Mr. Heath, who made many
useful restorations in the Fort of Agra, at Akbar’s tomb at
Sikandra, at Fathepur-Sikri, Mathura, and Brindaban;* and in the
Nizam’s dominions a report was obtained from the Sadr Talukdar
promising to take steps to effect several works of restoration at
Kalburga and other places.

Major Cole’s third Report} was the last of the Series, for in 1883
the Government of India decided to entrust the work of preserving
buildings and monuments of importance to the Local Governments,
who were also desired by the Government of India{ to take
up the preparation of the lists of ancient monuments, dividing them
into three categories :—

I, Those monuments which form their present condition and
historical or archzeological value ought to be maintained in
permanent good repair.

II. Those monuments which it is now only possible or desirable
to save from further decay by such minor measures as the
eradication of vegetation, the exclusion of water from the
walls, and the like.

* Mathura and Brindaban have been treated in scholarly detail in “ Mathura: a
District Memoir,’ by F. S. Growse, B.C.S., M.A., Oxon., C.I.E., second edition
(N. W. Provs. and Oudh Government Press, 188).

{ Published at Calcutta in 1885. Major Cule also engaged in survey work, and
obtained sanction for a grant of Rs. 5,000 towards reproducing some of the drawings
made. But great expense was incurred by the French firm entrusted with the work,
and after 42,000 frances had been spent on 61 heliogravure photographs and 42
lithographs, further expenditure was stopped by order of Government. The drawings
were distributed in 10 folio parts, without title page.

$ Resolution of Home Department (Archzxology) No. 3—168—83, dated Calcutta,
26th November, 1883.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 345

III. Those monuments which from their advanced stage of decay
or comparative unimportance it is impossible or unnecessary
to preserve.

The monuments in Classes I. and II. were to be further sub-

divided, thus—

I. (a) and II. (a). Monuments in the possession or charge of
Government, or in respect of which Government must under-
take the cost of all measures of conservation.

I. (b) and II. (b). Monuments in the possession or charge of
private bodies or individuals.

Due provision was to be made for the proper custody and keeping
up of the monuments in Classes I. and II., the detailed arrange-
ments being left to the discretion of the Local Governments, and
the cost being charged to the Public Works Allotment of each
province. In very special cases the Government of India promised
to consider whether any further assistance should be granted from
Imperial funds.

But when all these lists eventually came to be submitted, they
were found to be drawn up on such very dissimilar plans, that a
satisfactory amalgamation was hopeless. A prescribed form, con-
tainmg blank spaces for insertion of all necessary particulars
respecting the district, locality, name of object, any local history
or tradition regarding it, custody or present use, present state of
preservation, whether restoration is desirable and possible, whether
photographs, plans, or drawings of the buildings exist, and miscel-
laneous remarks, was sketched out and the old lists were returned
to the various provincial administrations to be revised in consultation
with the Archeological Department. Those for Madras, Bombay,
and the Haidarabad assigned districts weredrawn up and edited
by Dr. Burgess.

The Bengal list had been printed in 1879. and a revised list
was issued from the Bengal Secretariat Press in 1887. In
1885 the lists of antiquarian remains in Bombay, Sindh, and
Berar were published. They had been compiled by Dr. Burgess
from materials supplied by the Revenue, Educational, and other
officers, and the task had proved anything but easy, owing to
the unsatisfactory character of the data frequently furnished.
A yery favourite description was “This temple consists of
stones placed one upon another,’ an account which failed to

346 INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

convey any very precise idea of the structure, while the measure-
ments, numbers of columns, &c. given by different officials respecting
one and the same building were too often wildly at variance.
Nevertheless the lists were a most important step towards a
thorough knowledge and systematic preservation of the antiquarian
remains of Western India, and they also served to show how
wealthy the Bombay Presidency is in such antiquities. The various
lists united, formed a volume of 840 pages.* ‘The latest addition to
these lists was issued in June 1891, containing a complete résumé
of the antiquarian remains and inscriptions in the North-West
Provinces and Oudh, compiled by Dr. Fihrer.; In this large
volume Dr. Fihrer has given a very full account of the remains
at each place with references to all sources of information, the
whole being carefully classified with complete indices. Dr. Fuhrer
is known to have also made extensive collections in 1886-89 for
a similar list for Central India.

Western India.—In 1871 proposals were made by the Secretary
of State for India for the preparation of a complete work on
the rock-cut temples of Western India, in consequence of which a
scheme was submitted by the Bombay Government in 1873, and
Mr. J. Burgess{ placed in charge of the operations, the area of
investigation being the Bombay Presidency and _ surrounding
native states. Mr. Burgess’s first season’s work lay in the Belgaum
and Kaladgi districts im the Southern Maratha country. At
Belgaum he took photographs and made plans of the Jaina temples
as well as estampages of the inscriptions. <A visit was also paid to

* Lists of the antiquarian remains in the Bombay Presidency. Compiled by James
Burgess, LL.D., C.LE., Bombay (Government Central Press, 1885). An Appendix
to the work contains a large number of inscriptions, viz.:—Persian, Arabic, and
Sanskrit inscriptions from Gujarat, Persian and Arabic inscriptions from Cambay,
Sojali near Mehmudabad, Dholka, and Bharoch, and Sanskrit inscriptions from
Girnar. This is No. 11 of the Memoranda noticed above on p. 342.

+ “ The Monumental Antiquities and Inscriptions in the North-Western Provinces
and Oudh, described and arranged by A. Fiihrer, Ph.D.’ (Allahabad, Superintendent,
Government Press, North-West Provinces and Oudh, 1891). Super royal 4to. 426
pages.

+ Mr. Burgess had already published a large portfolio of photographs with letter-
press description of the Satrunjaya Temples near Palitana; another on Somnath, Juna-
gadh, Girnar, &e.; and a third of Architecture and Scenery in Gujarat and
Rajputana ; a monograph on Elephanta, illustrated (1871); papers on Elura and
Ajanta Cave Temples, and Notes of a Visit to Gujarat, and had started and was
then editing the Indian Antiquary.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 347

the large Jaina temple of Panchalinga at Huli. All round Hult
there are enough carved stones to illustrate a mythology, and
Mr. Burgess remarks that if there were a provincial museum at
Belgaum, abundant materials to furnish it would be found at Huh.
At Badami there are some fine specimens of cave temples, three of
them being Brahmanical, and the fourth Jaina, and all probably
belonging to the sixth century. The third cave is the finest of the
series, and, in some respects, one of the most remarkable Brahmanical
works in India. Though it cannot compare with Hlephanta or the
Dumar Lena in size, yet it is a large cave filled with a variety of
sculptured brackets, statues, carved pilasters, and the lke. In
this he found an inscription dating from 579 A.D. which has afforded
an invaluable fixed point for the chronology of the Brakmanical
eaves. The great Saiva and other Dravidian Temples at Pattadkal
were also surveyed and delineated.*

Mr. Burgess’s second report dealt with Kathiawar and Cutch.
Cutch had up to that time been a terra incognita to the antiquarian,
and, though not very rich in remains, it deserved a careful examina-
tion. Kathiawar was more famous as the Holy Land of Western
India. It was known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of
Savgacreyvy, the Muhammadans called it by the Prakritised name
of Sorath, and the Marathas extended the name of Kathiawar from
a central district inhabited by the Kathi tribe, to the whole
province; but by Brahmans and natives it is still spoken of as
Surashtra. It was doubtless at a very early period brought under
the influence of Brahmanical civilisation, and from its position was
most accessible to influences from the West. As early as the
reign of the great Asoka of Magadha (B.C. 265-229) we find him
inseribing his famous edicts upon a huge granite boulder at the
entrance of the pass leading from Junagadh to Girnar. Surashtra
was also probably included in the conquests of the Indo-Scythian
kings in the second century before Christ. Its shores were well
known to the Alexandrian merchants a few centuries later, but
there is much difficulty in identifying the places.

One of the most important of Mr. Burgess’s researches consisted in
the discovery of some interesting specimens of the coins of the local
Kshatrapa kings of Surashtra and their imperial Gupta successors.

* See Fergusson’s Indian and Eastern Architecture, p. 439 ff. Mr. Burgess’s first
geason’s report was published in 1874 by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., and was
accompanied by numerous photographs, lithographed plans, details, &c.

1 Strabo, lib. xi. cap. xi, 1.

348 INDIAN ARCHEOLCGICAL SURVEYS.

The domination of this race lad previously formed an important but
undefined epoch among the dynastic revolutions of India, and the
late Mr. Edward Thomas, the well-known numismatist undertook
the arrangement and classification of the coins.* Some of these
coins bear legends in imperfect Greek, the Greek language having
followed the conquering progress of the Baktro-Heilenic kings as
far as Mathura, Oudh, and Patna, and having been reserved more
exclusively for the ruling classes during their brief sway, while the
Greek alphabet in a degraded form was preserved still longer. Itis
singular that there is no trace of any solitary inscription in the
Greek language in India, but in its numismatic form it remained
the leading vehicle of official record for more than two centuries,
under Greek and Scythian auspices.

The conquest of Sind by the Arabs in A.D. 712 was a marked
epoch in the annals of the country, associated with some instructive
coincidences, such as its inception, the ready domestication of the
conquerors on an alien soil, their final ethnic absorption into the
Indian native element, and their abrupt disappearance into com-
parative obscurity. Several coins discovered by Mr. Burgess are
ascribed by Mr. Thomas to this period.

At Junagadh, one of the most ancient cities of India, there is
probably a rich mine of buried antiquities, and the rock inscription
about a mile west of the city is the most interesting archeological
relic in the province.t It is approached by a noble avenue of
mango and jamun trees, terminating in a substantial causeway and
bridge over the Sonarekha. The memorial itself is a huge hemi-
spherical mass of grey granite covered with 14 tablets or edicts of
Asoka,{ besides a Kshatrapa and a Gupta inscription. This rock-cut
lettering extends over considerably more than a hundred square feet,
The edicts are in the Pali dialect and character, and contain a variety
of injunctions as to moral behaviour, public orders, the sparing of
animal life, religious tolerance, and the like. Professor Kern

* Mr. Edward Thomas was the author of the third chapter of Mr. Burgess’s Report,
dealing with the Sah and Gupta coins.

+ It was visited and described by Major James Tod (Travels in Western India,
p. 369).

t The other edicts are at Dhauli, in Cuttak, at Kalsi, on the banks of the Jamuna,
at Jaugada Naugam, in the Ganjam district, near the coast of the Bay of Bengal
(these three being, like that near Junagadh, in the Pali character), at Shah-baz-garhi,
about 36 miles N.E. of Peshawar. and at Mansahra in the Hazara district (both
n the Baktrian character).

INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 349

remarks that these edicts give an idea of what the king did for his
subjects in his wide empire which extended from Behar to Gandhara,
and from the Himalayas to the Kalinga coast. Asoka the
Humane. went over to Buddhism in the eleventh year of his reign
and became a zealous religionist, but he was a good prince, and
tolerant towards the other faiths, as is exemplified in his edicts.

The Buddhist caves of Junagadh, Talaja, Sana, &c. form another
feature of interest in Kathiawar. Hwen-'Thsang, the Chinese
pugrim of the seventh century states that there were in his time
about 50 convents here with about 38,000 recluses. Of ‘these
Buddhist convents remains still exist, though four centuries of
Moslem dominion and strife have obliterated nearly every trace
of most of them. The rock-cut caves at Junagadh were probably
excavavated for the Jainas by the Sah or Kshatrapa kings of
Surashtra about the end of the second century A.D. Mount Girnar
was doubtless a place of pilgrimage, even before the days of
Asoka, and in his time it probably became a Bauddha sacred
place where monasteries were early formed and cells cut in its
eranitic scarps for the devotees. The Jaina temples here form a
sort of fort, perched on the ledge at the top of the great cliff; they
are 16 in number, and some present a majestic appearance with
their boldly carved granite pillars. There is a striking example of
modern indigenous art at Junagadh in the tomb of Maiji Sahiba,
the mother of the late Nawab of Junagadh. From a low platform
rise 20 rich and elegant columns supporting the colonnade or
verandah surrounding the tomb. ‘The carving is most elaborate and
florid, though Mr. Fergusson considers the details inappropriate for
stonework and the style not in accordance with the true principles of
constructive design. The town of Jamnagar is of recent origin, and
there is not much of antiquarian interest in it, but the facade of
the palace and the Delhi gateway, two capital photographs of which
were taken by Dr. Burgess, are gocd specimens of modern Hindu
architecture.

The history of Cutch is involved in great obscurity. But perhaps
the most important, as it certainly was the most disastrous, event
connected with the architectural remains of the province was one of
comparatively recent date, 7.e., the great earthquake of the 16th June
1819, which extended from Nepal in the north to Pondicherri in the
south, and from Makran in the west to Calcutta in the east, but
the force of which most violently affected Cutch and the region

350 INDIAN ARCHASOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

immediately north of it. ‘This convulsion totally ruined many of the
oldest buildings im Cutch, the effect being particularly disastrous
at Anjar and Bhuj, where thousands of houses were ruined or
rendered uninhabitable. Dr. Burgess had only time to examine the
eastern part of the province, which is not very rich in antiquarian
remains, though there are some noticeable Jaina shrines and temples
at Bhadresvar, Keda, and Kotai. But the return journey through
Gujrat proved more fruitful, and the photographs of the gates at
Dabhoi and Jhinjuwada, sister fortresses of very similar construction,
convey a good notion of the massive and elaborate structural and
decorative character imparted to it by the Hindu architects of the
twelfth century.

The general results of the season’s operations from the 26th
October 1874 to the 24th April 1875 are set forth in a report of
242 pages,* accompanied by a map and numerous photographic and
véher illustrations.

The third report of the Archseological Survey of Western India
describes the principal remains examined during the annual tour
made in the cold season of 1875-76, through the western districts
of the territories of His Highness the Nizam. The tracts had been
previously quite unknown to the antiquary, but though near to
Kalyana, an ancient capital of the great Western Chalukya
dynasty, the survey did not yield either coins or inscriptions, the
wholesale destructions effected by the Muhammadan arms being
doubtless one cause of this. The latter part of the season was
mostly spent at Aurangabad, when a thorough survey was made
of some interesting, but little known groups of Buddhist caves in
the neighbourhood. The Chalukya race is the oldest of which
satisfactory mention is made in the records of the Deccan, and they
seem to have belonged to the great nationality which under the
name of Rajputs exercised dominion over the whole of Northern
and Central India. The rule of the Chalukyas extended from the
Narmada on the north to the Tungabhadra to the south, and from
the Arabian Sea on the west, to the Godavari and the Eastern
Ghats on the north-east and south-east. After a visit to Bidar, a
city which still contains, after nearly three centuries of desertion
and neglect, many remains of the grandeur of the Bahmani and
Berid dynasties, Mr. Burgess proceeded to Paithan, the Hashava

- Archeological Survey of Western India.—Report on the antiquities of Kathiawar
and Kachh. By James Burgess, F.R.G.S., M.R.A.S. (Allen & Co.), 1876.

INDIAN ARCHASOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 351

of the Greek writers, and one of the capitals of the Andhras, whose
rule extended over the Telugu country and the northern Deccan,
including Nasik. ‘Their monarchs were of great in power the early
centuries of the Christian era, for Pliny states that their king
possessed 30 walled towns. and could bring into the field 100,000
foot, 10,000 horse, and 2,000 elephants. The author of the
Periplus of the Airythrean Sea speaks of Paithana as a most notable
trading place, and famous for onyxes, which are still found in
abundance there. The place abounds in local legends, but its
architectural magnificence has long since disappeared, though
many rich and beautiful patterns of wood-carving on the doors
balconies, and railings of houses, built a century ago or more, are to
be seen. Some elegant specimens of these are lthographed in
Mr. Burgess’s book. Formerly the manufacture of silk shawis at
Paithan was famous throughout India, but it has now ceased to
enrich the place, a ruinous tax having been imposed, which drove
most of the weavers away, and destroyed the principal source of
trade. The Buddhist rock-cut temples at Aurangabad had received
no attention previously to Mr. Burgess’s visit. One of the
most noticeable features is the remarkably ornate character of the
pillars, illustrations of several of which are given by Mr. Burgess.
A good photograph of the elegant square pyramidal tower over
the shrine of the Ahalyabai temple at EHlura also finds place in
the volume, as well as facsimilia and translations of numerous
important inscriptions. :

Mr. Burgess’s fourth volume is entitled ‘Report on the
“ Buddhist Caye Temples and their inscriptions, being part of the
“ results of the fourth, fifth, and sixth season’s operations of
“ the Archeological Survey of Western India, 1876-79. Supple-
“ mentary to the volume on ‘The Cave Temples of India.’’’* It
does not profess to be a complete report in itself, but to afford a
good deal of additional material for the study of Buddhist cave
architecture which could not be comprised within the limits of the
second part of the work on the Cave Temples published the previous
year.

The principal object of that work had been to present a
general survey of all known examples of Indian rock-cut archi-
tecture. ‘They number over a thousand in all, and though the greater

* “The Caye Temples of India,’ by Messrs. Fergusson and Burgess, was printed
and published by order of the Secretary of State for India in 1880.

352 INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

part are found in the Bombay Presidency and immediately
adjoining districts, others exist either singly or in groups both in
Bengal and Madras, but under forms as various as the localities are
distant from the typical examples of Western India. Another
source of complexity arises from the caves being divided among
the three principal religions which prevailed in India during
the ages in which they were excavated. The oldest and most
extensive series belong to the Buddhist religion, whose votaries
were the first, and for long perhaps the only, cave excavators.
They were succeeded by the Brahmanical caves, when that faith
in its turn replaced the once dominant religion of the “ mild
ascetic.” A smaller, but hardly less interesting series of caves
belongs to the Jains, who at a later age sought to rival the
Brahmans in the magnificence of their rock-cut architecture.
Their ages, too, vary greatly. The oldest of all are the simple cells
excavated for the Buddhist monks during the reign of Asoka
(B.C. 263-225) or immediately after that date, in the granite rocks
of Behar, and the series extends down to the most modern Buddhist
caves at Ajanta or Aurangabad, probably as late as 700 A.D. The
Brahmanical caves overlap these by a hundred or a hundred and
fifty years, and may extend down to the tenth century, while the
Jaina excavations, commencing about the same time as the
Brahmanical were continued in the rock at Gwalior down to
the middle of the fifteenth century.

Except in Mr. Fergusson’s work on the rock-cut temples of
India, published in 1845,* no such general survey of. the whole
subject had been previously attempted. Since then, however, new
series of caves have been discovered, inscriptions have been
deciphered, and generally such progress has been made, that a new
and greatly enlarged work became indispensable. The principal
caves described in Mr. Burgess’s Vol. IV. are at Bhaja, Bedsa,
Kondane, Nasik, Junnar, Kanheri, and Ajanta. The latter important
group of monasteries and temples had already occupied three -
chapters, and 35 illustrations in the work on the Cave Temples,
but the interest attaching to their varied architecture, sculptures,
inscriptions, and paintings, which exhibit so much of the history
of Indian art for a period of so many centuries, led Mr. Burgess
to present numerous additional details and descriptions in his fourth

* Tllustrations of the Rock-cut Temples of India :—18 plates in tinted lithography
(folio), with an 8vo. volume of text, plans, &c. London: Weale, 1845.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 353

volume. Al] the important inscriptions found in the caves were
translated, and with a general chapter on Paleeography, were added
to the same work.

