1885. J TlIK INDIAN FOREST SURVEY. 441 



at tlie smallest possible cost, and all expensive processes, wliicli are 

 out of proportion to the rest of the work, must he studiously 

 avoided. 



The ground worked over by the Forest Survey Department often 

 presents exceptional dilliculties, of which some of the principal are 

 tlie following. The ground is frequently very much broken and 

 intricate; the crop of trees, fortunately for the country if not so 

 frcjui the surveyor's point of view, is often very dense, and where 

 this is not the case there is frequently a thick growth of bamboos or 

 tall grass on the ground ; it is very generally the case that good 

 drinking water is obtainable only in certain places at long distances 

 apart; the forests are often infested with dangerous wild animals ; 

 and as a rule there is considerable difficulty in obtaining supplies of 

 food and great liability to attacks of jungle fever. The want of 

 good water is frequently a cause of serious delay in the execution of 

 the work, and, as the principal item of expenditure is formed by the 

 wages of the men employed, it follows that slow progress means a 

 high rate per acre. The surveyors must camp in the neighbourhood 

 of a spring of good water, and if it is not near their work, they lose 

 a great portion of each day in going out to and returning from the 

 part of the forest in which they are employed — men climbing hills 

 all day in a heavy jungle with a hot sun overhead are apt to drink 

 a great deal of water, and if it be of bad quality they are liable to 

 be attacked by jungle fever or dysentery, and, in spite of all pre- 

 cautions that are taken to avoid it, a considerable number of the 

 men are annually laid up with fever towards the end of the field 

 season when the hot weather is coming on. 



The wild animals which inhabit the Indian forest afford excellent 

 sport for those who have the time to engage in it, which the 

 surveyors have not, for the out-turn of good work of this sort is in 

 direct proportion to the time spent on it, and arrears of surveying 

 and mapping cannot be brought up by a stroke of genius ; but to 

 the unarmed native surveyor the presence of dangerous wild beasts 

 in the forest in which he is called upon to work affords no attrac- 

 tion, and cases have occurred in which they have caused the most 

 serious inconvenience. On one occasion a native surveyor, having 

 seen a wild elephant, decamped and could not be persuaded to 

 re-enter that part of the forest, while his accounts of the terrors of 

 tlie locality spread among the other men, and for a long time the 

 ground could not be surveyed. On another occasion three native 

 surveyors having seen a tiger, climbed a rock and remained there all 

 night. In the morning they managed to convey an appeal to the 

 officer in charge to come to their relief, which he did, but without 

 seeing anything of the tiger. This place was also in disfavour for 



