30 LETTER FROM LORD CANNING. [Dec. 12, 1859. 



Prior to commencing the Paper on Kashmir, the Chairman read 

 the following letter from Lord Canning, the Governor-General of 

 India : — 



Dear Sir Roderick, Calcutta, Aug. 29th, 1859. 



Last month I sent to the Secretary of State for India the first sheet of the 

 Great Trigonometrical Survey of Kashmir, the work of Captain Montgomerie, 

 of the Bengal Engineers, done imder the superintendence of Colonel Waugh, 

 the Surveyor-General of India. 



To my unlearned eye it is as fine an example of topographical drawing as I 

 have ever seen, though the subject is one upon which I do not pretend to be 

 an expert judge. 



But I can speak to the difficulties under which Captain Montgomerie's task 

 has been accomplished : not the physical difficulties of the ground only, but 

 the awful discouragement and anxiety of finding himself almost alone in those 

 wild mountains, the people of which had, to say the least, no sympathy with 

 the English rule in India, and surrounded by Hindostanee sepoys, whose 

 comrades and relatives were amongst the most active movers in the chaos of 

 murder and rebellion which was boiling in the plains below. You, perhaps, 

 have heard that, at Roorkee, the head-quarters of the Sappers, and at the foot 

 of the Himalayas, the men of that corps, early in the mutiny, shot their com- 

 manding-officer at the head of his column, and joined the ranks of the rebels. 



Captain Montgomerie, however, by his own courage and tact, not only kept 

 his men (soldiers of that same regiment) under discipline and got good work 

 out of them, but brought them back loyal and attached to the service. They 

 have now good cause to thank him. 



I know that these incidents add nothing to Captain Montgomerie's claims 

 to notice on scientific grounds ; but if, as I hope may be the case, the Royal 

 Geographical Society should consider that his labours deserve to be noticed 

 for their result, the circumstances under which they were carried out may 

 perhaps be taken into account. If the Society think this young officer worthy 

 of any honour, I shall greatly rejoice, both for his own sake and for that of 

 the distinguished corps to which he belongs. I believe that there does not 

 exist under any Government in the world a body of officers surpassing that of 

 the Engineers of the Indian Army in the combination of high intellectual 

 ability and acquirements with the most daring and persevering courage, if 

 indeed there be any equal to it. 



I wish I had been able to push forward the Geological Survey more rapidly, 

 in accordance with your exhortations of four years ago. But the last two 

 years and a half have given me other things to think of, and, which is worse, 

 other things whereupon to spend our money ; even you yourself, had you 

 been here, would have had to turn your hammer once more into a sword. I 

 hope, however, to get some practical benefit out of the Kumaon iron district 

 very shortly, in the shape of castings (wrought iron will be a longer job), and 

 the recent discovery of the extent, much greater than was known, of useful 

 coal-fields, not far from the line of the East India Railway in Lower Bengal, is 

 a very welcome incident. On the other hand, I am sorry to say that I have 

 just received a most discouraging report from Mr. Oldham of the hopelessness 

 of finding coal north-westward of Allahabad. 



Believe me, dear Sir Roderick, 



Yours very faithfully, 



Sir Roderick I. Murchison, &c. &c., Canning, 



Belgrave Square. 