Volume V. (1883) illustrated, in the same way as its predecessor,
the remaining rock temples of Western India, the principal of
which are the well known and magnificent group at Hlura, con-
sisting of splendid representatives of Buddhist, Brahmanical,
and Jaina cave temples, the Brahmanical and Jaina caves
at Badami, at Aihole, at Ankai-Tankai, and at Patna, and the
Brahmanical caves, chiefly at Jogeswari on Salsette Island, at Ele-
phanta, at Lonad, and at Harischandragad. Of the Elura temples,
M. Baudrillart observes, “ At the sight of these astounding
** edifices, the development of the plastic arts and of public
** religious luxury among the Hindus receives the most striking
‘* attestation in the magnificence of these temples in the infinite
* diversity of their details and the minute variety of the
carvings.”* The only other Indian group-that can rival it, is that
at Ajanta. There, however, the caves all belong to the Buddhist
religion, and carry on its history and architecture for nearly
10CO years, while those at Elura, commencing when the excavations
at Ajanta ceased, acquire additional interest by the introduction of
Hindu temples of a novel form, and subsequently by other temples
of the Jaina faith, which afford a varied picture of the mythology
of India durimg its period of greatest vigour. The whole group
culminates worthily in the Kailasa, the most magnificent rock-cut
temple in India.

n
rN

The village of Hlura is in the Nizam dominions about 13 miles
north-west of Aurangabad, and the caves are about half a
mile east of the village. Cave X. of the Buddhist group is the
great Chaitya rock temple and is conspicuous with a fine fagade
and large open court in front surrounded by a corridor. Here can
be traced an interesting architecturai development. First, there was
in the earliest caves a great open front covered by an external
screen, which screen was originally of wood, as at Bhaja, and then
of stone, ornamented in wood, till at last it came to be constructed
entirely in stone, the opening shrunk in dimension till the screen
in front disappeared altogether, as in this instance, and the
characteristic external features became obscured.

* Histoire dv Luxe Privé et Publique depuis l’antiquité jusqu’ 4 nos jours.

1 Y¥ 20321, Z

354 INDIAN ARCHAHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

The Kailasa or Rang Mahal Temple No. XVII. of the series as
reckoned from the south, has been pretty fully described in the
Cave Temples of India. It was probably constructed in the reign of
Dantidurga, the great Rashtrakuta king (in A.D. 730-755) and is the
most extensive and elaborate rock-cut temple in India, as well as the
most magnificent of all the architectural objects with which that
country abounds. Long, too, after the great temple was finished,
works were carried on at different points in the surrounding rock,
shrines and images being added until probably the inroads of the
Muhammadans finally put a stop to them. The Brahmanical caves
north of Kailasa, except the Dumar Sena, are not so notable, but
the two principal Jaina caves are very remarkable both in extent
and elaboration. They are later in point of date than the caves
belonging to the two other sects.

Volume V. also deals with various other caves including the
famous Elephanta cave in Bombay Harbour which has, of course,
been described by numerous authors and archeologists such as
W. Erskine, Wilson, Hunter, and Dr. Burgess himself in 1871.
The inscriptions obtained during Dr. Burgess’s archeological tours
have been discussed by Professor G. Buhler, C.I.E., of Vienna, in the
same report, one chapter being devoted to the famous Nanaghat
inscriptions, which belong to the oldest historical documents of
Western India. and others to the Kanheri and Dasa Avatara
inscriptions.

In 1880, the survey of the Ajanta caves and others in the
neighbouring districts was completed and the examination of the
Chalukyan temples was begun in the south-east of the Dharwar district
in 1881], and continued in 1882 chiefly in Belgaum. In 1883-84
the Muhammadan architecture of Gujrat, especially at Champaner,
Dholka, and Ahmadabad,* was partly surveyed, and an extensive and
important series of drawings begun. In 1885 H.H. the Gaikwar of
Baroda requested that the survey should take up the ancient city of
Dabhoi; this was done by Mr. Cousens, and the result published at

*JIn 1386 Mr. A. W. Crawley Boevey, Bo. C.S., published “A Scheme for the
‘© Protection and Conservation of Antient Buildings in and around the City of
* Ahmadabad,” (folio, pp. 72 and xev.) Bombay; Edueation Society’s Press ; which
contains a valuable account of the history of the management of the public buildings
about Ahmadabad, with suggestions for their better preservation. This is accompanied
by a very full list of the Muhammadan mosqnes and tombs in and around the
city, with notes on their condition, &e. Conf. Journal Royal Institute of British
Architects (N.S.), VIL., p. 309.

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 355

the expense of H.H. in a handsome volume with 22 plates, the
letterpress being by Dr. Burgess.* The surveys of Broach and
Cambay were carried out, and early in 1886 the work in the
Kanarese districts was resumed. In 1886-87 a further survey was
undertaken also on behalf of the Gaikwar, and Mr. Cousens with the
staff made a tour through a portion of Northern Gujrat, visiting
Siddhpur, Patan, Mudhera, &c., and afterwards commencing the
survey of the great city of Jaina temples at Palitana. The
season 1887-88, and the early part of the next were spent at
Bijapur, a complete survey of the Muhammadan architecture
being made there. On this important survey Mr. Cousens pre-
pared a careful series of notes, printed as a selection from the
Records of the Bombay Government. The early months of 1889
were again devoted to Palitana. The season 1889-90 was spent
almost entirely in completing the examination of the Gaikwar’s
districts in Northern Gujarat; the field season was completed by a
survey of the newly discovered caves at Nadsur and Karsambla, on
which Mr. Cousens has prepared a separate report,t and last season
1890-91 was devoted to a survey of the Hemadpanti and other
remains in the Ahmadnagar and Nasik districts.

The survey drawings being only pencilled im the field, the whole of
the rainy seasons are occupied in inking and preparing them for photo-
lithography, writing up the notes, &c., and this being a slow work
with so small a staff, it has of necessity gradually fallen somewhat
behind.

The famous fresco paintings on the walls of the Buddhist caves
at Ajanta had been copied by Major R. Gill at the expense of the
East India Company. The canvasses were exhibited in the Indian
Court of the Sydenham Crystal Palace. There they were destroyed
by fire in December 1866. No reproduction of them had been

* “The Antiquities of the Town of Dabhoi in Gujarat” by Jas. Burgess, LL.D.,
C.LE., Director-General of the Archeological Survey of India, and Henry Cousens,
M.R.A.S., of the Archeological Survey, Western India. Published by order of
H.H. Maharaja Sayajirav Gaikwar, G.C.S.1., of Baroda. (Edinburgh: G. Waterston
and Sons, 1888).

¢ No. CCXLYV. New Series: “Notes on the Buildings and other Antiquarian
“ Remains at Bijapur, by Henry Cousens, M.R.A.S., Archeological Survey, Western
« India; with translations of the Inscriptions by E. Rehatsek, Esq., M.C.E.”
(Bombay, Government Central Press, 1890.)

{ Printed as a Memorandum (No. 12) of the Archeological Survey (Bombay
Government Central Press, 1890). Reviewed, Jour. R. I. B. Arch. VIL., 436.

Lia2,

356 INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

attempted beyond a few outline drawings on a very small scale in
Mrs. Speir’s “ Ancient India.” Dr. Burgess applied to the Govern-
ment of Bombay to endeavour to have what remained of these
frescoes copied again before they should entirely disappear under the
destructive agencies at work. This led toa grant of Rs. 5,000 per
annum being sanctioned by the Government of India for the
purpose, and Mr. John Griffiths of the Bombay School of Art was
appointed to take charge of the work in 1872. The copying went on
at intervals from this date till 1885, when it was brought to a
close. The copies were sent home to the India Office, and
transferred to South Kensington, where again, most unfortunately,
a number of these important paintings were destroyed by a fire.
Photographs of the copies were taken at the Bombay School of Art,
and recently steps have been taken to publish these most interesting
and instructive remains of ancient art. Of their artistic value,
Mr. Griffiths writes in his Report :—

“The condition of mind which originated and executed these paintings at Ajanta,
must have been very similar to that which produced the early Italian paintings of the
14th century, as we find much that is common to both. Little attention paid to the
science of art—a general crowding of figures into a subject, regard being had more to
the truthful rendericg of a story rather than a beautiful rendering of it; not that they
discarded beauty, but they did not make it the primary motive for representation.
There is a want of aerial prospective, the parts are delicately shaded, not forced by light
and shade, giving the whole a look of flatness, a quality to be desired in mural decora-
tion.

“* Whoever were the authors of these paintings, they must have constantly mixed
with the world. Scenes of everyday life, such as preparing food, carrying water,
buying and selling, processions, hunting scenes, elephant fights, men and women
engaged in singing, dancing, and playing on musical instruments. Manv are most
gracefully, and all are most graphically depicted upon these walls ; and they could only
have been done by men who were constant spectators of such scenes; by men of keen
observation and retentive memories. The artists certainly could not have observed one
of the ten commandments which Buddha imposed on his disciples, viz,, to abstain from
publie spectacles. In every example that has come under my observation, the action
of the hands is admirable, and unmistakeably conveys the particular expression the
artist intended.’’*

Southern India.—In consequence of representations made by the
President of the Oriental Congress of 1874, the Secretary of State
addressed the Madras Government on the subject of appointing an

* The frescoes are described in detail in ** Notes on the Bauddha Rock Temples of
Ajanta, their Paintings and Sculptures (illustrated), &e.” by J. Burgess. (Bombay:
Government Central Press, 1879); see also Mr. Fergusson’s paper on the portrait of
Chosroes If. at Ajanta, in Jour. it. As. Soe. 1879, pp. 155 ff:

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. BROT

Archeological Survey of Southern India. Delays, however, inter-
vened, and if was not till the Governorship of Mr. Adam (1881)
that it was decided to organise a survey. ‘The Madras Ge-
vernment then deputed Mr. R. Sewell to prepare lists of
all tbe known monumental antiquities and inscriptions in the
Southern Presidency in order to prepare the way for a detailed
survey. Mr. Seweil commenced by issuing a circular asking for
the co-operation of a large number of officials and private gentlemen
both European and Native. Of these circulars 7,500 were issued.
Much correspondence resulted, and Mr. Sewell consulted all the
available literature on the subject. His object was not only to
produce lists of antiquities for each district for the archeological
surveyor, but also to furnish general information for the guidance of
residents in Southern India who might care to join in the work of
historical research. The Madras lists were published in 1882.* They
were drawn up according to districts, and to each district list was
prefixed a short outline of the history and antiquarian interest
attaching thereto, the whole forming a volume of over 300 pages.

In 1875, Mr. Sewell, when stationed at Bejwada in the Kistna
District, had been entrusted by Government with a grant
of Rs. 1,000, to enable him to explore at Amarayati, Bejwada,
Undavilli, and other places. Bejwada is a place of considerable
antiquity, once the capital city of the small Kingdom of Vengi,
and afterwards one of the chief towns of the eastern Chalukyas.
The town is surrounded with granite hills honeycombed with
the rock-cut memorials of ancient religious fervour, and stands
on alluvial soil under which, whenever disturbed, appear the
vestiges of past greatness, statues, and walls, and sculptures
of old temples long since fallen, and now lying buried under
many feet of river silt. Opposite, across the river, 1s the large
four-storied temple of Undavyilli, hewn in the solid rock, while
almost every village has its especial relics of the past, Buddhist or
Brahmanical. Here and there are the remains of the circular stupas,
which the followers of the great Reformer erected over relics,
either of himself or of his principal disciples; and 17 miles west-
ward on the south bank of the river, lie the remains of the most

* Archeological Survey of Southern India. Lists of antiquarian remains in the
Presidency of Madras. Compiled under the order of Government by Robert Sewell,
Madras (E. Keys), 1882.

358 INDIAN ARCHASOLOGICAL SURVEY.

magnificent Buddhist monument in all India—the Amravati Tope.*
Here Mr. Sewell set to work in 1877, and during the summer and
autumn of that year, unearthed a large namber of marbles which he
closely described in his report.+

In 1879 Mr. Sewell went home on sick leave, and the following
year the Duke of Buckingham, Governor of Madras, paid a visit to the
spot and directed the district collector to complete the excavation of
the tope, at a cost not exceeding Rs. 1.000. But, as lord
Hartington pointedly remarked in a despatch on the subject, the
collector’s special qualifications as an archeologist were unknown,
the promised services of a Public Works officer to help him
were not vouchsafed, and the general result was to convert the site
of the tope into a large pit about 75 yards in diameter, to
disarrange the stones and débris, and so destroy the chance of
getting any idea of its size or structural arrangements.{
Dr. Burgess is of opinion, however, that this once splendid
monument had been destroyed perhaps more than once before, and
that many of the beautiful slabs must have been used even within
the last 65 years to burn into lime, or to repair miserable Svami
temples, and similar buildings. There are indications also of a
great flood having first destroyed, or at least greatly injured, the
stupa, possibly drowned many of its priests and worshippers and
led to its fallmg into rapid decay, after which it was reconstructed
after some rough manner.

On Mr. Adam’s sudden death, Mr. (now Sir) M. E. Grant Duff
became Governor, and in November 1881, the superintendence of
the Madras Archeological Survey was also entrusted to Dr. Burgess.
His first season was devoted to the survey of the remains round
Bejwada, the Amarayati and Jaggayyapeta stupas, the Jaugada and
Dhauli inscriptions of Asoka, and a visit to the Khandagiri and
Udayagiri caves, taking facsimiles of all the inscriptions.

The season of 1882-83, besides the official work and direction of
the Bombay Survey, was largely devoted, along with Mr. A. Rea, to the

* Colonel Mackenzie and his assistants made careful drawings and plans in 1816 of
this great monument, and Sir Walter Ellict excavated a large number of sculptures,
now at the British Museum. The Stupa and its known sculptures were described fully
in the second part of Fergusson’s Tree and Serpent Worship.

} Leport on the Amarayati Tope, and Excavations on its Site in 1877, by Robert
Sewell, Printed by order of the Secretary of State for India in Council, 1880.

t Burgess’s Notes on the Amaravati Stupa. Printed by order of Government,
Madras: E. Keys. 1582.

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 3859

examination of antiquities in the Madura district, and a very com-
plete survey of the great temple of Ramesvaram which occupied the
staff till the end of the season. In 1883 Mr. Rea surveyed in detail
the monolithic remains, caves, and temples at Mamallapuram.
Early in 1884 Dr. Burgess paid a visit to the shrine of Sri Sailam,
on a remote hill top of the Nallamalai range, which had been only
seen by one or two forest officers since it was visited by Colonel
Colin Mackenzie just ninety years previously. This place he has
identified with the Po-lo-yu monastery of Fa Hian, the Po-lo-mo-
kn-l of Hwen Thsang, which had previously baffled all attempts at
identification.

In 1884 Mr. Rea was chiefly engaged on the extensive remains of
the old Hindu capital at Hampe or Bijyanagar; in 1885 he made
an extensive survey of the old Pallava temples at Kanchipuram,
and in the cold season 1885-86 he made a long tour from Gooty
through the Anantapur and Bellari districts to Harihar and back,
surveying numerous remains on the route. The survey at Mamal-
lapuram was completed next season, and the fine temple at Vellur
and others in the district examined. In June 1887 Mr. Rea made
some remarkably successful excavations at Pallavaram, of pre-
historic graves containing earthenware coffins, some of which he
removed entire to the Madras Museum.* During the following
dry season, he made a tour through Nellur and part of the
Kistna districts, during which he excavated several mounds and
discovered the remains of several Buddhist stupas; and during
the season of 1888-89, he followed this up by a tour in the
Godavari and in parts of the Kistna district previously unvisited,
discovering some very interesting remains, such as an ancient
structural Buddhist Chaitya at Chezarla and examining a group of
caves and stupas at Guntupalle in the Godavari district.; In
1889-90 and 1590-91 the southern districts of the Madras Presidency
were under survey by Mr. Rea and his native draftsmen. During
these tours much valuable information and numerous carefully

* Jour. Asiat. Soc., Bengal, LVII., p. 48, and Madras G.O., 12th August 1887,
No. 1135. Mr. Rea has also contributed an interesting paper on ‘ Methods: of
Archeological Excavation in India,” to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for
1890, p. 183.

{ Madras G.O., 30th April, No. 352; 29th May, No. 462, &., and R. Instit.
Brit. Architects Journal, November 1889, p. 58.

360 INDIAN ARCHAHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

measured plans and detail drawings have been accumulated, as
detailed in Mr. Rea’s progress reports to the Madras Government.*

Dr. Burgess’s report on the Amravati and Jayveayapeta Stupas
appeared in 1887.+ It contained the results of the examination
and further excavations made by him of the remains in December
1881 and early part of 1882, soon after the excavation of the site
by orders of the Madras Government, with photographs of the
sculptures, taken in 1884, after their removal to Madras. Mr. Fer-
gusson had offered to assist Mr. Burgess in the preparation of the
work, but this offer was unfortunately cut short by Mr. Fergusson’s
death, an event which was nothing less than calamitous, so far as
Indian archeology was concerned. ;

James Fergusson (1808-86) was an enthusiastic devotee of art, more
especially in its relation to architecture, and he had publisheda large
number of artistic and scientific works, the more conspicuous among
which are “Tree and Serpent Worship” (1868) and “ History of Archi-
tecture’ (1855). But besides the former of these two, he published
numerous other works relating to Indian archeology, such as
“ TIlustrations of the Rock-Cut Temples” (1845), followed by
‘Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindustan.”
In 1859, he edited Captain Hart’s “ Illustrations of the principal
Muhammadan buildings of Bijapur,’ and in 1866 _ supplied
“ Architectural Notes” to Mr. Hope’s descriptions of Gujarat, in a
work entitled ‘“‘ Architecture at Ahmadabad,” doing a like service
for Meadows Taylor's two volumes published in the same year—one
on Bijapur, the other on Dharwar and Mysore. The beautiful book
on “Tree and Serpent Worship” referred to above, appeared in
1868, and a second edition followed in 1878, while ‘‘ Archeology in
India,” produced in 1884, was a volume mainly elicited by strictures,
but which contains important elucidations of the earliest Hindu

* These reports contain a full diary of the work done and drawings made, with
numerous notes. See, for example, Madras, G.O., 18th April 1885, No. 882; 29th
Sept., No. 2,300; 15th Oct., No. 2,440; 5th Dec., No. 2,830; 9th Feb. 1886, No.
281; 22nd April, No. 835; 25th Feb. 1857, No. 256; 20th April, No. 583; 11th
June, No. 803; 21st Sept. No. 1,361; 4th October, No. 1415; 14th July 1888,
No. 703; 11th Sept., No. 896; 4th March 1889, No. 219, &c.

J Archeological Survey of Southern India. The Buddhist Stupas of Amravati
and Jaggayyapeta. . . . . Surveyed in 1882 by Jas. Burgess, LL.D., C.1 E.,
Director-General of the Archeological Survey of India. With translations of the
Asoka inscriptions at Jaugada and Dhauli. By Georg Biihler, Ph.D., C.LE.,
London (Triibner), 1887,

INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 361

forms of architecture. His occasional contributions to the trans-
actions of societies are too numerous to be specified individually,
and it is not too much to say that his labours, during a long series of
years, on behalf of Indian archeology, were simply invaluable.*

Dr. Burgess retired in June 1889 from the post of Director-General
of the Archeological Survey. Jiis keen interest in Indian archeology
and early training as an architect had led to his being recommended
to the Secretary of State by Mr. Fergusson for the task of
completing a survey of the cave temples. In January 1871
Dr. Burgess produced his monograph on the Elephanta caves, the
first work published in India dealing with cave architecture on
comparative principles, and fixing the approximate date of the caves.
While making researches in monumental archeology in Western
India, he did not neglect other branches, as shown in the pages
of the “Indian Antiquary,” started in 1872 and conducted by him
for 13 years. To epigraphy, in particular, special attention was
devoted in this journal, and facsimiles, in preference to eye copies,
of some hundreds of inscriptions were published in its pages The
collotype reproductions of the Girnar inscriptions in his second
report formed the basis of M. Senart’s elaborate work on the
“Inscriptions of Piyadasi.” After carrymg on the Archeological
Survey of Western India for nearly eight years, the superintendence
of that of Southern India was added to Dr. Burgess’s charge in
November 1881, and early in 1886 he was appoimted Director-
General for the whole of india. In 1885 the value of his services
in the Survey had been recognised by the Order of C.I.H. being
conferred upon him. He had been elected an honorary LL.D. of
Edinburgh University in 1881.

