442 



NA rURE 



\_2March 1 1, il 



For many years survey operations of various kinds 

 were carried on independently by distinct agencies. 

 Of these the most notable were the Revenue and Settle- 

 ment Departments under the Governments of the Madras 

 and Bombay Presidencies and of the several provinces of 

 the Bengal Presidency, and the Great Trigonometrical, 

 the Topographical, and the Revenue Departments under 

 the Supreme Government. The three last were amalga- 

 mated, in 1S78, into a single department, styled the 

 Survey of India, the report of which for 1883-84 we are 

 about to review. 



The survey year in India is invariably divided into the 

 two periods of the field season and the recess, which are 

 mainly governed by climatic conditions, and vary greatly 

 in different parts of the country according as the mon- 

 soons set in or terminate early or late. For the surveys 

 under the Supreme Government it is held to commence 

 on October i, when most of the survey parties are pre- 

 paring to leave their recess quarters and return to the 

 field. The annual reports are prepared for the survey 

 year, as distinct from both the calendar and the official 

 year. This one has been issued somewhat tardily, fully a 

 year after the close of the period it embraces. 



The operations were mainly geographical, topographi- 

 cal, and cadastral.' The principal triangulation having 

 been completed in 1SS2, it is now only necessary to con- 

 struct occasional minor triangulations. A chain was 

 carried along the coast of Orissa and Gaujam to establish 

 beacons for the use of the Marine Survey. Another was 

 contemplated in extension of the principal triangulation 

 terminating below Mergui and Tennasserim, at the 

 southernmost point of the British- Indian territories on 

 the Malayan Peninsula, to connect the Straits Settlements 

 and Malacca ; but it had to be held in abeyance in view 

 of financial exigencies ; thus Singapore still remains un- 

 connected geographically with India, though Bangkok, 

 the capital of Siam, has been well connected by a chain 

 of triangles carried eastwards from Tavoy. And now 

 that Upper Burmah has been annexed to the dominions of 

 the Queen-Empress, the triangulation to Singapore must 

 give way to what is more urgently required for the 

 geography of the newly-acquired provinces. 



Some idea of the variety and extent of the topographical 

 operations is afforded by the following statement of the 

 out-turn of area surveyed on different scales during the 

 year : — 



4034 squnre miles on the scale of \ inch = I mile 

 3225 ,, ,, J ,, 



7437 „ „ I „ 



12074 .. ,1 2 inches ,, 



692 ,, ,, 4 ,, 



no ,, ,, 6 ,, ,, 



in addition to which areas of S75 and 310 scjuare miles 

 were surveyed on the 4-inch scale, the former to supply 

 working plans for the Poorest Department, the latter to 

 enable village boundaries to be relaid in riverain tracts, 

 where they had been swept away by floods. The topo- 

 graphy was carried on simultaneously in widely distant 

 regions, in Biluchistan and in Burmah, in the Andaman 

 Islands of the Bay of Bengal, and in the Native States 

 of Rajputana and Cutch in Western India ; also in the 

 Guzerat and Deccan provinces of the Bombay Presi- 

 dency. It may excite surprise that these last, which are 

 among the oldest of the British possessions in India, 

 should now be under regular topographical survey, and 

 for the first time ; but as a rule more attention has been 

 paid to the topography of our later than our earlier 

 acquisitions of territory. Good maps were prepared for 

 the Punjab and Oudh as soon as possible after their 

 annexation, under instructions from Lord Dalhousie and 



Lord Canning, at a time when very inferior ones were 

 forthcoming for the North-West Provinces and Bengal : 

 and to this day some of our oldest possessions have no 

 better topography than was acquired by reconnaissance 

 on the |-inch scale early in the present century. These 

 tracts are taken in hand as the requisite agency becomes 

 available on the completion of surveys elsewhere. 



Indian topography is entirely executed by the method 

 of plane tabling on a trigonometrical basis, which, though 

 well known on the Continent, is but little practised in 

 England, and is not adopted by the Ordnance Survey. 

 When a plane table is employed, all the details of the 

 ground may be " fixed " by direction intersections laid off 

 on the table, and all instruments for direct linear measure- 

 ments may be dispensed with ; this is a great advantage 

 in surveys of tracts of mountains where chains cannot 

 be conveniently employed, and in native States where 

 they are objectionable for political reasons, raising a sus- 

 picion that lands are being measured with a view to 

 annexation ; and it has the further advantage of enabling 

 the details of the ground to be drawn on the spot, whereby 

 field-books are dispensed with and the rate of progress 

 is much accelerated. In accuracy it cannot compete with 

 the Ordnance Survey system of triangle-chaining ; but it 

 is better suited for ordinary topography in India, and 

 best of all for rapid geographical reconnaissance every- 

 where ; and it may be supplemented by chaining to any 

 extent that may be desired for cadastral and other large 

 scale surveys. 



The out-turn of the work of the Cadastral Survey 

 parties was as follows : — 



Square miles Fields 



In the North- West Provinces... 1747 comprising 1,863,000 



,, Burma 1749 ,, i,6oS,ooo 



,, Central Provinces ... 31 ,, 40,000 



,, Assam 228 ,, 148,000 



Total 



3755 



3,6s9,coo 



" The term 

 which gives a 

 relating theret' 

 book, which 

 individuals. 



"cadastral" is applied in India to a field-by-field survey 

 outline-map of all properties and statistical information 

 ; it is derived from the French word "cadastre " = rental 

 omes from " capitastrum," a register f 



Of the total area, 11 square miles were surveyed on 

 the 32-inch scale, and the remainder on the 16-inch scale ; 

 the average areas of the fields ranged from '12 to '98 of 

 an acre in different districts, the general average of all 

 being two-thirds of an acre. 



Cadastral Survey operations have hitherto been mainly 

 carried on conjointly by the Survey and by the Settle- 

 ment Departments, with the double object of furnishing 

 correct maps of all properties, and records of the rights 

 of every individual proprietor and tenant. Such maps 

 and records are obviously of enormous value in the ad- 

 ministration of the country ; but they are necessarily 

 costly, and therefore it has long been, and is still, a moot 

 point whether they are absolutely necessary. Records of 

 rights and liabilities to taxation were constructed at each 

 of the successive periodic settlements of revenue under 

 the Asiatic Governments anterior to the British, but no 

 maps were made. During our first settlements no 

 attempt was made to obtain accurate maps ; some at- 

 tempt was made to ascertain the areas of the fields with 

 fair approxii'nation by measures of lengths and breadths 

 with poles and ropes of a length regulated by that of the 

 forearm of the measurer, obviously a very variable and 

 indifferent standard unit ; and from these measures rude 

 outline sketches were constructed which were serviceable 

 as furnishing a graphical index to the record of rights of 

 each village, but of course were not true maps showing 

 all boundaries of property correctly. In the modern 

 Revenue and Settlement Survey of the Bombay Presi- 

 dency accurate map construction was deliberately set 

 aside, lest it might intei-fere with the classifications of soils 

 and the investigations of tenures and rights which were 

 deemed of greater importance. In the Madras Presi- 

 dency its advantages were recognised, and good maps 

 were made from the first, but the results were costly. In 

 Northern India there has been a continuous endeavour 



