1885.] THE INDIAN FOREST SURVEY. 443 



To make certain that nothing of this sort should become the practice 

 of the Forest Survey Department, a good deal of time was at first 

 sjpcnt, not wasted, in encouraging the men to bring to notice dis- 

 crepancies which occurred in their work, and in making them go 

 over it again in order to bring it perfectly right, the officers being 

 most careful never to be angry or impatient with them on account 

 of any errors brought to notice in this manner. Thus a solid 

 foundation for the execution of correct work was laid, and if progress 

 was at first slow and the cost of the survey was proportionately 

 high, the men soon became more skilful, and the instances in which 

 the ground had to be gone over a second time became fewer. In 

 the beginning only the more simple parts of the work were assigned 

 to the native surveyors, and their drawings, which were not always 

 very neatly executed, were incorporated in tlie field-sheet prepared 

 by the European surveyor; but some of the best of them were not 

 satisfied to execute work of this class only, and they qualified them- 

 selves by degrees to complete their field-sheets almost entirely with 

 their own hands, while a few of them can now sketch in the eye- 

 contours with great accuracy, neatness, and artistic taste, always, as 

 has been explained, under the careful and constant supervision of a 

 European surveyor. The combination of Native and European 

 labour in the Forest Survey Department has worked extremely 

 well. 



Detailed surveys of wild and densely-wooded country have rarely 

 been made before in India, and in spite of the large proportion of 

 the work which is done by cheap native agency and the adoption of 

 s]Decial methods of procedure to suit the exceptional nature of the 

 undertaking, it is evident that such surveys as those described are 

 likely to be more expensive than similar work in open, cultivated 

 country. An additional cause for a comparatively higli rate lies in 

 the fact that the forest not infrequently consists of detached blocks, 

 and this necessitates much moving about during the progress of the 

 work. But the revenue derived from the Indian forests has largely 

 expanded during the last few years, while the condition of the 

 forests themselves has been greatly improved and their capital value 

 enormously increased. 



Good maps facilitate systematic and economical management, and 

 enable work to be carried out and recorded in a manner which 

 would be impossible without them ; and to provide such maps, even 

 at a somewhat high rate as compared with the cost of other maps 

 on the same scale, is a necessity and a distinct economy. 