In May 1889, the general position of the Archzeological Survey all
over India was re-considered. The reports then awaiting editing
and publication comprised two reports by Dr. Fiihrer and Mr. H. W.
Smith, dealing with places in the North-Western Provinces, three
reports by Mr. Rodgers on the Punjab, four by Mr. Rea on Kanchi

* A careful and sympathetic notice of the late Mr. James Fergusson from the pen
of Sir Frederic Goldsmid, will be found at page 113 of the “ Proceedings” of the
Royal Geographical Society for 1886; and another by Mr. W. H. White, F.R.I.B.A.,
in the Annual Report of the Royal Asiatie Society for 1886, pp. xxiv—xxxix. A just
tribute is paid to his services in the Quarterly Review for July 1889, in an article on
“Ancient India”; see also Journal, Royal Institute of British Architects, August
1889, p. 356.

362 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

or Conjiveram, Mamallapuram, Bijayanagar or Hampe, Rames-
waram and Madura, various reports by Dr. Burgess on Ahmadabad,
Broach, Dholka, Champaner, and Mehmudabad and Sojali, and by
Mr. Cousens on the Chalukya architecture of Dharwar and Belgaum,
the Musalman Architecture of Bijapur, and (for the Gaikwar) on the
ancient architecture of Northern Gujrat. It was estimated that
these materials would fill 12 volumes, and arrangements were made
for Dr. Burgess, on his retiring from the Service, to continue the
work of editing and supervising the publication of the volumes at
home. The archeological staff was then reduced to the followmg :—
Mr. H. Cousens, C.E., Superintendent of the Archeological
Survey, Western India.
Mr. A. Rea, Architect, Superintendent of the Archeological
Survey, Southern India.
Dr. E. Hultzsch, Epigraphist, Southern India.
Dr. A. Fithrer, for general Antiquarian and Epigraphical
Research in the North Western Provinces.
Mr. E. W. Smith, Architectural Assistant to Dr. Fuhrer.
There are now three parties, one under’ Mr. Rea, another
under Mr. Cousens, and a third under Dr. Fuhrer and Mr. Smith,
each being provided with a small staff of native draftsmen,
Dr. Hultzsch continuing his epigraphical researches in Madras.
Among recent literature on Indian archeology mention may be
made of an excellent paper on “ Ancient India,” more particularly with
reference to its antiquarian remains, as described in the principal
official reports of the last 20 years, which will be found in the
* Quarterly Review”? for July 1889, Vol. 169. A paper of a more
general character, entitled ‘* The History of Archeology in India,”
formed the subject of an interesting lecture by Mr. James Gibbs,
C.8.1.. C.I-E., delivered before the Society of Arts on the 2nd April
1886 (Journal XXXTV., p.555). A French writer, too, Dr. Gustave
Le Bon, has produced an interesting volume, entitled, ‘‘ Les Civilisa-
tions de l’Inde,’ and issued by Firmin-Didot et Cie., im Paris.
The book, which is profusely illustrated with lithographs and
chromo-lithographs, is the fruit of an archzological mission through
India, with which Dr. Le Bon was charged by the French Minister
of Instruction.
In the “Journal of Indian Art” (W. Griggs, Peckham) occa-
sionial papers on Indian archeology have appeared, among which
the following may be instanced:—In Vol. I., No. 8, p. 61, and

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 363

No. 10, p. 76, “ Decorations of the Taj Mahall, Agra,” by Sir George
Birdwood; in Vol. II., No.17, “ Chalukyan Temples,” by H. Cousens,
with five characteristic illustrations; No. 19, p. 17, “Mosque of
Vazir Ali ad-din Khan, at Lahore,” by J. L. Kipling, C.I.E., with
four coloured plates; in Vol. III., No. 28, p. 28, “ Ancient
Chalukyan Stone Carving,” by H. Cousens, with two plates;
No. 32, p.49, review and analysis, by Dr. Burgess, of Colonel Jacob’s
“ Jaypur Portfolios of Architectural Details,” with 15 plates; and in
Vol. IV., No. 34, p. 18, ‘* Detail Drawings,” from Urchha, Fathepur
Sikri, and Mathura, by Ed. W. Smith, with four plates.

Colonel 8. 8. Jacob, C.I.E., State Engineer at Jaypur, has, in
1890, brought out, under the patronage of the Maharaja, a series
of six magnificent portfolios, containing 374 plates (each 22 inches
by 15) of architectural details from buildings in Upper India.
This promises to be only half the complete work. It is published
by W. Griggs, Peckham, and Bernard Quaritch, Piccadilly.

As an application of the architectural details drawn for the
archeological surveys under Dr. Burgess’s direction, it may be
noted that the Government of India has ordered the reproduction
of a selection of the drawings of examples of decorative details,
under the title of a ‘Technical Art Series.” These plates are
distributed, at a low charge, to schools of art, technical workmen,
and others, as specimens of purely antique native art. With the
first series short notes are also issued, prepared by Dr. Burgess,
explanatory of their origin, age, material, &c. The second series is
now in course of issue.

Burma.—In Burma, during the last ten years, strenuous efforts
have been made by Dr. Forchhammer, an antiquarian of eminence,
to collect and render accessible the rich Pali and Burmese
literature of the province and the written records of the Talaings,
Shans, Kathes, and other nations and tribes inhabiting Burma
and the bordering countries. A beginning was made with the
formation of a library to contain all printed books and pamphlets on
Buddhism and Pali, the religions of India, and the languages which
record its sacred and secular writings, anda nucleus was secured in
the shape of the valuable library of the late Professor Childers.
Successful efforts were also made to secure remains of the old
Talaing literature which had survived the wholesale destruction
ordered by Alompra, the Burmese conqueror of the Talaings, and
which were hidden and rotting away in the caves on the Salwen

364 INDIAN ARCHMOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

and Attaran rivers. A number of Siamese and Cambodian manu-
scripts were also found in the same localities, and the collection was
augmented in 1886-87 by a large number of splendid manuscripts
received from Mandalay and by native gifts. These have been
deposited in the manuscript department of the Bernard Free
Library and the collection of Pali, Burmese, Talaing, Siamese,
Cambodian, and Sanskrit (in Burmese characters) manuscripts 1s
probably the largest of its kind m existence. During the last ten
years ample material for a history of Pali-Burmese and Talaing
literature has been gathered.

Archeological research has been carried on jointly with the search
and collection of manuscripts. All parts of Lower Burma have
been visited, except the upper reaches of the Kaladan and Mayu
river, where important finds may be expected. ‘lhe region south of
Moulmein, down to Tavoy and Mereui, and a few places at the
mouth of the Bassein river, and in the eastern portion of the Prome
district remain to be examined. In 1887, Dr. Forchhammer’s
Burmese assistant visited Amarapura and Ava, chiefly with the
view to secure prints of the many inscriptions. These, especially
those which a century ago were moved to Ava by the Burmese king
Bodawpara from all parts of Burma and newly conquered territories.
About 500 of these lithic monuments await examination. A
large number of inscriptions from various localities have been
copied out, and a tabular list, as prescribed by tne Government
of India, has been prepared of the Arakan, Thayetmyo, Prome,
Henzada, Bassein, and Thonegwa districts.

Unfortunately, Dr. Forchhammer fell ill, and died in April 1890,
before he had had time to publish all the materials he had collected.
‘he reports actually issued are the following :—

List of objects of antiquarian interest in Lower Burma.
J. Arakan. 1891.

Arakan I. Mahamuni Pagoda.
II. Mrohaung.
ILI. Launggyet, Minbya, Urittaung, Akyab, and

Sandoway.
Pagan. I. Kyaukku Temple.
Lists of objects of antiquarian and archeological interest
in British Burma, Rangoon. 8yo. 1884.

Notes on the Shwe Dagon pagoda. Rangoon, 1883.

INDIAN ARCHHOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 365

The Chief Commissioner of Burma has been asked to submit a
full programme of the archeological work which has yet to be
undertaken in Burma, together with his opinion as to the desirable-
ness of starting a survey there upon the lines adopted in India
proper.

In connexion with archeological and literary research, mention

may be made of an important work on the geography of the
countries adjacent to North-Western India which during the last
fifteen years has been under compilation in Hngland. Major H. G.
Raverty, known for his translations of Afghan and other Oriental
works, as well as for his historical investigation in connexion with
Asiatic countries has been engaged in translating, annotating and
amplitying with the fruit of his own personal observations a
voluminous Oriental manuscript of an unique character. ‘Two
copies of this manuscript have come into Major Raverty’s possession,
but the author’s name will not be divulged by the Major till the last
chapter of his book is reached.
Major Raverty’s work is entitled, “Notes on Afghanistan and
part of Baluchistan, geographical, ethnographical, and historical,
* extracted from the writings of little known Afghan and 'Tajzik
* historians, geographers, and genealogists; the histories cf the
* Ghuris, the Turk Sovereigns of the Dihli Kingdom, the Mughal
* Sovereigns of the House of Timur and other Muhammadan
** chronicles, and from personal observatious.”

The backbone of the work, so to speak, is supplied by the
translation of the manuscript, which is indicated throughout by
inverted commas, but the additional matter contributed by Major
Raverty, whether as comment or notes, is quite as voluminous as
the original text. Although the native author’s name is not given,
we are told a good deal about him. He was a man of Mogul
descent, of good family and superior education, and possessed a great
taste for geographical knowledge. He says he undertook the series
of journeys which he narrates for the purpose of describing the
appearance and political condition of the countries adjacent to Delhi
on the north and north-west, because he found that the historians of
his day, even if they possessed such information, invariably omitted
it from their records. He was in the prime of life about the time
that Ahmad Shah overthrew the Marathas at the battle of Panipat
(1761), and subsequently, when Hindustan was in an utter state of
disorder, culminating in the blinding of the old king Shah Alam, the

366 INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

author set out on lis wanderings, which were spread over eight or
nine years, and the account of which he completed in 1790—91.
The date of his death is not known apparently, but he was acquainted
with the names of Warren Hastings and the Marquis Wellesley, to
whom he was presented, if indeed he was not personally well-known
to them.

The manner in which this native traveller explored the various
routes which he describes is not exactly stated, but he appears to
have used a compass, as he gives bearings and distances, and where
these have been tested on recent occasions by our troops and surveyors
they have been generally found to be very accurate. He evidently
lost no opportunity of accompanying the inhabitants and merchants
of these parts in their journeys to and fro, and of getting them to
aid him in his objects. He would often make a stay of some dura-
tion in a particular locality until he had succeeded in learning all
that was possible about it, not unfrequently making acquaintance
with the head men and priests. For instance, when his travels had
brought him up to the remote valley of Chitral on the extreme
north-west frontier of India, he was fortunate enough to fall in with
a kindred spirit in Shah Riza of Drush, the Badshah or chief of
Kashkar and Chitral, who not only gave the author every facility
for exploring those regions, but eyen personally accompanied him
on foot for the purpose of thoroughly examining the various passes
which lead over the huge mountain range of the Hindu Kush into
the valley of the Oxus River.

The manuscript itself is in Persian, though portions here and
there forming, not improbably, the substance of oral information
given to the author, are in the Pushtu or Afghan tongue. It is
translated verbatim for the most part by Major Raverty, who has
enriched it with innumerable notes and comments, and with collateral
information obtained from Oriental historians and Huropean trans-
lators and critics.

Inscriptions and Coins.

Indian inscriptions have at all times attracted the attention of
scholars. The Hindus in their literature have scarcely produced
any works of a historical character, though family legends, local
traditions, and Puranie or mythological tales are common enough.
Fortunately, this want is largely compensated for by numerous
contemporary records in the shape of inscriptions, forming the

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 367

title-deeds of grants and endowments made by kings and chiefs to
temples and religious communities, some being on rocks, some on
the pillars and walls of temples, and others engraved on plates of
copper held together by rings to which is attached the seal of the
reigning dynasty. In these inscriptions lies the hope of filling up
the many lacune in Indian history, and we find that Sir Charles
Wilkins, General John Carnac, Sir John Shore, and others who
rallied round Warren Hastings and Sir Wiliam Jones, to form the
Asiatic Society of Bengal ninety years ago, fully recognised this,
and at once began to collect and investigate the contents of
inscriptions.* Colonel Colin Mackenzie during the first years of the
century did much to collect inscriptions, especially in Southern
India, where they are very numerous. and is said to have prepared
copies of no less than 8,076. Francis Buchanan (Hamilton) also
collected many inscriptions. During his long residence in India,
Sir Walter Elliot spared no pains in collecting impressions of copper
plate grants, and transcriptions of stone tablet inscriptions, and by
means of them was able to establish the chronology of the great
Chalukya dynasty of the Kanarese and Maratha countries, which
flourished from the 5th to the 12th Centuries. Others, such as
Tod, Prinsep, Le Grand Jacob, Bhau Daji, and Cunningham showed
like activity in collecting, but as Lassen truly remarks} it was the
zeal and thoughtfulness of individuals, rather than the care of the
Government, to which the knowledge and preservation of these
ancient monuments of the country were due.

However, in 1851 the Bombay Cave Temple Commission,
appointed to carry out the object of the despatches of the Court of
Directors,} obtained the appointment of Lieut. Brett to copy and
take impressions of the inscriptions; and reduced lithographs and
translations were published by the Rev. Dr. Stevenson in the
Journal of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Early in 1856, the same Commission recommended the publication
under Government, of fac-similes or copies with decipherments and

* Pali, Sanskrit, and old Canarese inscriptions from the Bombay Presidency, and
parts of the Madras Presidency and Maisur. By J. F. Fleet and Jas. Burgess,
London (Eyre and Spottiswoode). 1878.

{ Alterthumskunde, IT., 42.

t No. 15 of 29th May 1844, No. 1, 27th January 1847, No. 24, 29th September
1847, and No. 13 of 4th May 1853, and Kesolution of Bombay Government of
31st July 1848. (No. 2803.)

368 - INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

translations of ancient inscriptions, the whole to form a complete
Corpus Inseriptionum. This led to the appointment of Vishnu
Sastri Bapat as Pandit, who in the course of five years copied and
translated into Marathi some 88 Pali and Sanskrit mscriptions, but
none of them were published, and the death of the Pandit, the
Mutiny, and the transfer of the Government of India to the Crown
interrupted the work.

Abovt 1865 the Government began to take a keener interest in
the matter, and a photographie collection of 149 inscriptions on
copper plates and stone tablets, taken in Mysore by Lieut.-Col.
H. Dixon, 22nd Regiment, M.N.I., was prmted by the Government
of that State; while Mr. (now Sir Theodore C.) Hope issued a
smaller collection of inscriptions in Dharwar and Mysore. A few
years later the Duke of Argyll, then Secretary of State for India,
forwarded a scheme to the Bombay Government, for the collection
and preservation of ancient Kanarese inscriptions, but it was not till
the starting of the ‘‘ Indian Antiquary ”’ in 1872, and the organization
of the Archzxological Survey of Western India in 1874 that
opportunity occurred for obtaining fac-similes of these and similar
records. A grant was made by Government to the ‘‘ Indian Antiquary,”
and this proved of great service by enabling a large number of
inscriptions to be photo-lithographed in Vols. III. to XIII., those in
Vols. VI. to XIII. being largely selected from Sir Walter Elliot’s
collection.

Jn 1878, under the sanction of the Secretary of State for India,
a volume was produced by Messrs. Fleet and Burgess, containing, as
a basis, the collections of Colonel Dixon and by Dr. Pigou (which had
been included in Sir T. C. Hope’s “ Inscriptions in Dharwar and
Mysore”). ‘These were supplemented by photographs taken by, and
lithographs from estampages and rubbings made by the Archeological
Survey of Western India, and Mr. Fleet, besides fac-similes of
other grants. But these were far from embracing even nearly
all the inscriptions from Western India and the Dekhan at present
available, for in the India Office Library, in the Royal Asiatic
Society, in the Bombay Asiatic Society, im the British Museum,
and in private hands both in India and in Europe, there are a
considerable number of copper-plate grants which, if published in
fac-simile, would fill up many lacune, and supply important dates.

To the volume on Pali, Sanskrit, and old Canarese inscriptions
is prefixed an important introductory chapter on Indian inseriptions,
the substance of which I have reproduced in the above sketch.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 369

In 1877 General Cunningham brought out the first volume of the
“Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum,” containing the inscriptions
of Asoka. These edicts are the earliest Indian inscriptions yet
discovered, and are of two distinct classes, generally known as rock
inscriptions and pillar inscriptions, to which may be added a few
caye inscriptions in Behar and Orissa. The six rock inscriptions
present six different texts of the same series of edicts, published
by Asoka in 253 and 251 B.C. They are found at far-distant
places: three being on the extreme northern, two on the eastern,
and one on the western borders of India, thus showing the wide
extent of Asoka’s rule, as well as the great care which he took
about the promulgation of his edicts in remote parts of his dominions.
Asoka was the third prince of the Maurya dynasty, and the
grandson of Chandragupta, who was identified by Sir William Jones
with Sandrakoptos, the contemporary of Seleukos Nikator. The
edicts themselves are fourteen in number, and were summarised by
James Prinsep.* ‘Their main object, as expounded by Wilson, appears
to be the exaltation of moral obligations over all ceremonial practices,
over a religion of rites; the enjoining, in preference to the sacrifice
of animals, obedience to parents, affection for children, friends, and
dependents, reverence for elders, Sramans, and Brahmans, universal
benevolence and unreserved toleration. Wilson concludes his account
with the following words: ‘ The edicts may be taken as historical
“ evidence that Buddhism was not yet fully established, and that
** Priyadasi or Asoka was desirous of keeping peace between it and
** its predecessor by inculcating social duties and universal toleration
** in place of either ritual or dogma.”

The inscriptions of Asoka are also invaluable for the study of the
vernacular languages of India, as they furnish several undoubted
texts of the common language of the people in the 3rd Century
B.C. This spoken language was essentially the same in the region
lying between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, from the banks
of the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges. The written character is
two-fold—one called Ariano-Pali, and read from right to left, which
is found on the Shahbaz-garhi rocks, in the Yusufzai district, on
the extreme north-west, and on three large boulders at Mansahra, in
the Hazara district, and which is also found on the coins of the
Greek and Indo-Scythian princes of Ariana; the other, Indo-Pali,

* Journal, Bengal Asiatic Society, VII., 220.
1 Y¥ 20321. IE

370 INDIAN ARCHMHOLOGICAL SURVEYS.

read from left to right, which is confined to the coins of Pantaleon
and Agathokles, who reigned beyond the Indus, but which is the
common character of all the other texts of the inscriptions, as well
as of all the donative inscriptions of the Sanchi and Bharhut stupas.
The distinctive peculiarities of these two alphabets are carefully
discussed by General Cunningham, and the transcripts of most of
the edicts with the translations are given in full in his work.*

In 1888, Mr. J. F. Fleet, C.I.E.. was appointed Epigraphist,7 with
the primary object of preparing Volume III. of the “Corpus
Inseriptionum Indicarum,” that was to contain the inscriptions of the
early Gupta kings. The Gupta volume was completed by Mr. Fleet
in 1887, and published the following year in Calcutta. <A careful
study of the inscriptions enabled Mr. Fleet to fix the period of the
early Gupia supremacy, and also to establish a starting-point from
which to work back in developing the Indo-Scythian history.
Moreover, through fixing, for the first time, the date of Mihirakula,
who, as we learn from the writings of the Chinese pilgrim, Hwen
Thsang, played a leading part in early Indian history, Mr. Fleet has
furnished the means of adjusting the chronology before and after
him of the early history of Kashmir, and of testing the accuracy of
the Chinese accounts of the same early period.

