334 Progress of Indian Maritime Surveys. [Aucf. 



The progress of the maritime surveys on the western side of the 

 peninsula of India, has not been less effectual in defining the out- 

 line and veal bearing of the coasts, and the position of the islands, 

 rocks, and sand-banks, between the Indus and the African shore, in- 

 cluding the two inland seas of Persia and Arabia. We have not the 

 rr.eans of stating the periods when each tract of this wide space was 

 surveyed, or of giving the names of the officers employed upon the 

 work ; but we learn that a series of engraved charts, illustrative of a 

 considerable part of the shore of Persia, has been lately received from 

 the Court of Directors in England, and we know that a surveying esta- 

 blishment is maintained for those seas, quite independently of that under 

 the Supreme Government at the head of which Capt. Ross is now placed. 



That establishment, we may be assured, has not been idle, but it is 

 the less necessary for us to enquire what may have been the result of its 

 official labours, because we learn that a branch of the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society has already been formed at Bombay, so that we may look 

 forward to receive accurate reports of the progress making there in every 

 branch of this science, either in separate publications for embodying the 

 proceedings of the Branch Society, or in the communications and papers 

 it will contribute to the pages of the parent Society in England. 



The example of this diligence, ought not to be lost upon us ; and 

 although the proceedings of our Asiatic Society, and several articles 

 which this publication, or its predecessor, has been the means of 

 laying before the world, sufficiently shew, that the interest and 

 curiosity already directed to this field of science needs little further 

 stimulus or excitement, yet we confess, that we think it might be ad vise- 

 able for the Asiatic Society to form a separate committee of its mem- 

 bers into a Geographical Class, whose labours should be specially direct- 

 ed into this channel, as is the case with the Physical Class already 

 formed, and through whom correspondence might be opened with the 

 Royal Geographical Society in England, and with the Branch Society 

 more recently established at Bombay. This object is well worthy of 

 the attention of those members of the Society who have devoted them- 

 selves to Geography, and who as navigators, travellers, and professional 

 surveyors, may have already contributed, or may have the means of 

 contributing to the stock of information already accumulated in this line. 

 Their experience and talents cannot be more usefully employed than 

 in comparing, combining, and publishing in a mature and digested form 

 the materials which, if such a Committee of the Asiatic Society were in 

 existence, would, there can be no doubt, be offered in abundance from 

 many quarters. 



