78 Obituarj/. — Colonel Lambtou. 



testimony to the extent and importance of the labours of Co- 

 lonel Lambton, in his measurement of an arc of tlie meridian 

 in India, extending from Cape Comorin, in lat. 8. 23. 10. to 

 a new base line, measured in lat. 21.6., near the village of 

 Takoorkera, 15 miles S.E. from the city of Ellichpore, a di- 

 stance exceeding that measure by the English and French 

 Geometers, between the parallels of Greenwich and Tormen- 

 tara in the Island of Minorca. 



It was the intention of Colonel Lambton to have extended 

 the arc to Aora, in v.hich case the meridian line would have 

 passed at short distances from Bhopaul, Serange, Nurwur, 

 Gualiar, and Dholpore. At his advanced age, he despaired 

 of health and strengdi remaining for further exertion ; other- 

 wise it cannot be doubted that it would have been a grand 

 object of his ambition to have prolonged it through the Dooab, 

 and across the Himalays, to the 32d degree of north latitude. 

 If this vast undertaking had been achieved, and that it may j-et 

 be completed is not improbable, British India will have to 

 boast of a much larger unbroken meridian line than has been 

 before measured on the surface of the globe. 



Though the measurement of the Arc of the Meridian was 

 the principal object of the labours of Colonel Lambton, he 

 extended his operations to the East and West, and the set of 

 triano-les covers great part of the Peninsula of India, defining 

 with the utmost precision the situation of a very great number 

 of principal places in latitude, longitude, and elevation ; and 

 aiFordino- a sure basis for an amended Geographical Map, 

 which is now under preparation. The triangulation also con- 

 nects the Coromandel and Malabar coasts in numerous im- 

 portant points, thus supplying the best means of truly laying 

 down the shape of those coasts, and rendering an essential 

 service to navigation. 



It was the Colonel's intention to have himself carried the 

 meridian line as far north as Agra, and he detached his first 

 assistant, Captain Everest, of the Bengal Artillery, to extend 

 a series of triangles westward to Bombay, and when that ser- 

 vice should be completed eastward to Point Palmyras, and 

 probably Fort William, by which extensive and arduous ope- 

 ration, the three Presidencies of India would be connected, 

 and several obvious advantages gained to geography and navi- 

 gation. But it is in the volumes of the proceedings of various 

 learned Societies, that the accounts of the labours of this ve- 

 teran philosopher, whose loss we lament, must be looked for, 

 and who for 22 years carried on his operations in the ungenial 

 climate with unabated zeal and perseverance, and died full of 

 years and conscious of a well deserved rcj)ulation. — Madras 

 Gazette, Feb. 25, 1823. list 