The principal records in the volume are those of the early Guptas
themselves from A.D. 401 to 466, and next, the records of a
feudatory family, the Parivrajaka Maharajas, which prove that,
though the direct line of the early Gupta dynasty itself may have
become extinct, the Gupta dominion still continued, and the name
of the Gupta kings was still recognised as a power down to
A.D. 528. The person who accomplished the final extinction seems
to have been the great king Mihirakula, of Sakala, in the Punjab,
and subsequently of Kashmir, whose career m India isso graphically
described by Hwen Thsang. Next come the inscriptions of the

* Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. I., Inscriptions of Asoka, Prepared by
General Cunningham, C.S.I., Calcutia, 1877. The Mansahra inscriptions were
discovered subsequently, as well as the Rampurwa pillar. A valuable discussion of
these inscriptions has been published, in two volumes, under the title, “ Les Incriptions
de Piyadasi, par E. Senart, Mem. de Inst.” (Paris, 1881-86) ; and detached papers on
them by Prof. G. Bibler, LL.D., C.I.E., have appeared in the “ Zeitschrift der
Deutsch. Morgenliind. Gesellschaft,” at different dates,

t On the 17th January 1883. He held the appointment for 3} years, until the
Ist June 1886. In August 1881, Dr. Burgess had prepared a ‘“ Memorandum on the
Collection and Publication of Indian Historical Inscriptions,” which he submitted to
the Secretary of State, recommending this appointment.

INDIAN ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 371

kings of Vaiabhi, ranging from 426 to 766, after which occur
inscriptions of various families of minor importance. The exact
chronological place of the Gupta era, a historical question which has
been discussed. by scholars for forty years, is ascribed by Mr. Fleet,
after a learned and exhaustive discussion, to A.D. 319-320.

Lists of inscriptions in Southern India were drawn up _ by
Mr. R. Sewell, and these, together with a sketch of the dynasties
of Southern India, were published by Government in 1884.*

In 1886, at the suggestion of Dr. Burgess, a circular letter was
issued by the Government of India to the local governments, to
afford all assistance to the surveyors in framing lists of existing
inscriptions. The same year saw the first attempt towards the
elucidation of the Tamil inscriptions of Southern India, when
Mr. Burgess produced a work on Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions.+
The first bateh of notes and inscriptions had been collected in the
Madura district in 1883. The second part contains 56 Tamil
inscriptions, collected at the great temple of Ramesvaram and
elsewhere, in the Ramnad Zamindari, and the third part, a mis-
cellaneous collection of both Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions from
various parts of the Madras Presidency. In the same year (1886)
Dr. E. Hultzsch, a German scholar, versed in the Sanskrit, Pali, and
Dravidian languages, was appointed Epigraphist to the Government
of Madras, and during that and the following year he collected
over 150 Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions from stone and copper-
plate edicts at Mamallapuram, Kanchipuram, in the North Arcot
district, and other parts of the Madras Presidency.{

With the object of promoting still further the study of Indian
inscriptions, a quarterly publication entitled “ Epigraphia Indica
and Archeological Survey Record” was started under the editor-
ship of Dr. Burgess in October 1888. A grant of Rs. 6,000
(afterwards reduced to Rs. 4,000) was made to this undertaking by
the Government of India. Of this publication, eight parts (456

* Archeological Suryey of Southern India, Vol. II.—Lists of inscriptions and
sketch of the dynasties of Southern India. Compiled under the orders of Government
by Robert Sewell. Madras: EH. Keys, 1884.

{ Archeological Survey of Southern India, Vol. ITV.---Tamil and Sanskrit
inscriptions, with some notes on village antiquities, collected chiefly in the south of the
Madras Presidency. By James Burgess. With translations by S. M. Natesa Sastri,
Pandit. Madras; E. Keys, 1886.

{ South Indian inscriptions, Tamil and Sanskrit, edited and translated by E. Hultzsch,
Ph.D., Government Epigraphist, Archzological Survey of Southern India. Madras
(Higginbotham & Co.), 1890.

AaZ

372 INDIAN ARCH#OLOGICAL SURVEYS.

pages) have been published, containing a large number of very im-
portant inscriptions for the early history of India, and translated
by such accomplished orientalists as Professors G. Buhler, LL.D.,
C.J.E., of Vienna, F. Kielhorn, Ph.D., C.1.E., of Géttingen, Prof.
J. Eggeling, Ph.D., of Edinburgh, &c., whose names are a suffi-
cient guarantee for the authority of their versions and comments.
Facsimiles of the more important epigraphs are also issued in the
work, which, if it is continued, will form an important supplement to,
or rather a substitute for the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum.

Among the more important inscriptions for the early history of
India contained in this first volume of the “ Epigraphia Indica,” now
all but complete, are—the recently discovered twelfth edict of
Asoka from Shahbazgarhi; an early Prakrit copper-plate grant of
the Pallava king Sivaskandavarman; an inscription from Lakkha
Mandal in the Himalayas, of about the sixth century, containing the
genealogy of the early kings of Singhapura; two long inscriptions
of the beginning of the ninth century from Baijnath in Kangra;
eight from Khajuraho, and other Chandella records; the great
Siyadoni inscription discovered by Dr. Burgess; a new record of
Toramana froin the Panjab ; a large number of short but important
Jaina inscriptions excavated from the Kankali Tila at Mathura ;
and numerous others of great historic interest.

Another valuable aid in the elucidation of Indian history is
afforded by coins, which enable one to trace the chronology and
sequence of ancient dynasties. Much light has been thrown on this
branch of antiquarian knowledge by the researches of Sir Walter
Elliot, who many years ago supplied a review on the coins of Southern
India.* In regard to the coins of Northern India, the labours of
James Prinsep, Wilson, Cunningham, and Edward Thomas have
contributed valuable information; and Mr. Thomas’s re-issue of
Marsden’s ‘“‘ Numismata Orientalia’’ has been the means of bringing
out some important papers on Indian coinage, chief among which
may be mentioned Part I., published by Mr. Thomas himself in
1874, on ancient Indian weights and the origin of a currency in
India: one (Vol. III., Part I.) by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur P.
Phayre, G.C.M.G., on the ‘“Coims of Arakan, of Pegu, and of
Burma,” and another (Vol. ITI., Part II.) by Sir Walter Elliot on the
‘Coins of Southern India.”

* Under the head of Numismatic Gleanings, in the “ Madras Journal,” XIX., p. 220,
and XX., p. 75.

XVI.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE.

The foregoing chapters have dealt with the departments and
agencies entrusted with the conduct of the actual operations in India
and the collection of statistical facts on the spot. It now remains
to devote a few pages to the department in England charged with
the duty of advising the Secretary of State as to the control of these
operations, and to the utilization of the information acquired.

The geographical work of the India Office consists of correspon-
dence, reports, and general business relating to the following distinct
branches :—

The Great Trigonometrical Survey.

The Topographical Surveys.

The Revenue Surveys.

The Marine Survey.

The Geological Survey.

The Archeological Surveys.
Meteorology.

Observatories and Instruments.
Utilisation of the Result of the Surveys.

The last-named head includes the organisation and arrangement of
the map collection, consisting of both the old and the current maps,
the keeping of the books of sales, loans and gifts of maps, the
compilation of such maps as may be required in England, the
preparation of catalogues and reports on the work, and the supply
of geographical information. The organisation of the Geographical
Department or Branch of the India Office may be said to date from
the 14th September 1868, when its duties were placed tentatively in
charge of Mr. Clements R. Markham, O.B., for the period of six
months. Previously to that the survey reports had been sent home
without covering letters, and the absence of any permanent respon-
sible officer to receive, analyse, and arrange for general reference all
geographical documents and maps had led Colonel H. L. Thuillier,
the Surveyor-General, to make a representation to the Secretary of
State, pointing out the inconvenience of the existing state of things

374 GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE.

and the necessity for a better arrangement. Colonel Thuillier’s
views were favourably received; the six months’ preliminary charge
enabled Mr. Markham to get a good erip of the work, and with the
experienced assistance of Mr. Trelawney Saunders much progress
was made in sorting and arranging the maps. In July 1869
Mr. Saunders’ appointment was made permanent as “ Assistant in
the Geographical Department” with a salary of 400/. per annum,
and shortly afterward agents for the sale of maps were appointed,
and a map mounter’s services were secured to the Department.

The ‘Memoir on the Indian Surveys,” the prototype of the
present work, was produced by Mr. Markham in 1871. It contained
a complete and succinct account of the operations under its various
heads from the earliest period down to 1869, and the author’s plan
contemplated the publication of annual “ abstracts” in continuation
of the original Memoir, and arranged in the sameform. During the
following years, the Geographical Branch was re-inforced by the
appointments of the present writer in 1872 and Mr. W. Ronson in
1873. The Moral and Material Progress Reports for 1871-2 and
1872-3, arranged on a better system, and supplying a fuller retrospect
of past administration than previous reports, were prepared by
Mr. Markham and received universal commendation. Mr. Markham
also discovered and edited the journals and other papers of George
Bogle, Warren Hastings’s envoy to Tibet, and Mr. Thomas Manning,
who travelled to Lhasa, and in the translation of the appendices
and in the preparation of the maps to accompany the work the staff
of the department gave useful aid. The Annual “ Abstracts of
Surveys”? were also regularly prepared from year to year, those
for 1869-70, 1870-71, 1871-2, and 1872-3 being written by
Mr. Markham, and those for the succeeding years up to 1880 by the
present writer. In 1876 a simplified catalogue of the maps on sale
was compiled by Mr. Ronson. The want of such a catalogue had
long been felt, and its handy formed alphabetical arrangement
found to be a distinct convenience, greatly facilitating reference.
During these years a general catalogue of all the original maps,
plans, surveys, memoirs, field books, &c. in the Department was
under preparation by Mr. Saunders, and was finally published in
1878. It was a laborious undertaking, and its successful completicn
reflected much credit on Mr. Saunders. Mr. Markham, Captain
(now Colonel) H. R. Thuillier,* and Mr. F. B. Girdlestone had assisted

* The present Surveyor-General of India.

GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE. 315

in the earlier stages of its preparation. Its object was to supply a
catalogue of all the geographical documents in the India Office, and
with the addition of the regular quarterly lists of maps since
received from India this object may be still said to be secured.
The enormous accession of new maps during the last fifteen years
has, however, completely revolutionised the former condition of
things, and an entire re-arrangement of the geographical collection
of the India Office has now (1891) become necessary. The ideal
organisation, did space permit, would be to have presses in and
adjemmme the map room sufficiently numerous to accommodate a
copy of every map, old and new, for consultation and ready reference,
with a reasonable margin of room in each press for future accessions.
This would constitute the permanent collection. Space, however, is
precious, and it will probably be necessary to effect some compromise
which will enable those maps in most frequent demand to be stored
within easy reach. The saleable and non-saleable stock, though also
crowded, are conveniently arranged under reference numbers, and
do not so urgently need additional accommodation. This re-arrange-
ment of the collection will be a fitting opportunity for the complete
revision of the general catalogue.*

In 1877, Mr. Markham’s retirement from the public service
naturally affected in a very marked manner the geographical
business of the office. The Department or Branch was his own
creation ; for ten years he had watched over its growth, and his
geographical talents, his energy, and the personal example with
which he inspired the staff, had borne good fruit. A short sketch
of the public services of this officer is here necessary.

Mr. Markham served in the navy for eight years, during which
time he was employed in one. of the Arctic Expeditions in search
of Sir John Franklin. In July 1854 he was appointed to the
Board of Control, and served in the Secret Department through the
time of the Persian War and Indian Mutiny. From 1858 to 1862 he
was in the Revenue Department, and it was during that period
that he was deputed to South America for the purpose of collecting
chinchona plants and seeds and introducing them into India.

* During the last few years a useful series of catalogues of current maps of the different
presidencies and provinces of India has been issued by the Surveyor-General of India.
The opportunity has been taken to bind these different fasciculi together and reprint
the work, with the addition of an index, for the use of the India Office and English
readers. This catalogue, which will fulfil a much felt want, has been just published.

376 GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE.

From July 1861 to August 1863 he acted as Private Secretary to
Mr. Baring (now Lord Northbrook). A second visit was paid by
Mr. Markham to India in 1865 for the purpose of imspecting
and reporting upon the then existing chinchona plantations,
on the best sites for new ones, and on the pearl fisheries.
He served as Geographer to the Abyssinian Expedition im
1866, and was created a C.B. in 1872. It was during his service
in the Public Works Department that Mr. Markham was entrusted
with the charge of the geographical business of the India Office, and
his tenure of this post was marked by many important reforms and
services which he was chiefly or wholly instrumental in carrying
out. One of his first labours was the preparation of the original
“Memoir. on the Indian Surveys,” a work which had a good
circulation, and which was translated into the French and Dutch
languages. Mr. Markham always strongly advised the preparation
of similar ‘‘ Memoirs”’ for all the Departments of the India Office.
The resumption of Marine Surveys (which had been wholly
abandoned after the abolition of the Indian Navy) was strenuously
advocated by Mr. Markham, and eventually sanctioned, and the
creation of a central Meteorological Department for the purpose
of collating and utilizing the scattered observations was another
matter which he continued, and with eventual success, to press
upon the attention of the Government. The General Catalogue of
all the Geographical Records of the Department was begun by
Mr. Markham, and continued and completed by Mr. Saunders.
Another task entrusted to Mr. Markham about this time was the
preparation of the Moral and Material Progress Statement required
by Act of Parliament to be laid before Parliament. Mr. Grant Duff,
who had obtained the introduction of the section in the Indian
Councils Act,* providing for the report in question, and who was
Under Secretary of State in 1872, was desirous that an interest
should be aroused in Indian affairs by the annual presentation of a
thoroughly readable document. The reports for 1871-2 and 1872-3
were great improvements on their predecessors and gained general
approbation. The discovery of the journals and other papers of
Mr. George Bogle, who was sent on a mission to Tibet by Warren
Hastings, and of Mr. Manning, the only Englishman who ever
visited Lhasa, was due to Mr. Markham’s research, and the
Secretary of State sanctioned their being printed and published at

* 21 & 22 Vict. cap. i06, see. lili.

GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE. 377

the Government expense. An admirable introduction was prefixed,
giving an account of Tibetan geography and history, and the
journais were annotated throughout by Mr. Markham.

On the retirement of Mr. Markham the geographical work was
transferred to the Statistics and Commerce Department under
Mr. H. Waterfield. For a time the correspondence and papers on
geographical subjects were filed separately, under the special orders
of the Secretary of State in Ceuncil, but on the Ist January 1879,
other arrangements were made and the geographical and kindred
papers were intermingled with those on all the other subjects, such
as commerce, statistics, sanitation, &c., assigned to the new depart-
ment. The subsequent history of the geographical work of the
India Office has thus been merged with that of other subjects, and
becomes a matter of great difficulty to trace, while the loss of
Mr. Markham undoubtedly put an end toa good deal of projected
work which the geographical staff would have helped to bring
to completion. In 1879, Mr. Waterfield was created Financial
Secretary. and Mr. W. G. Pedder, of the Bombay Civil Service, was
appointed to the secretaryship of the Revenue Department, with
which the old Statistics and Commerce Department, carrying with it
the geographical business of the Office, was amalgamated. The geo-
graphical work by a natural process of gravitation thus came under
the control of the Revenue Department with which it undoubtedly
has an increasing affinity. For now that the principal triangulation,
and the first rough topographical survey of India are practical] y com-
plete, such fresh surveys as are required (apart from the trans-frontier
operations) are mainly for revenue purposes, a need which the gradual
extension of cultivation tends still further toenhance. The following
year saw the transfer of the author to the Home Office in the capacity
of Assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Home
Affairs, and the special care of Indian geographical maiters practically
devolved upon Mr. Trelawney Saunders until 1885, when the return
of the present writer to the India Office after five years’ service in the
Home Office led to further departmental changes, Mr. Saunders
retiring on a pension. Mr. Saunders had done much useful service
in the cause of geography, both before and after his entry into
the India Office. Endowed with strong geographical instincts and
tastes he was appointed in 1854 curator to the Royal Geographical
Society, and also acted fora time as Librarian to that body. In
1857 he joined Mr. Stanford’s establishment (originally his own
house), and here he edited the useful series of school maps issued

378 GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE INDIA OFFICE.

by the firm, as well as supervised the construction of a series of
Library maps of the great divisions of the globe, designed by
Alexander Keith Johnston. He also designed and supermtended
the construction of the first detailed plan of London on the
6-inch scale, and assisted in editing the series of Biblical maps m
Dr. Smith’s Ancient Atlas. During his service in the India
Office he produced a large number of maps, which have served
as useful models of cartography for the native draughtsmen
and lithographers of the Surveyor-General’s Office at Calcutta.
Foremost among these may be mentioned the excellent maps of
the Haidarabad Circars in continuation of the series commenced
by Mr. Walker, and the elaborate and valuable sets of maps prepared
to illustrate the Moral and Material Progress Reports of 1871-72,
1872-73, and 1881-82. Mr. Saunders was also the author of
“ A Sketch of the Mountains and River Basins of India” and of the
ereater part of the General Catalogue of the Geographical Collection
of the India Office. The elaborate geographical arrangement of the
catalogue was entirely Mr. Saunders’ creation.

In 1885 the Geographical Branch underwent a further change.
The appointment held by Mr. Trelawney Saunders was abolished,
and the present writer was placed in charge of the Geographical
business, under the control of the Registrar, the correspondence, &e.
being transacted under the general supervision of the Library
Committee. Thus in eight years the geographical work came under
the successive control of four different committees in the India
Office. This, however, is a change similar to that which the geo-
graphical departments of most countries have had to undergo. The
English Ordnance Survey was originally placed under the old Board
of Ordnance, then under the War Office, and has since been trans-
ferred, first to the Office of Works, and now to the Agricultural
Department. In India, the Snrvey Department has oscillated
in like fashion between the Home and Revenue Departments.
The fact is, that surveys (apart from revenue surveys), while
supplying the basis of statistics for all, have no special and
inherent connexion with any one particular department. At the
same time, the work, though important, is limited in quantity, so it
has always been necessary to place it under the wing of some larger
department.

There is ample scope for its future usefulness, and in the Record
Department there is every hope that the traditions of its short but
active and profitable past will be not unworthily sustained.

379

APPENDIX I.

Return showing the Numper and Vatur of the Screntiric Ivstrv-
MENTS and Appiiances provided for the various SEKvices in
Inpra and examined at the Inp1a Store Depdr, Lowpow, from
January 1887 to January 1890.

