1885.] THE INDIAN FOREST SURVEY. 439 



adopt the smallest scale that could be made to answer the purpose. 

 Ultimately it was decided that for the more valuable forests the 

 scale should usually be 4 in. ^= 1 mile, while for those of less 

 importance half the scale would suffice ; and this has generally 

 speaking been found suitable, though larger scales have occasionally 

 been adopted for small areas of exceptional value. 



The scale determined, the superintendent had to raise and 

 organize an establishment of surveyors and labourers, and he was 

 fortunate enough at the outset to secure the services of Mr. W, H. 

 Picynolds, an Assistant Conservator of Forests in the Punjab, who had 

 been for some years in the Imperial Survey Department, and also 

 of three European surveyors, who had likewise been employed in 

 the same Department. Aided by these gentlemen, and acting 

 under the advice at all times so readily afforded him by the 

 Surveyor-General (General Walker), he raised and trained a party 

 of native surveyors, with whom he commenced to carry out tlie 

 work before him. The first survey undertaken was that of the 

 forests of Dehra Dun, in the Nortli-AVestern Provinces. These 

 forests, which cover an area of 573 square miles, are much inter- 

 laced with private lands, and as no good map of the latter then 

 existed, it was tliought desirable to construct a complete map of 

 the entire district, the forests being surveyed by the new depart- 

 ment, and the private lands by a party of the Imperial Survey. 

 This joint work was not finally completed until 1876 ; but in 187o, 

 when it was drawing to a close, tlie survey of the forests of 

 Kumaun and Garhwal, also situated in the North - Western 

 Provinces, and embracing an area of some 1400 square miles, was 

 commenced, and this has lately been completed. The survey of 

 about 1600 square miles of forest and private land in the 

 Haiderabad Assigned Districts was commenced in 1881, and is 

 now in progress. Altogether, since 1872, an area of about 3000 

 square miles has been surveyed and mapped, nearly the whole of it 

 on the scale of 4 inches = 1 mile. 



Manifestly it will take a considerable numl^er of years to work 

 over the whole area, about 36,000 square miles, of reserve forests 

 in the Bengal Presidency ; but the preparation of detailed maps of 

 the whole of these forests is fortunately not a matter of urgency at 

 the present time, since for those which are in a backward condition, 

 and in wdiich nothing but simple protection can be undertaken for 

 some years to come, any small-scale map with the boundaries 

 marked on it, or a shetch-map, can be made to suffice for present 

 necessities. A great deal of work has been accomplished by the 

 Forest Survey Department in the way of laying down boundaries 

 on existing maps, and such maps have been found extremely useful. 



