INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 35 



mouth extending further seaward, and becoming more dangerous 

 to shipping. It was also surveyed by Lieutenant Bthersey prior 

 to 1845, and though a very creditable piece of work, considering 

 the means at his disposal and the fierce tidal currents, the chart is 

 now quite unreliable. The work would take three years. 



The Bombay coast, from latitude 20° N. as far as Bombay, has 

 been very slightly delineated, and the whole stretch is rocky and 

 dangerous, but there is no immediate call for a survey, though 

 the projecting reef near Danu, specified in the old Indian Navy 

 Officers' Memorandum of 1862, requires examination, and as 

 local trade increases there will be a demand for reliable charts 

 of the small ports of call along it, while a harbour of refuge 

 is especially needed somewhere midway between Danu and 

 Bombay. A boat party could be employed here with advantage 

 for four years, or it would take the " Investigator " herself about 

 two years. 



At the northern end of the Kanara coast there are about 60 miles 

 of very rocky coast, which though well surveyed by Lieutenant 

 A. D. Taylor in 1856, are not charted so as to meet present require- 

 ments. There is not sufficient protection here for a boat party, and 

 the scale, to be adequate, should be two inches, which would occupy 

 the " Investigator " two seasons. A detailed survey will soon be 

 required from the Bnciam rocks to Cape Comorin, a rocky strip of 

 the Travail core coast some 25 miles in length. On the Tinnevelli 

 coast the Manapand shoals require proper delineation, and with the 

 above-mentioned bit of Travancore coast would not take more than 

 a single season. 



The Laccadive Archipelago was well plotted in 1844-48 by 

 Captain Selby and Lieutenant A. D. Taylor, but the islands have 

 never been properly placed in longitude. Several of the group are 

 three to four miles out of position and should be rectified by chrono- 

 metric distances. This would take two months. 



On the eastern coast of India the large bay north of the Paumben 

 Pass called Palk Straits is far from complete, the soundings being 

 thick only in shore, while the banks which extend from Point 

 Calimere to the north point of Ceylon are of sand and liable to 

 change. In the event of the deepening of the Paumben Pass, an 

 accurate survey of the banks will be required with the object of 

 finding the best position for light-ships, buoys, &c. The small 

 ports of Karikal, Cuddalore, Porto Novo, and Pondicherry require to 

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