Description of Instrument, Value.

a 8 Ch
Accumulators - - - - - - - 29° 19) 6
Agates - : - - - - 39 18 O
Air-pump = - - - - : - - 210 0
Altazimath ° - - - ~ - 40 0 0
Ammeters - - - - - = mie tye - Pb 0) @)
Anthropometric apparatus - - - - INU ats 10)
Apparatus, primer and relay - - - - 409 0 0
Apparatus, circuit closing - - 2 ~ - easy 40) (0)
Anemometer - - - - - - - PASE (0) (0)
Anemograph — - > - - - - 85 0 O
Apparatus for liquefaction of gases - - - - - 12) (8210
Apparatus for interference of sound - - - - | ORO
Apparatus for water analysis - - - =es - 46 9 10
Apparaius to illustrate Ayr ton’s practical electricity : - 200 18 0
Apparatus, electric li¢ht - - - Tyas - - 2,332 10 0
Arithmometers - - - - - | 75 O O
Astronomical clock - - - - - - - OmO KO
Apparatus, submarine mining, various - - - 562 16° 9
Balances, weighing, various - - - - : 532 0 0
Balances, electrical - - <a - = Z1Oe0i 0
Barlow lens - - - - - - > 215) 0)
Bars, standard - - - - = - ly OO)
Barometers, aneroid - - - S = = 498 3 11
Barometers, mercurial - - - = 2 693e I ienO
Barographs, repaired - - - - - = 6) SO
Batteries, voltaic, various - - - - - SNS 3. Al
Bells, alarum = : - - - = 3 “NO. 12 -@
Binoculars, various - - = = = 512 10 10
Boards, drawing - = - - - - - 1410 0
Boards, sketching - - : - - 45 0 0
Bubble tester - - - - ss - - 20 0 0
Cabinets, chemical - = = © - 858 0 O
Cables, electric, various - - - - = - 2,261 19 2
Calliper’s micrometer = - - - - 18 0 0
Cards for compasses, various = - - - = 8) WG
Carbon plates - - - - - - 514 11 O
Cases, sketching = - - - = - - - 6415 0

380

Cathetometers - -

Chartometer - = : x
Chains, measuring . a
Chronometers = - : z
Chronomicrometers - -
Chronographs - - : Z
Clocks = : <
Collimators - - = - .
Comparing apparatus for standard measures
Combination boxes - - = 2
Compasses, drawing, various -
Compasses, magnetic
Compasses, prismatic - -
Compass, liquid - - - 2
Compass, subtense :

Clinometers - = = 2
Core for telegraph cables - -

Cross staves - Sp : :
Curve ranger - - =
Curves, various - = -
Carbons for Jablochkoff lamps -

Dioptric lights for lighthouses and ports
Dip needles - - :
Dynamo machines - p s
Dynamo exploders - : =
Dynamometers - - =

Educational apparatus, Riggs’

Electric bells - = =
Electrometers - - 2 =
Electro-magnetic and galvanic machines
Engine counters < - -
Exploders - - :

Eye pieces for theodolites and levels

Fault finder, telegraphic - :
Field cable, Siemens’ - =

Galvanometers, various” - :
Gauges, pressure and vacuum
Gauging instruments -

Gauges, standard) - -

Glass spirit bubbles -

Glasses for heliotropes -

Glasses, object - -

Giasses, tracing - = - -
Glasses, reading

Globes - -

Goniometers = - < =

|
|
|
{
|

£
58
2

Al
224
108
122
135
100

eoornuo”?

OS SC Cork:

—_——
Sous

_
oxcoc

a
Cc

0)
0)

oo Oc og oS =

OPAOGSCaAconece

381

Description of Instrument.

Heliographs =
Heliostat. with block
Hydrometers, various
Hygrometers -
Hypsometers -

Indicators, Richard’s steam engine -

Ink writers, telegraphic - = -
Instruments, mathematical drawing, in cases
_ Instruments, vibrating call signal - - -

Instrument, telegraph, double and single current

Insulators, various -
Insulating stand -
Integrators - -

Keys, telegraphic
Keys, firing -

Keys, reversing, Thomson’s -

Lactometers - -
Lamps, referring, &e.

Lamps, miners’ surveying - - -
Lamps, electric incandescent -

Lathes - -
Lenses for eye-pieces

Lens, rapid rectilinear photographic -

Levels, astronomical

Levelling instruments, reversible —- -

Levels, reflecting
Levels, spirit block -
Levels, striding -

Machine, drilling -
Magnets for relays

Magneto-inductor bridge —- - 2

Meters, air -
Microscopes, various
Mirrors for sextants

Mirrors for heliographs - = -

Mines, submarine -
Miners’ dial -
Micrometers -

Nickel anodes -

Observing chair
Observatory dome. -

Ophthalmic test glasses - -

Value.
eo &
130 4
5 10
762 0
TOS
wal 0)
213 10
950 O
1,295 0
10 O
282 0
15,588 12
O ll
17 +O
7 4

3) 2
lWiperesle
We ©)
145 7
278 O
118 19
8) @)
eye (0)
4,416 O
112 8
35 0
24 0
oy (0)
40 O
16 10
8 8
216 19
32 14
70 4
2,227 14
17 10
12 4
4 18
23 5
250 O
25 4

—
SOHN ooe S&S Ses

QOS Coe QnoecoeS

occe moccoeo

SSIS)

Description of Instrument.

Optical squares -
Optical bench
Optometer, Tweedy’s

Pens, drawing -
Pentagraphs :

Photo-micrographie apparatus

Physical apparatus, various -

Plane-tables -
Planimeters -
Polariscopes -
Protractors, various -
Pyrometers, various

Pitch compound for cables, telegraph

Rain gauges -
Range finders, various
Relays -
Resistance coils -
Kiulers, parallel, various
Rules, boxwood -
Rules, flat, various

Revolution indicator, Buss’s

Sand glasses -
Seales, various -
Sectors - -
Set squares, various
Sextants, various -
Slide rules, various
Slopes and batters -
Sounders, telegraph
Speedometers -
Spectroscopes -
Spherometer -
Stadiometers -
Station pointers -
Standard yard measures
Stencil plates -
Storm glass -
Straight edges .
Stop watches -
Stills - -
Sundials - =
Switches, battery -

Serving tape for cables, telegraph

Tachometer - *
Tapes, measuring, various
Telemeters - -

382

WO &

—
Sowovoongato

nAoonm

eoooonoanooso

SoeROGOCOS

cccooocosooaaoaccoonSaS

owed

383

Description of Instrument.

Telephones, various -
Tell-tale apparatus -
Telescopes, various -
Tellurions - -
Thermometers, various = -
Theodolites, various

T squares - -

Urinometers -

Water meters - -
Weights, assay -

Weights, troy, avoirdupois, and tola standards

Zenith telescope :
Zine rods for batteries -

Miscellaneous apparatus not included under

the above headings -

any

nc
of { 3,245 18 10

- |. 2,070 10 6

Total (January 1887-January 1890) °

Value.

£ S Gh
3 7 @
Wy 3 @
968 7 0O
6 5 O
TMG ELON 9)
8,657 0 O
2953556
228 5 O

48 2
14-2) 6

81 O
90020
42 8 8
5,316 9 4
94,728 9 7

INDEX.

A. k (Kishen Singh), 151-157, 235.

Abbas of Ghur, 184 (note).

Abbott, General, 333.

Abors, 165.

Abu, Mount, 266, 274; Jaina temples at, 322,
324.

Ab-i-istadeh lake, 136, 146.

Ab-i-Sar-i-jangal, 183.

Ab-i-Surkh, 190.

Abyssinia, Mr. Blanford deputed to, 259.

Abyssinian Expedition, Mr. Markham in, 376.

Acheen, 26. ;

Actinometric observations, 289;
295, 296.

Adam, Mr., Governor of Madras, 357, 358.

Adam’s bridge, 261.

Aden, 197, 205, 213.

Admiralty Hydrographer. See Hydrographer.

Admiralty publications, increase in sale of, 9.

Adraskund river, 176, 185.

Aerial deposits in Afghanistan and Baluchistan,
254.

Afghan Boundary Commission, 96, 128, 172-195,
267, and passim in Chapter VII.

Afghanistan, triangulation extended towards, 47 ;
surveys of Afghanistan during first Afghan
Wars, 128, 135, 139; survey lessons of later
campaign in, 131; connexion between triangu-
lation in North and South Afghanistan, 146, 167,
194; maps of Afghanistan, 223, 226, 235;
metals of Southern Afghanistan, 255; geologi-
cal specimens from Afghanistan, 271 (note);
Mr. Griesbach in Northern Afghanistan, 278.

Afghan Turkistan, 186 and passim through
Chapter VII.; geology of Afghan Turkistan,
270.

“ Afghanistan and part of Baluchistan, Notes on,”
by Major Raverty, 365.

African, South, tides, 200.

African types recognizable in Karnul cave fauna,
268.

Agathokles, coins of, 370.

Agra, 206, 213; Agra observatory, 286; monu-
ments in, 328, 338, 343, 344.

Agricultural statistics supplied by good revenue
surveys, 100; collected by Survey Department
in N.W. Provinces, 113.

t Y 20321.

at Leh, 293,

|
|
B

Ahalvabai temple at Elura, 351.

Ahmad Sayad, sub-surveyor, 166.

Ahmad Shah, 365.

Ahmadabad, 322, 325, 354, zb. (note), 362.

Ahmadnagar, 342, 355.

Ahmadnagar district survey, 123.

Ahmed Ali Khan, 96, 99, 144, 145.

Ahmed Khel, battle of, 136.

Aihole, 323, 324, 353.

Airy, Sir G., 213.

Aitchison, Dr. J. E. T., 194.

Ajanta rock, temples, and paintings, 342, 346
(note), 352, 354, 356.

Ajaygarh fort, 337.

Ajmir, 240; Ajmir Forest school, 298.

Ajmir-Merwara district boundary survey, 108.

Aka raid, 78, 260; Mr. La Touche in the Aka
hills, 264.

Akbar, Emperor, 330, 343; tomb of, 322, 344.

Akram Khan, 131.

Aksu, 158.

Aksu river (Pamir), 193.

Akyab, 1 ; commencement of survey of, 3 ; line of
soundings run south to latitude of, 28; tidal
station at Akyab swept away by storm, 207;
Akyab cyclone, 300; antiquities in Akyab.

Alaiva temple, 343.

Aleock, Sir R., 165.

Alcock, Surgeon A., 31.

Alexander the Great, 188; route of, 326; coins
of successors of, 337.

Alexandria, map of, 224.

Alexandrian merchants, Surashtra known to, in
early times, 347.

Ali, son-in-law of Mahomed, 184, 189.
Alichur Pamir, 193.
Aligarh, district survey, 108; 246.
Ali Khel, 133.
Ali Musjid, 124, 130, 333.
Alipore, meteorologieal observations at, 293, 299,
306. See also Caleutta.
Allahabad, 206; observations at Allahabad, 285,
293, 304,306; 320 (note); Dr. Fiihrer in, 340.
Alleppi mud bank, 274, 277.
Alluvial plains as geological group, 236.
Almar plain, 181.
Alompra, 363,
b

386

Alps as compared geologically with the Himalayas,
271 (mote).

Altimor range, 134.

Alwar, 336.

Amalgamation of
Survey, 40, 100.

Aman ul Muik, Badshah of Chitral, 150.
Amaranath, Jaina temples at, 324, 327.
Amarapura, 364.

Amb fort, 333.

Ambala district, Mr. Rodgers in, 340.

Amherst, pagoda and Point, 2; 201, 204, 207.

Amrayati tope, 322, 357, 358; Dr. Burgess on,
360.

Amritsar, 51.

Amsterdam Exhibition, 294.

Amua meridional series, 214.

Amya pass, 54.

Analysis of tidal observations, 197.

Andaman islands, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38, 166,
204; ores from the Andaman islands, 264;
necessity of telegraphic communication with
Andaman islands, 310, 311.

Anderson, Colonel F. C., 112.

Anderson, Colonel W. C., 86.

Andhras, The, 351.

Andkhui, 174, 178, 183, 186.

Andrew, Major D. C., 116, 123.

Anemographic observations, 201, 306.

Angirtakshia mountains, 153, 157.

Anglo-Siamese Boundary Commission, 170.

Anhilwada, 88.

Anjar, 350.

Ankai-Tankai, 353.

the branches of Indian

Ankole, antiquities in, 342.

Antiquities, Preservation of, 341 and passim in
Chapter XV.

Ants’ nests in Tinnevelly and Madura, 262.

Ao Barik, 180.

Aornos, rock of, 337.

Apaluk pass, 150 (note).

Arab, old, coins, 173.

Arabia and Persia, map of, 235.

52.

Arabian Neftid, 2

Arabian Sea, Meteorology of, 302, 306; cyclone
in Arabian Sea, 307; Arabian conquest of
Sind, 348.

Arabic inseriptions, 339, 346 (note).

Arakan, 201; Arakan-Manipur geological axis,
260; antiquities in Arakan, 364.

Arang, 335.

Archean rocks (as geological group), 236.

Archeological drawings, Reproduction of, 226.

Archeological Survey Record, 371.

Archeology, Indian, 320-372; paper by Dr.
Burgess on, 321 ; first scheme of survey of, 325 ;
survey suspended by Lord Lawrence, 327 ;
survey re-organized, 338; last re-organization
of, 361; Survey Staff, 362.

Architecture, Mr. Fergusson on history of, 360.

INDEX.

Architecture, Indian, classified, 321 e¢ seq.

Ares, measurement of, 209.

Aret in Chugani or Kohistan country, 130.

Argandab river, 129, 136, 254.

Argaricus, Sinus, of Ptolemy, 46.

Arghastan yalley, 136.

Argyll, Duke of, 368.

Ariana, Princes of, $69.

Ariano-Pali characters, 369.

Armenia, Geological collection in, 257.

Armstrong, Dr., Collection of ornithological
specimens by, 6.

Arnawai river, 150.

Arrian, 331.

Arrowsmith, Mr. Aaron, 229.

Art ware, Heliogravure reproductions of, 227.

Arun river, 160.

Arvali mountains, 238, 243, 256, 266, 269, 274.

Ashizar, 180 (note).

Ashwaraopet, 247.

Asiatic Society of Bengal. founded 1784, 320;
centenary review of, 325 (note); 367.

Asiatic Society of Bombay, 367.

Askarab, 180.

Asoka, King, his inscriptions and edicts, 320
(note), 321, 326, 329, 331, 332, 333, 337, 338,
340, 347, 348, 2b. (note), 349, 352, 369.

Asphan valley, 135.

Assam, 51; discharges of Assam rivers, 52; 57;
Assam frontier surveys, 75, 78, 79; deputation
on communication with Assam, 165; 167;
Assam lakhirajdar survey, 126; 231; Mr.
La Touche on eastern frontier of, 267.

Assyrian coins, 173.

Astarab river, 182.

Astor, 144, 145, 270.

Astronomer Royal, 213.

Astronomical observations, 210 et seq.

Ata Mahomed Khan, 150, 177, 188, 190, 191.

Atala Masjid at Jaunpur, 339.

Atkinson, Mr. W. G. E., 163.

Attaran river, 364.

Attock, 141.

Attraction, local, as affecting geodetic observa-
tions, 210.

Auckland, 234.

Aurunga coal-field, 244, 250.

Aurangabad, 325, 350, 351, 352, 353.

Australian Gondwana rocks, 266.

Autotype Company, 227.

Ava, 364.

Ayodhya, 340.

Ayub Khan, Revolt and defeat of, 137, 253.

Azimuths of stations, 209.

INDEX.

Baber, Emperor, 336.

Babington, Dr. B. G., 321.

Bactria, 193 (note).

Badakshan, 186, 191, 193 (mote), 194;
S— in, 148; 270.

Badami, 323, 347, 353.

Badghiz, 177, 178, 195.

Badgley, Colonel, 75, 89.

Bagh caves, Paintings in, 342.

Baghanvala, Temples at, 333.

Baghao, 92.

Baghdad observatory, 300.

Baghmati river, 162.

Bahmani dynasty, 350.

Baird, Major A. W., R.E., 25, 196, 204, 207,
224.

Bakarganj district survey, 120; Bakarganj cy-
clone, 287.

Baktro-Hellenic kings, 348.

Bala Hissar (Balkh), 188.

Bala Murghab, 180, 195.

Balaghat, 274.

Balal Sen, 334.

Balasore, 207 ; survey of roadstead, 19 ; cyclone
at, 303.

Balipur, 78.

Balkh, 174, 182. 183, 187, 188.

Balkh Ao, 181, 186, 189, 190.

Ball, Dr., 238, 243, 277.

Ballia district survey, 109.

Balmir, 238.

Baltistan, 270.

Baluchistan, survey of, 47, 92, 98, 98, 99;
triangulation in §.W., 147; 270; geodetic
determinations in, 215; map of, 226; coal,
oil, and iron in, 275, 277; westerly wind
from, 286.

Bam valley, 91.

Bamburath, 150.

Bamian, 174, 182, 183, 190.

Bandalkhand, 328; General Cunningham in,
329, 336; Dr. Fiihrer, 340.

Band-i-Amir (see also Balkh Ao), 189.

Band-i-Turkestan mountains, 177, 178,
18], 186.

Bandar, 179.

Bandar Abbas, 176.

Bangalore, 60, 84, 211,

Bangkok, 54, 64, 210.

Bankote, Survey by Lieutenant Petley of, 9, 10.

179,

212, 215.

Bankote river, Dangerous state of mouth of, 7.
Bankura, 245.
Banna, 104, 146, 149.
Banpur mals survey, 115.
Baoli well, 336.
3ar Marai valley, 148.

387

Bar Panjah, 193.

Baragan, 180.

Baragua mud flat, 36.

Barakar, 248, 329; Barakar iron works, 274.

Baran, 149.

Baranga islands, coal from, 246.

Barbour, Mr. D., 12.

Barghana route to Kandahar, 136.

Barmayan, Buddhist monastery at, 336.

Baroda city survey, 89.

Baroda, Gaikwar of, 354, 355, and (note).

Baroda State survey, 87, 88, 89.

Baroghil pass, 143.

Barren islands, 26.

Barron, Colonel W., 110.

Barrow, Captain, 162.

Barrows in Shorapur, 323.

Bartang river, 143.

Barton, Rev. J., 318.

Basalt in Khandesh, 71.

Base line at Mergui, 56; other base lines, 61.

Basevi’s, Captain, pendulum observations, 213.

Bashkar, 142.

Bassein, 1; hindrances to free navigation of river,
3; examination of, 33; soundings required
in entrance to, 36; cadastral survey of, 116;
364.

Basti district survey, 110, 111.

Batanis, 149.

Bathang, 155.

Bauris or wells, 325.

Bay of Bengal, “ Investigator” takes soundings
across, 20, 23, 28; temperature of, 28, 31;
sounded and result of soundings, 32, 383;
weather chart of, 292, 300; meteorology of,
297, 302, 306 ; storm warnings from, 310, 311.

Bazar valley, Captain Leach’s survey of, 130.

Beauchamp Tower, Mr., 199.

Beavan, Major, 92, 93, 94, 104; route survey
from Kandahar to Girishk, 129; in Southern
Afghanistan, 135.

Bedsa, 352.

Beglar, Mr. J. D., passim in Chapter XV.

Behar, cadastral survey, 118 ; General Cunning-
ham in Behar, 333, 335, 336 (note); cave
inscriptions in, 369.

Bejwada, 357, 358.

Belgaum survey, 126; Belgaum observatory,
285 ; 323, 346, 347, 354, 362.

Bell, Major-General, 86.

Bellary, 212; Mr. Foote in Bellary, 266, 268;
Bellary observatory, 285.

Benares district survey, 109; Benares rainfall,
288.

Bengal, Bay of. See Bay.

Bengal Coal Company, 244; Sub-metamorphie
rocks of Bengal, 245; Bengal storms in 1876,
288; storm warnings, 292; Bengal, General
Cunningham in, 333; history of, 334 (note) ;
list of monuments in, 345.

