12 
IAT CTR 
| NOVEMBER 1, 1906 
their guidance the general problems with which they 
have to deal. In order to control the work of their 
scientific experts, and to direct it on utilitarian and 
practical lines, they have found out that it is desirable 
to obtain the opinion of their scientific officers as a 
whole, and of a final independent scientific authority, 
viz., the Royal Society. 
secures the cooperation of its whole body of scientific 
officers, and also the execution of the work of re- 
search in the most efficient and economical manner, 
and on the practical lines which it desires. Re- 
search is, in fact, directed to practical problems that 
require early solution, and is not wasted on inquiries 
which are only of importance from the theoretical 
stindpoint. 
The report is full of interest. It shows the wide 
range of problems with which the departments dealt 
in the year rg04—5, and the results of their work. 
A series of experiments was carried out during the 
year at the Cawnpore experimental farm similar to 
those at Rothamsted. It was, for instance, ascer- 
tained that of the 43-3 inches of rain which fell during 
the monsoon period of 1904, 5 inches were required 
to make up the evaporation during the previous dry 
period; about 9 inches were taken up by evaporation 
during the monsoon, 4 inches ran off the surface 
during a very heavy fall in September, and the re- 
mainder, 25-7 inches, percolated. The records also 
established that the amount of percolation is pro- 
portionate to the rainfall, and that the quantity of 
water lost by evaporation from the soil is greater 
during the four months of the monsoon than during 
the eight months of the dry season. These results 
are in general accordance with the Rothamsted 
records, and hence probably apply to the whole of the 
plain of northern India. 
The Geological Department issued during the year 
the results of a special investigation into the 
Dalhousie earthquake of April 4, 1905. It was one 
of the most destructive earthquakes which has visited 
India for many years. At least 20,000 human beings 
are estimated to have perished. The shock was 
sensibly appreciable over an area of 1,625,000 square 
miles. The main focus was at a depth of from 
eighteen to thirty miles below the surface in the 
Kangra district. The larger waves reached Bombay 
and Calcutta at almost exactly the same instant. As 
both places are at the same distance from Kangra, 
the rate of transmission in both directions was the 
same, viz. 1.98 miles per second. The seismograph 
records of Kodaikanal indicated a speed of 1-95 miles 
per second, and the Japanese seismographs 2.05 miles. 
The results hence apparently indicate that the earth- 
quake waves travelled out to the east and south at a 
rate of almost exactly two miles per second. 
The report of the Survey Department is especially 
interesting. The following extract gives a very brief 
account of the survey work carried out in Thibet 
during and after the expedition. ‘ Triangulation was 
executed connecting Lhasa with India, and fixing all 
prominent peaks; the country was surveyed and 
charted on a scale of 4 inches to the mile; the valley 
of the Brahmaputra was surveyed from Shigatze to 
its source; the Manasarowar lake region was sur- 
veyed, as also the source of the Gartok branch of 
the Indus and the Thibetan source of the Sutlej. 
The work was carried out in the face of many diffi- 
culties in a country with an average elevation of 
16,000 feet and a climate of Arctic severity.’’ One 
of the interesting results of the expedition was to 
establish that Everest is, so far as is yet indicated by 
exact measurement, the highest peak in the Hima- 
layas. Sir Richard Strachey, one of the greatest 
authorities on Himalayan geography, suggested many 
NO. 1931, VOL. 75] 
In this way the Government’ 
| years ago the possibility of peaks exceeding 30,000 
feet awaiting discovery. All recent investigation 
appears to establish that it is extremely improbable 
that there is any peak higher than Everest. It was 
also ascertained during the Thibetan survey that 
neither in Nepal nor Thibet is Mount Everest known 
to the inhabitants by any native name. 
The pendulum operations of the Survey of India 
are furnishing results of great interest. By means 
of pendulum observations the force of gravity can be 
ascertained at any place, and as conducted by the 
survey with the greatest care and delicacy, it can be 
obtained with a probable error of less than 1 part 
in 100,000 of its actual value. The earliest observ- 
ations of this class in India were carried out by 
Major Basevi upwards of thirty years ago in the 
western Himalayas. The results of his observ- 
ations indicated that the force of gravity on 
the lower Himalayas was considerably less than its 
value as deduced by geodesists from theory. The 
deficiency in one case, that of Moré, at an elevation 
of 15,400 feet, was about 1/2000th part of its theo- 
retical value, and equivalent to the reduction of what 
may be termed the effective level above the sea of 
Moré to only 7oo feet. It was hence inferred that 
this deficiency was due to an actual deficiency of 
matter below, and hence generally that the excess of 
matter forming the Himalayas is probably, as a 
whole, compensated by a deficiency of matter in the 
interior of the earth beneath the mountain mass. 
Major Lenox Conyngham recently carried out a 
lengthened series of pendulum observations. The 
chief results of his work are that there is a deficiency 
of gravity (that is, the actual is less than the theo- 
retical value) along and over the outer ranges of 
the Himalayas. The compensation hitherto assumed 
to exist as a result of Basevi’s measurements is 
shown by Conyngham’s observations to be only 
partial and not complete. Further south, in the 
Indo-Gangetic plain, the deficiency disappears and is 
replaced by an excess. Probably when sufficient data 
are available it may be possible to formulate a theory 
of Himalayan structure. 
Much valuable work was done during the year in 
the field of agricultural botany. Amongst the sub- 
jects of inquiry was that of the possible deterioration 
of the jute plant in Bengal. It was ascertained that 
there is not only no proof of any deterioration, but 
strong evidence that the plant is now precisely as it 
was a century and a half ago. The best kinds now, 
as then, if cultivated liberally, yield excellent crops, 
and their fibre, if properly extracted, is also excellent. 
Fraudulent watering in the preparation of the fibre is 
resorted to with the object of fictitiously increasing 
its weight for sale. The deterioration of the fibre 
(not the plant) is due to the fact that the demand 
for good jute exceeds the supply, and hence that 
inferior fibre is readily purchased. 
As showing the value of the cooperation of the 
Board of Scientific Advice and the advisory committee 
of the Royal Society, it is sufficient to mention that 
they both suggested the necessity for increase of 
officers in the Geological Department in order to carry 
out the survey of the geology and mineralogy of 
Burma. The Government of India accepted the sug- 
gestion, and recently sanctioned the addition of four 
officers to the strength of that department. 
The Board is, as shown by the report, doing 
valuable service in India by coordinating and pro- 
moting scientific work, and it is much to be wished 
that the English Government would adopt some 
similar plan, and revise the scheme of operations of 
its chief observatories at Greenwich, Kew, and South 
Kensington. 
