32 PURDON'S SURVEY OF THE VALLEY OF KASHMIR. [Dec. 12, 1859. 



The last-named gentleman has just handed in a paper, additional to the one, 

 a part of which the meeting had listened to, relating to the more mountainous 

 part of Kashmir, which time would not allow of being read, but which 

 would be shortly printed in the Journal of the Society : though perhaps 

 Captain Godwin Austen would like to address the meeting. He was happy 

 to state that Colonel Everest, so distinguished as the former director of the 

 Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, was present, and also Mr. Vigne, who 

 had published the best map of the country that had been hitherto prepared. 



Colonel George Everest, v.p.r.g.s., felt exceedingly indebted to Sir 

 Roderick Murchison for the handsome way in which he had spoken of him. 

 For twenty-five years of his life he had been connected with the trigonometrical 

 survey of India, and took great interest in his old department. For the first five 

 years he was associated with Colonel Lambton, whom he succeeded, and two 

 years afterwards was obliged to come to England on account of his health. 

 "While in this country he obtained some most perfect instruments, and returned 

 to India. But, at the commencement of 1830, he had nobody there that could 

 use them, and had to train all his assistants. It was the most fortunate event of 

 his life that he met with gentlemen like Colonel Waugh and Major Renny 

 Tailyour, each of whom possessed great ability and extreme willingness to learn ; 

 and, on retiring from the survey, he was satisfied that he left the work in the 

 most efficient hands. The department, whether personal or material, was in the 

 highest order ; it was a fine establishment, and possessed of some of the best 

 instruments in the whole world. The beautiful map behind the chair, which 

 could not be characterised in terms that were too high, was a good proof of the 

 knowledge and skill employed in the survey. By reference to the triangula- 

 tion they would better understand the degree of excellence which had been 

 attained. The great object of a trigonometrical survey was to prevent the ac- 

 cumulation of error. If a number of trigonometrical points, determined with 

 sufficient accuracy, were placed in different localities, there could be no error 

 beyond those points. All the principal triangles, moreover, were arranged 

 into polygonal forms, so as, by mutual compensation, to eliminate each other's 

 errors, whether personal or instrumental, from which no observations can pre- 

 tend to be entirely free. An error of fifty feet in the position of an internal 

 point might be made ; and in fact, in latitudes and longitudes limited to the 

 nearest second, such errors are inevitable, seeing that one second of latitude is 

 equivalent to about 102 feet, but it can go no further, for the linear dimensions 

 of the principal triangles are retained, and are not subject to this objection, so 

 that errors cannot accumulate. 



Captain H. Godwin Austen, f.r.g.s., declined to speak, but presented his 

 paper on the same subject, expressing his hope that it might prove acceptable 

 to the Society. 



Mk. G. T. Vigne, f.r.g.s., also expressed his grateful thanks for the flatter- 

 ing notice of his map, and the results of his travels in Kashmir, &c., and 

 added, that he considered the completion of the G. T. S. Map (which seemed 

 to him as beautiful as it was accurate) was no ordinary subject for congratula- 

 tion. He was not without hopes that the public might now be induced to 

 view the acquisition of Kashmir (by fair means) in the same light as he had 

 always done. It was actually part of the Punjab, and he had always consi- 

 dered it as a place of great importance to the security of our north-western 

 frontier in India. Possessed of a European climate, it was at once a fortress, 

 a depot, and a sanatarium. It would be a miniature England in the heart of 

 Asia, and there would there be English racing, English farming, English 

 mining, English fox-hunting, and English cricket ; and, with a good road 

 through the Baramula Pass, a British force in the highest state of health and 

 appointment could, in a very few days, be marched thence to deploy along the 

 banks of the Indus, or meet any invader in the passes of Affghanistan. 