Bengali architecture, 322.

Bb 2

388 ~ INDEX.

Ber Singh, 152. |

Berars, 231; monuments in, 342, 345. \

Berid dynasty, 350.

Betiya, 332. |

Betul district, coal in, 269.

Beverley, Mr., 53; his death, 55.

Beypur, 4, 5,9, 27, 31, 197, 206.

Beyt harbour (Baroda State), 20.

Bhadresyar, 350.

Bhagirathi valley, 51, 334.

Bhaja, 352.

Bhamo, 25, 166, 168, 169, 170, 299.

Bhandak, Buddhist caves at, 329.

Bharhut, stupa of, 329 and (note), 337; General
Cunningham on, 338; 370.

Bhaunagar, 24, 26, 34, 201, 206, 256; Bhaunagar
observatory, 307.

Bhau Daji, 367.

Bhavaneswar temples in Orissa, 327.

Bhil tribes, 69, 71, 256. |

Bhilsa topes, General Cunningham on, 337.

Bhitargaon, 337. |

Bhopal and Malwa survey, 72, 87.

Bhore Ghat, 200.

Bhoteas, 49.

Bhuila Tal, 331, 340.

Bhuj, 350.

Bhutan, 151, 162; Bhutan Duars, 265.

Bibliography of Indian geology, 276, 280.

Bidar, 60, 350.

Biddulph, General, 129.

Biddulph, Major, threatened by Gilgit tribes, 144; |
150.

Bijapur, 322, 355, 7b. (note) ; Hart’s illustrations
of the principal Muhammadan buildings of, 360.

Bijayanagar, 343, 359, 362.

Bikanir, 80, 81; Mr, Oldham in Bikanir, 269.

Bilaspur district survey, 120.

Bilhari, 329.

Bilser, 330, 337.

Bimlipatam, 4.

Birbhum, 245.

Birjand, 174, 177.

3irmal hills, 147.

Bizoti valley, 149.

Black Mountain Expedition, 150, 151.

Black, Mr. F. C., C.E., 330, 7b. (note), 343, 7b.
(note).

Blanford, Mr. H. F., F.R.S., 12; makes tour of
meteorological inspection, 283; retirement of
and services, 308.

Blanford. Mr. W. T., passim through Chapter
XII. His retirement and services, 259.

Bodawpara, King, 364.

Bogle, Mr. G., 374.

Bogosta valley, 150.

Bohkara, 182.

Bolan pass, 94, 253; Bolen route, 98.

Bolarum, 212, 213.

Bologna Geological Congress, 255, 276.

Bolst, Mr. H. J., 69.

Bombay, Marine, 1; 4, 10, 11; becomes head-
quarters of marine survey, 18; Bombay coast
wants charting, 35; Bombay revenue survey,
86, 122, 123 ; Bombay suburbs survey, 125;
Bowbay forest surveys, 89, 126; 197, 200, 201 ;
mean sea level at, 202; 212, 213, 215; Bombay
Presidency (in Indian atlas), 231; Bombay
and Baroda Railway, floods on, 297; Bombay
storm warnings, 292, 304; Bombay Chamber
of Commerce, 304; Bombay Geographical
Society, 318; Bombay meteorological obser~
yations. See Colaba; Bombay Presidency,
monvtments in, 341, 345; rock cut temples in,
346; Cave Temple Commission, 367 ; Bombay
Asiatie Society, 368.

Boram Deo, temples at, 332, 335.

Borddhonkuti, 334 (mote).

Bori valley, 97, 147.

Boring operations, Question of ecnduct of, 275.

Bose, Mr., 264, 272, 274, 325 (mote).

Botanical investigations, Afghan Boundary Com-
mission, 194.

Boury, M. (French missionary), 155.

Boutflower, Mr. W. N., 311.

“ Bozdar,” The, 146, 148.

Brachiopoda of Salt Range, 259, 263.

Brahmakund, 155.

Brahmaputra river, 52. See also Sanpo.

Brahmaputra (Cooper’s), 155.

Brahui mountain system, 98.

Brahuik range, 254.

Brandis, Sir D., 294.

Branfill, Colonel, 5, 46, 47, 56, 57, 219.

Brent, R.N., Captain H. W., 12; report on
Marine Survey Department, 12; detailed
recommendations by, 13; his scheme approved
-of by Government of India, 15.

Brett, Lieutenant, 367.

Brindaban, 344 and (note).

Brinjaris, The, 248.

British Association, 197, 203 (also note).

British Museum, 368.

Broach, 34, 346 (note), 355, 362.

Buchanan, Francis, 367.

Buckingham, Duke of, Governor of Madras, 358.

Budaun revenue survey, 108; -Muhammadan
masjids at Budaun, 330, 340.

Buddha, sites connected with career of, 330, 331,
332, 335.

Buddha Gaya, 326, 328, 329 and (note), 331,
333, 335.

Buddhist remains in Kabul valley, 134; also
near junction of Logar, 134; in Afghan
Turkistan, 190; 321,322; at Ali Masjid, 333 ;
in Central India, 337; Buddhist monasteries,
836, 349; Buddhist cave temples, 352; remains
in Southern India, 359.

Budi, 161.

Buffalo, meeting of geologists at, 255.

INDEX.

Bugti country, 95, 97, 296

Biibler, Professor G., C.1-E., 354, 372.

Bulandshahr district survey, 108.

Bunji, 142.

Burgess, Dr. James, C.1-E., passim Chapter XV.
His retirement and services, 361.

Burma, ports of, Commander Taylor’s tour of
inspection of, 1 ; 20; Burma coast, 36 ; triangu-
lation in, 66; 165, 166; reconnaissances in
Upper, 167; 231; maps of, 226; coal-fields in
Upper Burma, 273; oil fields in Upper Burma,
276; mineral resources of Upper Burma, 278,
279: observatories in Burma, 299, 309;
archeological research in Burma, 363 ; Burma,
Chief Commissioner of, 364.

Burmans as surveyors, 116.

Burn, Messrs., & Co., 277.

Burnes, Sir A., 190.

Burraballung river, 19.

Burrard, Lieutenant S. G., 214, 215.

Burt, Lieutenant, 321.

Bushire, 208.

Bustar, 240, 256.

Butkak, 140.

Boxa Duar, 163.

Byans valley, 48, 49.

Bythell, Lieutenant, 170.

Byturnee river, survey of portion of, 19.

Cachar survey, 116; Cachar earthquake, 257.

Cadastral srrveys, nature of 100, 102.

Cadell, Colonel, in the Andamans, 31.

Cairo, Map of, 224.

Calcutta, head-quarters of marine survey moved
from Caleutta to Bombay, 18 ; Calcutta survey,
121, 122; 204, 206, 213; Calcutta Exhibition,
266; Calcutta observatory (see also Alipore),
285, 288, 289, 305; Calcutta weather reports,
298 ; Calcutta, Cutch earthquake felt up to, 349.

Calicut, 4, 5, 16, 31, 274.

Calingapatam, 4, 21.

Callian Junction, 200.

Cambay, Gulf of, wrecks in and lighting of, 7;
surveys in, 27, 34.

Cambay, Inscriptions from, 346 (note) ; 359.

Camels, Wild, 154.

Campbell, Colonel W. M., 129, 211, 213, 219.

Canadian tides, 200.

Canara. See Kanara.

Cannanur, 4, 31, 32.

Canning, Earl, 62, 237, 325, 337; minute on an
archeological survey, 326 (note).

Cape Negrais, 36, 53.

Carew, I.N., Captain G. O’B., 8.

Carey, Mr. A. !)., 157.

Carlleyle, Mr. A. C., passim Chapter XV.

Carnac, General J., 367.

Carnatie, the. 46 ; drought in, 300.

Carpenter, Commander Alfred, R.N., assumes di-
rection of marine survey in place of Commander
Dawson, 22; experience on board H.M.S.
“ Challenger,” 23 ; Ivawadi survey party formed
under, 24; pilots flotilla up to Bhamo, 25;
paper on mean temperature of Bay of Bengal
by, 28; 30, 33; list of marine survey require-
ments drawn up by, 34.

Carrington, Mr. R. C., 5, 6, 11; retirement of, 13.

Carter, Captain T. T., Madras coast triangulation
series under direction of, 46; his triangulation
around Indus valley, 141.

Carter; Dr., I.N., 237.

Cautley, Sir P., 236.

Cauvery (Kaveri) river, 46; Colonel Branfill on
physiography of delta of, 46.

Cavagnari, Death of Sir L., 132.

Caves, Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmaniecal, 323
and passim in Chapter XV.

Cave temples of India,” “ The, 351, 352.
“ Celerity,’” Indian marine steamer, 56.
Census of 1872, 317.

Central Asia formerly supposed to originate
Indian summer monsoon, 290.

Central establishment for archeological sur-
veyors, 328.

Central India, electro-telegraphic observations in,
215; meteorology of, 319 ; General Cunning-
ham in, 336 (note) ; Major Keith appointed
Assistant Curator of Monuments for, 843; Dr.
Fiihrer’s list of monuments in, 346.

Central Provinces Suryey, 74; Central Provinces,
Rainfall in, 302 ; General Cunningham in, 329,
335; monuments in, 342; statistical inquiries
in, 314.

Ceylon, triangulation connected with Indian, 45;
204, 229, 261.

Chagsum, 165.

Chahar Aimak, 178, 179, 18:3.

Chahar-burjak, 173.

Chahardar, 180, 184.

Chaharsada, 179, 180.

Chaharshamba, 180.

Chahil Abdal, 184.

Chaitya or Buddhist temple caves, 323.

Chakcharan, 179, 180.

Chakmani territory, 271 (note).

Chalapdalan, 184.

Chalukya architecture, 322, 324, 362, 363.

Chalukya dynasty, 350, 357.

Chamalang, 94.

Chamba, 295.

Chambel. See L c.

Chamberlain, Sir N., 146.

Chambers, Mr. F.,on winds of Karachi, 292; 304,
306, 307.

390

Chambers, William, 321.

Chamkar monastery, 165.

Champaner, 89, 354, 362.

Chanda fields, 247.

Chandbally, Survey of Byturnee river up to, 19.
Chandels of Mahoba, 337.

Chandragupta, 369.

Chandravati, ruins of, 320 (note).
Chandrehi, Brahman temples at, 331.
Chankau pass, 79.

Channer, Lieutenant A., R.N., 19, 23, 26.
Chapman, Mr. Morris, late I.N., 4, 5;
Paumben channel, 6, 7, 8; his death, 8.

Chardeh plain, 135.

Charikar, 191, 270.

Charsada, 336.

Charts, Marine, passim through Marine Survey
Chapter.

Charts of daily weather. See Weather charts.

Chashma Sabz, 177.

Chatang La pass, 158.

Chattisgarh, 239, 256, 269, 273, 331, 335.

Chaul, 8.

Chazumtuka, 165.

Chedi, Rajas of, 332.

Cheduba, 20, 21, 36.

Chelonia, Eocene, from the Salt Range, 273.

Chenab river, 239.

Chennell, Mr. A. W., death of, 78.

Cherkh graphite, 278.

Chesnaye, Dr. G. E., 311.

Chetang, 151, 156, 160, 165.

Chew, Mr. R., 83.

Chezarla, Buddhist chaitya discovered at, 359.

Chiamdo Chu (Upper Mekong), 155.

Chiamo Golok robbers, 153, 157.

Chiggateri, 276.

Chikalwohol, 200.

Chilas, 144, 145.

Childers, Professor, 363.

Chiling Shahi Mardan hill, 18+.

Chilianwala, battle of, 251, 337.

Chin country, 169,

Chin-Lushai Expedition, 277.

China Bakir river, 21.

Chiva, Mound at, 333.

Chipapati, 333.

Chindwara district, 269, 274.

Chindwin valley, 167, 168, 257, :

Chinese coins, 173.

Chingurak range, 178.

Chingiz Khan, 186, 187.

Chingmis, 163, 164.

Chiras, 180.

Chitlac island, 29.

Chittagong (Karnaphuli river), 3, 19 ; land survey
of, 121, 206; Chittagong observatory, 285.

~T
to
or
ee)

he 4

INDEX. =

Chitral, 150, 194, 231, 270, 366.

Chloromelanite, 271 (note).

Chobash, 187.

Chol in Afghan Turkistan, 177.

Chota Nagpur, Western, coal-fields, 274; gold
in Chota Nagpur, 277; meteorology of Chota
Nagpur, 309.

Chotiali, 92, 129.

Christmas island, 27.

Chrysolite from Kandahar, 255.

Chugani valley, 130.

Chumbi valley, 151, 153, 160, 163.

Cintra (Portugal), Sanskrit inscription at, 342.

“ Civilisations de l’Inde, Les,” Dr. Le Bon on,
362.

Clarke, Colonel, R.E., C.B., 44, 63.

Clarke, Mr. L. H., 234. ‘I

Classification of observatories, 296, 304.

Claudius, Mr., 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 135, 148.

‘ Clyde,” I.G.S.S., 1.

Coal, 236 and passim through Geological chapter.
See under name of particular coal-field.

Coard, Mr. C. W., 226, 230.

Cochin, 4, 5, 9; surveyed in 1855 by Taylor,
16; surveyed by Dawson, 20; 206,274,

Coco islands, 9, 33, 37; observatory at Coco
islands, 300.

Coconada, 10;
206.

Coddington, Iieutenant-Colonel F., 105.

Coinage among ancient Hindus, 333.

survey of Coconada, 16; 19,

Coins of Arakan, Pegu, and Burma, Lieutenant-
General Sir A. P. Phayre on, 372; coins of
Southern India, Sir W. Elliot on, 372 (uote).

Colaba observatory, 312; and passim through
Meteorological chapter.

Colachel, 4.

Cole, Major H. H., R.E., 327, 342, 343, 844;
illustrations of ancient monuments by, 7b.
(note),

Colebrooke, H., Mr., 321.

Coleroon, Triangulation carried into valley of, 46.

Collotype process, 226.

Colombo, 19, 206, 207.

Comedarum, Vallis, 193 (note).

Committee on Marine Survey Department, 12 ;
on equipment of field survey party, 137.

Comorin, Cape, 35, 45, 47, 60, 202.

Congress, Geographical, at Venice, 88, 201;
do. at Paris, 238; Geological Congresses at
Buffalo, Paris, and Bologna, 255,276. See also
Paris and Venice.

Conjiveram archeological survey,
362.

Conolly, Arthur, 179.

Conservation of monuments, 320 (note), 327,

344,

Contour map of Simla, 80; of India, 225.

Cooke, Mr. G. H., 110.

Cooke, Messrs., and Sons, 211.

report on, if

_—"

INDEX.

Coombs, Lieutenant W. H., commences survey of
Rangoon, 11; surveying work done by boat
party in charge of, 19; surveys entrance to
Chittagong river, 20; surveys Akyab, 20, 27.

Copping, Mr. G. R., 96.

Corkery, Mr., 93, 94.

“ Coronation,” gunboat, 2.

Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, 338, 369, 370
(note).

Cost of Revenue Surveys, 103.

Cotta point surveyed, 27.

Court, General, 333.

Cousens, Mr. H., 320 (note), 342, 354, 355, 362.

Cowan, Major S. H., 110, 115, 121.

Coxen, Mr., 93, 94.

Crawley Boevey, Mr., Bo. C.S., 354.

Cretaceous, Upper, fauna of Western India, 270.

Crops, map showing Indian, 226.

Cruz Milagre, 5.

Cuddalore, 249.

Cuddapah district, 248.

Cumbum valley, 85.

Cunningham, General Sir A., K.C.LE., passim
Chapter XV.; his services, 337.

Curator of Ancient Monuments in India, Captain
Cole appointed, 343.

Cushing, Mr. Thos., F.R.A.S., 216.

Cutch, gulf of, 30, 34; 85, 197, 209, 231, 263, 347,
349.

Cutch Mandyvi, 7.

Cuttack conference, 115; Cuttack cadastral sur-
yey, 116; 256, 285, 331.

Cyclones, 201, 206 ; formation of cyclones, 287;
Mr. J. Eliot on cyclones, 290, 294,299; cyclone
at Gujrat, 296; eyclone at False point, 299;
cyclone at Balasore, 303; cyclone memoirs,
303, 306; cyclones in Bay of Bengal, 306,
310.

Cyrus, 184.

D’ Arrest, Professor, 312.

Daba Jong, 152.

Dabboi, 324, 350, 354.

Dabhol (Anjanwil) river, &.

Dacoits in Decean, 124.

Dahana Doab, 183.

Dahana Iskar coal-field, 278.

Dahgoba in Buddhist architecture, 323.

Daily weather charts, 288, 298, 303, 304.

Dalgleish, Mr., 157.

Daling hills, 160.

Dallas, Mr. W. L., 292, 295, 297; 300, 302, 307,
311.

Daltonganj coal-ficld, 244.

Damaun, 200.

39]

Damerchela, 248.

Dangs Forest survey, 87, 88, 89.

Daniel, T. and W., 321.

Dantidurga, 354.

Danu, examination required of reef near, 35.

D’Anville, 159.

Daphla hills, 78, 260, 265.

Dara Imam, 143.

Dara-i-KKhargosh, 179 and (note).

Dara-i-Nur, valley of, 154.

Dara Yusuf, 189.

Dara-i-Zindan, 190.

Darangiri coal-field, 256.

Darchendo, 154, 156.

Dardistan, survey of, 145.

Dareyl, 142, 145.

Dargi valley, 92.

Darjeeling, survey,
158, 160, 164.

Darkot valley, 143; Darkot pass, 144.

Darmarokht river, 193.

Darwaz, 143, 193.

Darwin, Professor G. H., 203, 207, 208.

Dasa Avatara inscriptions, 354.

Datum line for coast soundings, 25, 207.

Daud Shah, 330.

Daugam, 164.

Daulatyar, 180, 182, 183, 184.

Davy, Major, 318.

Dawar Dour, 146.

Dawson, Lieutenant L. S., R.N., appointed to the
command of surveying steamer “ Investigator,”
11; succeeds Commander Taylor in the charge
of marine surveys, 15; former experience, 18
(mote); commences survey Back bay, 19;
resumes charge of “ Investigator,” 20.

Dearah survey in Faridpur and Bakarganj, 120.

Deb Raja of Bhutan, 163.

Deb Singh, 152.

pecean Company, Mr. Hughes (geologist) with,
272.

Decean survey, 86; report on Deccan, 124;
Deccan trap, 236, 241; Deccan meteorology,
3809; 351.

Defiles in Afghanistan, 179, 181.

De Haviland, Colonel, 203.

Dehgans, 135.

Deh-i-Sabz range, 134.

Dehing basin, Mr. La Touche in, 260, 267.

Dehra Dun, trigonometrical branch at, 57, 226;
forest school in Dehra Dun, 298.

Delhi, 322, 326, 328, 338; Muhammadan kings
of, 336 ; monuments at, 343; 7b. (note), 344.

Deoyarh, 330, 337.

De Prée, Colonel G. C., succeeds Colonel Walker
as Surveyor-General of India, 45; services and
death, 45, 80.

Dera Ismail Khan revenue survey, 104, 105.

Derajat, the, 95.

Deronta, 134.

126, 127; 151, 153, 155,

392

Desgodins, Father, 171.

Dev Hissar, 180.

Devi river, charting of mouth of, 33.

Dewangiri, 163.

Dhamnar caves, 327.

Dhangs Forest survey. See Dangs.

Dharasinva, Jaina caves at, 323.

Dharma Raja of Bhutan, 163.

Dharma valley, 49.

