592 



late Colonel Lambton, and collecting in one volume the results of that 

 part of the survey. The Council, having taken this letter into con- 

 sideration, appointed a committee, consisting of the Astronomer-Royal, 

 Professor W. H. Miller, and Professor Stokes, to consider and report 

 on the subject. The report was laid before the President and Council 

 early in the present session ; and by their direction the letter of Sir 

 George Everest and the report of the Committee are here printed.] 



Letter of Colonel Sir George Everest, C.B. 



10 Westbourne Street, Hyde Park, W. 

 April 8th, 1861. 



SIR, In a letter which I took occasion to address to you some time 

 back *, some remarks are made to which I am desirous to draw the 

 attention of the President and gentlemen of the Council of the Royal 

 Society. They are contained in page 7 of the printed copy of that 

 letter ; and as they relate to a subject of considerable importance in 

 the estimation of myself and many others, I hope no apology will be 

 necessary for the present intrusion. 



To enter into a long narrative of my reasons for the statements 

 therein made would but be to repeat what I have frequently urged 

 on other occasions ; but in this place it will perhaps be sufficient to 

 mention that, 1st, the details of such portions of the late Colonel 

 Lambton' s operations on the Great Arc of India to the south of 

 Damargida, as have been printed, are only to be found in a dispersed 

 state in the volumes of the Asiatic Researches of Calcutta ; and if 

 it is intended that these should be permanent data, they ought to be 

 collated and combined into one volume, in keeping with that relating 

 to the portion north of Damargida, which was printed by me in 1847, 

 at the expense and by the desire of the late East India Company. 



2nd. The details of all trigonometrical operations conducted by 

 Colonel Lambton are to be found in manuscript, in the copies of 

 what are denominated the General Reports of the Great Trigono- 

 metrical Survey of India, which are deposited amongst the records 

 at the India House ; and as, in transcribing, there is always a liabi- 

 lity to clerical errors, therefore a volume such as is here suggested 

 ought to be drawn up after a rigorous comparison with the manu- 

 script ; and further, wherever it may be practicable, the observations 

 * Proceedings of the R. S., Jan. 27, 1859. 