Dharmapala, Prince, 333.

Dharwar, 362; Dharwar district, Chalukyan
temples in, 354; Meadows Taylor on, 360.

Dharwar rocks, 266, 273, 278.

Dhauli, 331, 348 (note); Dhauli inscriptions
of Asoka, 358.

Dholka, 346 (note), 354, 362.

Dhumra river, survey of entrance to, 19;
alterations found in, 22, 23.

Diamond field at Wadjra Karur, 266.

Diaroond harbour, 201, 207.

Diamond island, 2, 208.

Dibong river, the, 52; survey of part of, 76.

Di-chu, 154

Dickson, Lieutenant, rough chart of harbour of |

Port Blair made by, 30.
Differential longitudes, measurement of, 209, 210,
Puts
Dihong river, the, 52, 164, 165.
Diligent straits surveyed, 33.
Digaru river, 76.
Dikrang river, 76.
Diphu river, 76.
Dir, 150.
Disa cantonment
observatory, 285.
Diu Head, 34.
Dividing machine, 219.
Dixon, M.N.1., Lieut.-Colonel, 36s.
Doab, Central, 331.
Doab -i-Mekhyari, 278.
Doaba dara river, 143.
Dogras, invasion of Hundes by, 50.
Dolmens in Western India, 323.
Dondra head (Ceylon), 20.
Dong-tse, 158.

survey, 89;

Donkia-La pass, 127, 15°.

Dora pass, 150.

Dori river, 136.

Doshakh, 195.

Douglas, Captain, 206.

Double island lighthouse, 2.

Dowdeswell island, Mr. J. P. Falle suryeys
portion of, 11,

“ Draens,” 47.

Dragon lake, 193 (note).

Dras, mountains of, 246.

Dravidian architecture, $25, 324.

Droughts, periodicity of, 287, 300.

INDEX.

Du Halde, 159.

Dubkuna, Jain temple of, 336.

Dublat, 207.

Dumar Lena, 347.

Dunean, Professor Martin, 259, 266, 268, 270.
Durgavati, the Hindu princess, 329.

Dwarka point, 34.

Ei.

Earth, rigidity of, 203; investigation of figure of,
44, 210.

Earthquake at Lakpat, 86; earthquake in Bay of
Bengal, 204; in Cachar, 257; catalogue of,
258 (note), 262; in Bengal, 268; in Kashmir,
268; in Cutch in 1819, 349.

Eastern frontier triangulation series, 45, 46;
chains projected from, 53; extension of, 55;
two parties engaged in completion of series,
56, 57.

Eastern Ghats, 240.

Eastwick, Mr., 318.,

Eccles, Mr., 214.

Echivoidea of Sind, 259, 268; Echinoidea of
Makran series of Baluchistan and Persian Gulf
coasts, 270.

Edgar, Sir. J. W., 127.

Edicts of Asoka. See Asoka’s inscriptions.

Fegeling, Professor J., 372.

Egypt, maps of, 224.

Hichens and Hardy, Messrs., 211.

Eimaks, 179 (note).

Flectrotyping process of reproducing atlas sheets,
&e., 225, 229.

Elephant islands, 27.

Elephant point, 36; tide gauges at, 57, 201, 204,
207.

Elephanta, 323, 346 (note), 347, 353, 354;
Dr. Burgess’s monograph on, 361.

Elias, Mr. Ney, C.1.E., 192, 193, 194.

Eliot, Mr. J., report on Vizagapatam and
Bakarganj cyclone, 287; 290,293; onstorms,
297 ; his proposals for more efficient working of
Meteorological Department, 303; 311.

Elliot, Sir Walter, 321, 358 (note), 367.

Ellobius fuscicapillus, 195.

“Elphinstone,” Honourable East India Company’s
ship, 15.

Elura, 323, 346 (note), 351, 353.

Emigration, Map of india showing, 226.

Enciam rocks, 35.

Endawgyi Lake, 169.

Engraving Branch, Surveyor-General’s Office,
Caleutta, 222, 230.

Epigraphica Indica and Archeological Survey
Record, 371.

Equatoreal telescope, 216.

Equipment necessary for field survey party, 137.

Eran, 337.

‘
7

INDEX.

Erinpura, 250.
Errors in triangulation, Process of correcting, 42. |
Ersari Tureomans, 181, 187.

Erskine, W., 354.

Eruption at Krakatoa, 204, 205.

Etah district survey, i08.

Ethersey (late I.N.), Commander, survey of pass
between India and Ceylon by, 4; Jafrabad
surveyed by, 34.

Everest, Colonel, 58, 210.

Ewing, Mr., oa Assam frontier, 79.

Falie, Mr., commences survey Madras road-
stead, 2; surveys portion Dowdeswell island,
11; surveys of Vizagapatam and Caling-
apatam by boat party in charge of, 21; river
survey party at Pagan under, 24.

Faida Ali, sub-suryeyor, 168.

Faizabad (Badakshan), 143, 194.

Faizabad (Oudh), 213.

Falconer, Dr., 236.

False Point, 2,3, 4, 10,19, 201, 204, 206, 207,
285.

Fa Hian, 326, 331,559.

Famines, in Madras and Bombay, 39, 2b. (note) ;
periodicity of, 287; Famine Commission, 117,
291.

Farah, 183, 185.

Farah Rud river, 175, 176.

Faridpur, 120.

Fatehpur Sikri, 340, 344, 363.

Faults in strata, 271 (note).

Fauna of British India, 259.

Fedden, Mr. F., 168, 238, 241, 256, 262; death
of, at Vizagapatam, 272.

Feistmantel, Dr., 237; resignation of, 268.

Fergusson, James, passim in Chapter XV.; his
death and works, 360.

'“ Feroze,” steam frigate, 16.

Ferrier, General, 180, 183, 184, 189.

Firoz Shah, 333.

Firuzkhuis, 179, 184.

Firozepur district survey, 106, 206.

Floods and flood warnings, 297.

Fleet, C.J.E., Mr. J. F., 368, 370.

“ Flora Indica,” 195. J

Flora of Afghanistan, 194, 195.

Flower, Professor, 166 (note).

Foote, Lieutenant H. B., 263.

Foote, Mr., 240, 256, 261, 263, 272, 276.

Forchhammer, Dr., 363; death of, and reports
by, 364.

Forecast of monsoon season, 289, 296, 298.
Forests, denudation of, in Konkan, 125.
Forest observatories, 298.

398

| Forest surveys, 8+; in Bombay Presidency, 89,

90.

Forrest strait, 27.

Forster, Rt. Hon. W. E., 165.

Forsyth, Sir D., 172, 193 (note).

Fort Jamrud, 131.

Fort Stedman, 168.

Fox Talbot, Mr., 227.

French maps of Egypt, 224.

Frodsham, Messrs., 211.

Frontier, Eastern. See astern.

Fiihrer, Dr., his report on Shargi remains of
Jaunpur, 228, 330 (note), 339; his list of re-
mains and inscriptions in N.W. Provinces and
Oudh, 346, 362.

G. M.N., 164, 165.

G.S.'S. in Nepal, 160.

Galichah, 172.

Galle, 206, 207.

Gandak river, 160, 161.

Gandamak, 135, 140.

Gangaikondapuram, Siva temple of, 46.

Ganges Dearah survey, 107.

Ganges, the source of, 51; 369; action of the
river, 271; course of, near Patna, 328.

Gangri range, 163.

Ganjam coast, 29, 33, 45.

Gantur district, 240.

Garbia, 49.

Garhwal, 48, 50, 273, 275.

Garo hills, coal-field in, 256; Mr. La Touche in,
260, 265, 269.

Garok, 95.

Garratt, Professor, 318.

Garrick, Mr., 336, 340.

Gartok, 51, 152.

Gauges, tidal, 196-208.

Gauhati, 75.

Gaur, 328, 329, 334, 340.

Gauss’s method of minimum squares, 43.

Gaya district survey, 114.

Gazetteer, Imperial, latitudes and longitudes for,
223; 224 and passim in Chapter XIV.

Geodetic observations, 209-215.

Geographical explorations, 128-171.

Geography of India, ancient, Cunningham on the,
327, 337.

Geological survey of India, 236-282; medal
awarded for exhibits at Paris Congress, 238 ;
maps of, 225; publications of, 237 ; geological
map of India, 226, 271 (note); geological
nomenclature and classification, 255 ; Geological
Congress in Bologna, 255; in London, 276;
geological surveys uncompleted, 281, 282.

594 INDEX.

Gersoppa, Falls of, 83.

Gharjistan, 179, 180 and (note).

Ghats, Eastern, 350.

Ghats, Western, 6, 82, 202; forest surveys on, 90.

Ghaziaband range, 254.

Ghazipur district survey, 108 ; Ghazipur, 332.

Ghazkol lake, 143.

Ghazni, 133, 140, 149 ; Mr. Griesbach at, 278.

Ghorband, 190, 191, 192.

Ghori, 182.

Ghur, 184, 185.

Ghur Mushkan, 186.

Giama Nu Chu river, 155, 156.

Giangtse Jong, 151, 153.

Gibbs, Lieutenant J. E., 87.

Gibbs, Mr. J., 362.

Gibson, Mr. A. J., 104.

Gilchrist, Dr. J., 318.

Giles, De. G. M., deep-sea trawling, by, 23;
deputed to serve with Chitral and Wafiristan
Mission, 28; report on results of deep-sea
dredging coasts, by, 31, 270.

Gilgit and river, 141, 142, 144, 145, 148, 167, 194,
231, 270.

Gill, Captain W., R.E., 93.

Gill Memorial Medal awarded to Mr. Ogle, 170.

Gilliland, Mr. J. H., 311.

Gimuchen, 165.

Ginja hill, 337.

Girdlestone, Mr. F. B., 374.

Girishk, 129, 136, 137, 185.

Girnar, 322, 346 (note), 347.

Girnar mountain, 250, 349.

Glaciation, Himalayan, 271 (note).

Gladwin, Francis, 321.

Gneiss, Himalayan, 239, 246, 260.

Goa, 2; seaboard coasts and islands examined by
Lieutenant Petley, 10.

Goalpara, observations at, 285, 293.

Goapnath, 34.

God-i-Zirreh, 173, 175.

Godavari, 125, 239, 247, 350.

Godwin-Austin, Colonel, 165, 260, 265.

Gogha, 34.

Golconda range, 247.

Gold near Kandahar, 254; in Hazarah country,
255; in Chota Nagpur, 277; in Mysore
(Mr. Foote’s report), 272, 273; gold tract in
Chiggateri, 276 ; in Sonapet, 277.

Goldsmid, Major-General Sir F., 172.

Gonds, country of, 248, 329, 332.

Gondwana deposits, the, 236, 237, 240, 245,
247, 250; Gondwanarocks in Australia, 266; |
Dr. Feistmantel on Gondwana flora, 268. |

Gopalpur, 4, 33. |

Gopurams, or temples, in Southern India, 47.

Gor, 145.

Gorakhpur district survey, 112; Gorakhpur, 331,
332.

Gordon, General, in Waziri country, 91, 146.

Gordon, Mr. R., 169 (note).

Gore, Major St. G. C., 87; survey of the Pishin
valley by, 129; advances from Kandahar, 134 ;
in Southern Afghanistan, 136; accompanies
Sir D. Stewart, 186; 172, 177, 183, 235.

Gosalpur manganese ores, 274.

Goteik, 167.

Gour, ruins of, 320 (note); see also under Gaur.

Grant, Mr. Charles, 320 (note).

Grant Duff, Rt. Hon. Sir M. E., 343, 358, 376.

Granville, Lord, 224.

Greco-Baktrian sculptures, 344.

Great Arc series, 43.

Greek coins and ornaments in Afghan Turkistan,
188 ; in Helmand yalley, 173.

Greenough, Mr., 237.

Greek alphabet, Remains of, in India, 348.

“ Gridiron” system of triangulation, 59.

Griesbach, Mr. C. L., 178, 181, 186, 247, 253,
254, 257, 260, 264, 269, 272, 278, 280.

Griffiths, Dr. W., 140.

Griffiths, Major, prisoner in Afghan War in 1842,
131.

Griffiths, Mr. J. (Bombay School of Art), 356.

Grodekoff, Colonel, 179 (note).

Growse, F. §., Mr., B.C.S., C.LE., 344 (note).

Guedeonoff, Captain, 174.

Gubjal, Little, 144.

Gujrat, 86, 89, 90, 231,, 322, 360; Gujrat cyclone,
296; architecture and ]scenery in, 346 (note) ;
battle of, 337; Chandravati, ancient capital of,
320 (note); Dr. Burgess in, 350; Muhamma-
dan architecture in, 354; monuments in, 341;
Mr. Cousens in, 355; Northern, 362.

Gulistan, 96.

Gulran, 178.

Gumal pass, 92, 98; Gumal valley, 146, 147,
149.

Gumti river, 339.

Gund river, 193.

Gunn, Lieutenant G. S., R.N., 33.

Gurdaspur, 106.

Gupta architecture, 330; Gupta dynasty, 347;
Gupta inscription, 348 ; Gupta coins, 7b. (note) ;
Gupta kings, 370; Gupta kings, temples of,
337.

Gurgi, ancient city of, 336.

Guz river, 192.

Gwal valley, 97.

Gyala Sindong, 164, 165.

Hacket, Mr., 240, 243, 256, 266, 269, 272, 273;
his retirement, 274.

Hematite in Sandur hills, 266, 276.

Haft Kotal pass, 135.

INDEX.

Haibak, 174, 182, 189, 190.

Haidarabad assigned districts, list of monuments
in, 345.

Haidarabad Circars, maps of, 378; Haidarabad,
survey of portion of, 90, 123, 124; 212, 213,
231; rainfall stations in Haidarabad, 291;
Dr. Burgess’s, archeological tour in, 350.

Haig, General C. T., 86, 87, 88, 214, 224.

“ Hakim, The,” 149.

Halhed, Mr., 318.

Hallabid temple, 322.

Hami, 158.

Hammond, Nay. Lieut., R.N , 2, 3, 5.

Hampe, 359, 362.

Hamra pass, 92.

Hamuns (Lora and Helmund), 173, 175.

Hangrang, 253.

Hanna pass, 92.

Hari Rud, river and valley, 174, 176, 177, 178,
182, 183, 184, 185, 195.

Harischandragad, 353.

Harman, Lieutenant, 51, 126; survey of Sikkim
by, 126, 127; death of, 127; 164.

Harmonie analysis of tidal observation, 197, 198,
et seq.

Harnai, valley and route, 95, 96, 98; 279.

Hartington, Lord, 118, 358.

Harut-Rud river, 195.

Hasan Khan, 336.

Hassan Khels, 104.

Hastings, Warren, 367, 376.

“ Havildar,” The, 143.

Hazara (in Afghanistan) country and people,
Captain Leach’s account of, 137 and (note) ;
178, 185.

Hazara (North-west frontier), 246.

Hazarajat, The (Afghanistan), 186.

Hazaribagh, 213, 245, 288.

Hazrat Pandua, 334.

Headquarters of Survey Department, 221-235.

Hearsey, Mr., 152.

Heaviside, Colonel W. J., 129, 135, 214.

Heights of tides, 198, 199, et seq.

Heights of various places in Afghanistan, 140.

Helby, Lieutenant E., R.N., boat party in charge
of, 23; completes survey of approaches to
Bhavnagar, 26; completes survey of Beypore
and Calicut, 31.

Heliogravure process, 223, 225, 226, 227.

Helmand river, 136, 172, 173, 175, 176, 183,
185, 195, 254.

Hemadpanti temples, 324, 325.

Hennessey, Mr. J. B. N., 57; his report on
A—k’s journey, 156, 232.

Henzada district, 364.

Herat, 175, 176, 180, 182, 183, 185, 187.

Herat valley, geology of, 269.

Herakles, Statue of, 335.

Herschel, Sir J., 289.

Herschel, Colonel, 211, 233.

3995

Heysham, Mr. W., 122.

Hilly cape, 5.

Hill, R.E., Major J., triangulation by, 53, 54;
completes triangles between Tavoy and base-
line, 55; 171.

Hill etching oa copper plates, 222.

Hill, Mr. 8. A., 293, 301, 311.

Himachal mountains, 152.

Himalayan States Survey, 99; Himalaya
mountains, 160; (also note), 161, 162,
190; geology of Himalaya mountains, 260;
Mr. Oldham on Himalaya mountains, 264;
glaciation in, 271 (note) ; Himalaya compared
geologically with the Aips, 271; sub-Hima-
layan rocks, 271 (note) ; geology of Himalayas,
275, 280; meteorology of N.W. Himalaya,
293; snows of Himalaya meteorologically con-
sidered, 293, 295, 296, 297, 303, 310.

Himalayas, Lower, 267, 273, 275, 277.

Hindu architecture, 325.

Hindu Kush, 143, 144, 150, 177, 182, 190, 191;
geology of, 270; 366.

Hinze basin (on Burmese coast), 26.

Hira Lal (geological sub-assistant), 253, 273,
274.

Hira Sing, 94, 177, 179, 180, 191.

Hisarak valley, 135.

Hissar, district survey, 105; Mr. Kodgers in, 340.

Hoang Ho, 154.

Hobday, Major, 30, 68, 88, 135, 166, 167, 168,
169, 170.

Hoboken, 234.

Hodgson, Captain, description of Nilang valley
by, 51.

Hodgson, Mr. B. H., 321.

Hoernle, Dr. A. F. R., 325 (note).

Hoiduthara, 153.

Holdich, Colonel, in Kohat, 91, 92, 129; acecom-
panies General Bright’s column to Kabul, 133;
traverses Tal-Chotiali route, 186; member of
committee on survey equipment, 137; in Zhob
valley, 147; called to join Afghan Boundary
Commission, 147; with Takht-i-Suliman Ex-
pedition, 148; 159, 172, 177, 183, 190, 235.

Holt, Mr. J. R., 311.

Homotaxis, Geological, 265.

Hong Kong, 200.

Hooker, Sir J., 195.

Hope, Sir Theodore C., 368.

Horses, Wild, 153.

Hoshiarpur, 106.

Hot springs in India, 258.

Hourly meteorological observations, 306.

Hubli-Marmagao, proposed railway, 10.

Hue, Abbé, 156.

Hughes, Mr., 237, 272, 273, 276, 278.

Hugli river, 22, 25, 36, 121, 203, 207; meteo-
rological observations at mouth of, 296.

Hukitolla, 11 ; Hukitolla cyclone, 299.

Hukong valley, 79.

Huli, Antiquities at, 347.

396 INDEX.

Hull, Commander T. A., R.N., proposal to confer
post of superintendent on, 12; writer of “ The
Unsurveyed World,’ 12 (note).

Eultzsch, Dr. E., 362, 371.

Human sacrifices by Nagas, 80.

Hundes, 50; invaded by Dogras, ib.; exports
from, 51, 152, 253, 260.

Hunias (people of Hundes), description of, 51.

Hunter, Dr., 354.

Hunter, Sir W. W., 224, 287, 314; appointed
Director-General of Statistics, 317.

Huuza, 142, 148, 168.

Hurrichpoor, 29.

Hutar coal-fields, 244, 250.

Hutchinson, Colonel, 90, 117, 123.

Hutchinson, Mr. §. A., 304, 311.

Hwen Thsang, 193 (note), 326, 331, 332, 334,
349, 359, 370.

Hydaspes, 251.

Hydrographer of the Admiralty, his relations with
surveyor in charge Marine Survey Depart-
ment, 14; 26, 32.

Hydrographic Notices, 3.

Hydroid zoophytes, description of by Surgeon
J. Armstrong, M.D., 9.

Hypeethral temple in Karund State, 331.

Ie |

Ibrahimabad, 174, 175.

Ighiz Yar, 192, 194.

Igutpuri, 200.

Tltitmish, 330.

Imam Baksh, Bozdar, services of, 148.

Imam Sharif, 99, 150, 180,181, 183 184, 185.

Imperial Gazetteer of India, 224, 316, 319.

“Tndia, a Sketch of Mountains and River
Basins of,” by Mr. T. Saunders, 378.

India, general maps of, 223, 231.

India Office, Geographical work of, 373.

India-prastha, 343 (note).

India, Retrospect of history of entire triangulation |

of, 58.

Indian antiquary, 346 (note), 361, 368.

“Tndian Art, Journal of,” 362.

Indian atlas, 222, 229, 230, 231.

Indian atlas plates, steel facing of, 223.

Indian Eras, Book of, by General Cunningham,
338.

Indian coasts, Selection of localities for tide-
gauges, for determinatioa of mean sea-level
along, 6.

Indian lighthouses and lightships, preparation
undertaken of complete list of, 3; inspection
of, by Commander A. D. Taylor, 9.:

Indian Museum Notes, 228.

Indian Navy, Surveys of, 1.

“Indian Surveys, Memoir on,’ Mr. C. Mark-
ham’s, 376.

Indor Khera, 331.

Indo-Seythian antiquities, 328, 330.

Indo-Scythian kings, 347.

Indraji, Pandit Bhagwanlal, 342.

Indus, Alexander’s route along, 326.

Indus-Kishenganga watershed, 145.

Indus river, re-survey of mouths of, required,
34; Mullah’s survey of, 141; 151, 206.

Indus series, Great, of triangulation, 94.

Indo-Colonial Exhibition, London, 225, 226.

Inland customs, Receipts from salt, 252.

Inlé Jake, 169.

Inscriptions and Coins, 366; also passim in
Chapter XV.

“Tnscriptions in Dharwar and Mysore,” Sir T.
Hope’s, 368.

“Institutes of Timur,” 319.

Instruments for geodetic observations, 211.

Instrument, Mathematical, office at Calcutta, 218.

Instruments, scientific, Supply of, 216-220. See
also Appendix.

“ Jnvestigator,” surveying steamer, building of, 8 ;
launching of, 11; available for surveying
purposes, 18; list of survey work done during
year 1881-82 by officers of, 18; runs a line of
deep-sea soundings in Gulf of Manar, 19; “pro-
ceeds to Chittagong, 19 ; reported by Lieutenant
Channer to be admirably adapted for work, 20 ;
proceeds to Sandoway roads and resounds the
whole of bank of soundiogs between False point,
Palmyras point, and Eastern channel light
vessel, 22; boats of, assist in surveying Pal-
myras shoals, 22 ; examination of ravine south
of the Sunderbuns made by, 23; leaves the
Sunderbuns, 23 ; returns from Western Torres
islands, and completes southern approach to
Mergui, 26; Hinze basin on Burmese coast
examined by,26 ; surveys entrance to Beypore
river, 27; completes survey of shallows off
mouths of Meghna river, 28; takes soundings
west of Andamans and Nicobars, 32; leaves
Bombay harbour, 32; visits south Sentinel
island, 33; total distance run by during seven
years work, 33.

Inquiry into working of Marine Survey Depart-
ment, ll.

Trawadi river, Survey of, 24, 25, 36, 79, 155
(mote), 156, 166, 168, 170, 203; geological
observations in basin of N.W., 267.

Irak pass, 190.

Iron, Effect of, on stone known to Hindus in
ancient times, 332.

Tron. See passim through geological chapter.
Will be found indexed under name of locality. -

Ishkaman river, 143.

Ishkashim, 143, 193.

INDEX. 397

Jabalpur, 213; Jabalpur fossil flora, 246;
Jabalpur Railway, 250; 277; Jabalpur obser-
vatory, 289.

*Jabree.” British Indian wooden barque, dis-
covery of part of wreckage of, 29; description
of track of, 30.

Jackson, Captain, 167, 168, 170.

Jacob, Colenel, “ Jeypur portfolios of architec-
tural details by,” 363.

Jacobabad, 47, 241.

Jade mines (Upper Burma), 169.

Jafrabad, charting required of, 34.

Jaggayyapeta stupa, 358, 360.

Jahngria, 333.

Jaina monuments, 322, 340, 346, 352.

Jaintia hills, 258, 277.

Jaipur, 306.

Jaisalmer, 238 ; fossiliferous limestones in, 269.

Jakao, 30.

Jalalabad, distance from Peshawar, 130, 133,
134; height of, 140.

Jalandhar Doab, 333.

Jalandhar, 106; Mr. Rodgers in, 340; monu-
ments in, 344.

Jalawan, 97.

Jalpaiguri, 121, 213.

Jam valley, 177.

James, Mr., 169.

Jami Masjid at Jaunpur, 339.
Jammu coal, 273, 275.
Jamnagar, 349.

Jamrud, Fort, 131.

Jamsetjee Dhunjeebhoy Wadia, master builder, 8.
Jamshidis, 178, 184.

Janssen, M., 290.

Jarrad, Nay. Lieutenant, R.N., despatched in
“Clyde” to survey Amherst, 1; surveys
Madras, 2; connects, astronomically, Diamond
island, Rangoon, and Amherst pagoda, 2; in
charge of boat party surveying, 4; surveys
Bankote river mouth, 9; impaired health of,
9; placed at disposal of Admiralty, 11.

Jashk, 298.

Jaugada inscription, 358.

Jaunpur, survey, 114; 322, 338; Dr. Fiihrer’s
report on Sharqi architecture of, 228, 339;
Masjid at, 330.

Jaunsar, 260.

Jehlam, mound at, 333.

Jehlam river, 251, 326.

Jelep La pass, 126, 153.

Jesalmer. See Jaisalmia.

Jesuit fathers at Tasienlu, 155.

Jeypur, 231; Jeypur observatory, 299, 306.

Jhansi, district survey, 114, 340.

Jhinjuwada, 324, 250.

Jodhpur, 80, 81, 238, 250, 274.

Joga, 253.

Jogada Naugam, 348 (note).

Jogeswari, caves near, 323, 353.

Johnson, Mr. E. T. S., 108.

Johnstone, Major-General, C.B., 104.

sone Mr. E. J., 268, 267, 268, 272, 273, 274,
277.

Jones, Sir W., 318, 320, 367.

Jongu, 158.

Journal of Indian art, 226.

Jowain, 175, 176.

Jowaki Expedition, 104; Jowaki hills, Surveys
in, 148.

J pedulus pass, Captain Strahan’s survey of,

Jumna, ancient cities near, 327.

Junagadh, 346 (note), 347, 348, 349.

Junkseylon, Commander Taylor visits, 1; chart
of, 2; 7b. (note) ; sailing directions for, 3.

Junnar, 352.

Jyghur, port of, surveyed at request of Sir
R. Temple, 7.

K—p, 163, 164, 165.
Kabadian, 188.

Kabul valley column, 129; survey of valley,
133; triangulation connected with Kuram,
133; position of Kabul, 140; height of, 140;
183, 190; map of routes to, 223; Mr. Gries-
bach in Kabul valley, 278.

Kach Gandavya, 94.

Kach valley, 97.

Kachi plain, 48, 94, 95, 96, 97.

Kachin hills, 166, 169.

Ka-cho, 171.

KKadis, 179, 180.

Kafiristan, 130; slavery in, 134, 135,
Mr. MeNair in, 149, 150 (note), 191.

Kafir Kot, 91, 333.

Kahalgaon, rock- cut temple of, 333.

Kaiani kings, 174.

Kailang, observatory at, 295.

Kailas temple at Elura, 324, 353, 354.

Kaisar river, 131, 186.

Kaisarghar peak, 147, 148.

Kaitu Kuram, 149.

Kajuri Kach, 98.

Kaka Khels, 149, 150.

Kala Chitta Pahar tract, 104.

Kala-i-Madre Padshah, 173.

Kala Fath, 174, 175.

Kalabagh, 252.

Kaladan river, 364.

Kaladgi, Antiquities in, 342, 346.

Kalagwe, 166.

144;

398

Kalanjara fort, 337.

Kalburga, 344.

Kali river, the, 161, 250.

Kaliana (Jhind State), 274.

Kalimpong, 279.

Kalsi, 326, 848 (note).

Kalyana, 350.

Kaman-i-Bihisht, 176, 177.

Kamawaram coal-field, 248.

Kameng branch of the Bhoroli, 78.

Kamrup boundary survey, 75.

Kamtis, 75, 79.

Kan (Upper Burma), 170.

Kanara, coast, 35; 322, 355, 367.

Kanara-Mysore frontier, 82, 83.

Kanauj, 326 (note).

Kanchanjanga mount., 127, 162, 225.

Kanchipuram, 359.

Kanchipuram, 371.

Kanchrapara station, East Bengal Railway, 121.

Kandahar, 64; route from, to Girishk, 129, 133 ;
battle of, 137 ; position of, 47, 139; height of,
140, 174, 185; gold near, 254; Kandahar
range, ib.

Kandia, 141, 142.

Kandil river, 149.

Kangra district survey, 99.

Kangra Lama La pass, 127, 151.

Kanheri, 352; K. inscriptions, 354.

Kaniguram, 146.

Kankali mound at Mathura, 240.

Kantee, 171.

Kanungos for Bengal, 118.

Kapilavastu, Mr. Carlleyle’s supposed identifica-
tion of, 331, 332.

Karachi, 25, 197, 201, 206, 213, 214, 215; Karachi
winds, 292.

Karakoram pass, 158.

Karakul, Great and Little, lakes, 192.

Karashahr, 158.

Kara Tapa Kalan, 187.

Kara Tapa Khurd, 187.

Karatash, 192.

Karatoya river, 334.

Karenis as surveyors, 116 ; Kareni State, 169.

Karharbari coal-field, 240, 245, 278.

Karkatcha range, 134.

Xarleh, 61.

Karnali river, 152.

Karnul, cave explorations, 263, 268; 277.

Karta, 160.

Karwar, 2, 197, 204, 274.

Karsambla, Buddhist caves at, 342, 355.

Karauli, 336.

Kasauli cantonments, 80.

Kashgar, 192; Kashgar and Yarkand meteor- |

ology, 287.

Kashkar, 366.

INDEX.

Kashmir, 150, 154, 194; amine in Kashmir, 246 ;
Mr. La Touche (geologist) in Kashmir, 272.

Kashmir, temples of, General Cunningham on,
337.

Kasia, ruins at, 332.
Kathe tribes, 363.

Kathiawar, 34, 85, 231, 245; Mr. Fedden (geolo-
gist) in Kathiawar, 250, 256, 262, 265;
meteorology of Kathiawar, 308, 309; Kathia-
war, monuments in, 341; Dr. Burgess’s
Archeological report on, 347, 349.

Kathi tribe, 347.

Katni, 250,
264.

Kaurkonda-Papakenda range, 247._

Kausambi, 337.

Keda, 350.

Kegudo, 154.

Kennedy, General, 146.

Ketas, temples at, 333.

Keyes, General, in Jowaki country, 104.

Khaf, 177.

Khairgura, 240.

Khairpur meteorite, 271 (note).

Khaisar valley, 146.

Khajuraho, 330, 337.

Khakrez, lhe lower, valley, 254.

Khamba Jong, 158.

Khamiab, 174, 187.

Khan Bahadur, Title
** Bozdar,” 148.

Khanabad, 188, 194.

Khandagiri caves, 327, 331, 358.

Khandesh Survey, 70,71; monumental remains
in 342.

Khanti (of Wilcox), 171.

Khanwa, Battle field of, 336.

Kharajangas pass, 180.

Kharan, 95, 97, 98.

Khari, 81.

Kharwar (Afghanistan), 278.

Khasia, Garo, and Naga hills survey, 75; 277.

Khatan, 275.

256; Katni railway to Jabalpur,

of, bestowed on the

KXhatmandu valley, 162.

Khawak, 191.

Khelat, 64, 93, 94, 97.

Khetran country, 94, 97.

Khiderzai clan, 148.

Khirthar range, 241, 254.

Khojah Ali, 173.

Khojak range, 254.

Khojas, fugitive, in Badakashan, 193 (note).

Khorasan, 176, 195, 267; geology of eastern
Khorasan, 269.

Khost (Punjab frontier), 130, 146; Khost (Sind
Pishin Railway), 92, 275, 277.

Khotan, 157.

Khulm and river, 186, 188, 189, 190.

Khurasan (Baluchistan province), 97.

INDEX.

Kherd Kabul, 140, 278.

Khurdeh estate (Pooree), large scale surveys in, |
103, 114. |

Khushk-i-rud valley, 133.

Khusrah writing assigned to survey staff, 109.

Khwaja-Amran range, 96, 97.

Khwaja Salor, 187.

Kielhorn, Professor F., 372.

Kidderpore, 201, 207.

Kila Bar Panjah, 143.

Kila Wamar, 193.

Kilif, 182, 187, 188.

Mindat, 299.

King, Dr., 238, 245, 256, 266; appointed Super-
intendent of the Geological Survey, 272, 273.

Kinney, Mr., 51.

Kirghiz, 192.

Kiria, 157.

Kirman, 177.

Kirthar range, 253.

Kishen Singh. See A——k.

Kishen Singh (geological apprentice), 253.

Kishenganga valley, 145.

Kisseraing, 204.

Kistna river, 125, 247.

Kitchen, Mr., 150 (note).

Kittoe, Captain M., 321.

Kli¢, Herr, 227.

Kodi Kols, 323.

Kohat, district survey, 90,91; Kohat town, 92;
Kohat pass, 104; 250.

Koh Daman, 133, 134

Koh-i-Baba mountains, 182, 190.

Koh-i-Saf, 181. See also Safed Koh.

Kohistan, 134, 191.

Kohitezek pass, 193.

Kokcha river, 194.

Kolab, 143.

Kolam, 142.

Kolar gold mines, 273.

Kols, The, 248.

Kondane, 352.

Kong-lachen pass, 158.

Konkan survey, 124; description of Konkan,
125.

Konni, 169.

Kopah, 1.

Kopargaum, antiquities in, 342.

Korba, 273.

Korokh valley, 177, 179.

Kostenko, Captain, 192.

Kotai, 350.

Kotanni pass, 149.

Kotkai, 150.

Krakatoa, 204, 205.

Krik (French missionary), 155.

Krishna shoal lighthouse, 53.

Krol greup, 260.

399

| Kshatrapa inscription at Junagadh, 348.

Kshatrapa kings of Surashtra, 347, 349.

Kuchar (East Turkistan), 158; (Afghanistan),
179.

Kudara, 193.

| Kuen Lun mountains, 153, 154, 157.

Kuhaks, 97.

Kuhsan, 174, 176, 182.

Kulachuri Rajas of Chedi, 332.

Kuldar, 188.

Kulha range, 163.

KKumaun, 48, 50, 161, 250, 258, 273, 275.

Kunar valley, 130, 135, 150.

Kund, peak of, 134.

Kunduz, 186, 194; Kunduz river, 188, 189, 190.

Kuru river, 163.

Kuram valley, 91, 129, 130, 133; triangulation
connected with that of Kabul, 7b.; Mr. Wynne
in, 250.

Kushk river, 177.

Kushk Rud river, 176.

Kussilong, 258.

Kusinagara, 332.

Kuthera, 337.

Kwwandar valley, 147.

Kyaukku temple, 364.

Kyauk-pyu, 23.

Kya-whyat, 276.

Kyendwen river, 79.

Kyonkse, 166.

L—, explorer in Tibet, 151.

L ¢ (Chambel), 152, 157.
Laccadive islands, 29, 35.

Ladak, 157, 253, 275.

Ladak, Cunningham’s, 337.

Lahore, 338 ; monuments at, 343, 344.
Lahore observatory, 284, 298, 304.
Lahori pass, 150.

Lakanpur coal-field, 269, 274.

Lake, Mr. P., 272, 274, 277.

Lakhima, inscription at, 337.

Laki range, 241.

Lakpat, 86.

Lala Hem Raj, 311.

Lalla Ruchi Ram Sahni, B.A., 296.
Lama, The. See U.G.

Lamaing, 166.

Lambeth (India Store Depét) observatory, 216.

Lambton, Colonel, 38, 44, 47; commences the
trigonometrical survey of India, 58, 212.

Lambton and Everest’s Great Arc, 58.
Lamech, shrine of, in Lughman, 134.

400

“ Lamp Rock,’ The, 192 and (note).

Lamuti, 141.

Land settlement, map of India showing, 226.

Lane, Mr. W., 116.

Langdao, 79.

Laram Kotal, 150.

Large scale cadastral surveys, 102.

Lash Jowain, 173, 175.

Lataband pass, 135.

La Touche, Mr. J. D., 112.

La Touche, Mr. (geologist), 256; in the Dehing
basin, 260, 264, 265; in Garo hills, 269, 272;
in Kashmir, 273, 275; 277.

Laterite, 249.

Latitudes and longitudes of Indian localities, 209,
318.

Launggyet, 364.

Leach, Lieut.-Colonel E. P., on Simla survey, 80,
88; in North Afghanistan, 130; wounded and
gains V.C.,7b.; in Argandab and Khakrez
valleys, 137; description of Hazara country
by, 2b.

Le Bon, Dr. G., 320 (note), 362.

Légé & Co., Messrs., 199, 217.

Leh, 157; actinometric observations at, 295, 296;
barometrical observations at Leh, 293.

Lem Chang P’ra (Siam), 5.

Leopards found in N.W. Afghanistan, 195.

Leo Porgyal, 50. See also Porgyal.

Level, “ Reversible,” 217.

Levelling operations
observations, 200.
Lhakhang-Jong, 160.

Lhasa, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 160, 376.

“Lhasa, Narrative of journey to” (by 8.C.1).),
158.

Lhobrak Chu, the, 163.

Lhobra Sanpo, 160.

Lho Jong, 156.

Lhok’haptra, 164 (note).

Lighthouses and light vessels, inspection
annual return of, 13.

Lignite from Baranga, 246.

Limestone fossils in Upper Burma, 280.

Lingala, 248.

Lipu Lek pass, 161.

Lithang, 155.

lithographic Office, Calcutta, 221.

Lithological nomenclature, 271 (note).

Little, Dr. C., 311.

Little, Mr. C., 311.

Lo river, 164.

Lob Nor, 153, 157.

Lockhart, Sir W., 167.

Lockyer, Professor N., 289.

Loess soil in Badghiz, 178.

Loftus, Captain A. J., additions to hydrography
of Siam coast, received from, 5.

Logar valley, 133, 134, 135, 278.

in connexion with tidal

of, 9;

INDEX.

4
7.

Logs, meteorological observavions in ships, 289,
292. See also Marine meteorology.

Lohardaga, 245.

Lohit river, 156 (note).

Lonad, 353.

London Geological Congress, 276.

Long, Captain F. B., R.E., 97, 137.

Longitude observations, passim in Chapter IX.

Longitudes and latitudes of Indian stations and
localities, 209, 223, 317.

Longrin coal-field, 265.

Lora river, 136, 173.

Lower Provinces, mapping of, 231.

Lucknow observatory, 285.

Ludhe, 150.

Ludhiana district survey, 106.

Lughman valley, 98, 131, 133.

Luni Pathan, 97.

Lu river, 155 and (note).
Chu.

Lungleh, 308.

Lushai expedition, 170, 277.

Lut-dih, 150 (note).

Lydekker, Mr., 238, 246; on the N.W.
Himalayas, 260; retirement and services of
263; 268.

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