40 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



impossible to rescind or even to modify to any great extent the 

 scope of the orders of 1875. 



It was about this time that General H. L. Thuillier, the Surveyor- 

 General, was retiring from the service in which he had done such 

 excellent work for five and forty years, and the Government took 

 the opportunity to call upon his successor, Colonel J. T. Walker, to 

 frame a scheme of re-organization of the Department. This 

 re-organization involved an amalgamation of the three branches of 

 the Survey, viz., the Great Trigonometrical, the Topographical, and 

 the Revenue. Up to that time they had been virtually separate depart- 

 ments, each with its own cadre of officers and establishments of 

 European and Native surveyors and its own superintendent. 

 Originally, when the three departments were first formed, at different 

 times, the duties which each had to perform were essentially distinct. 

 The Trigonometrical Survey was required to furnish the basis 

 on which all surveys of interior details were to rest, and the 

 framework within which they were to be filled and connected 

 together. The Topographical and the Revenue Surveys were to 

 furnish the interior details, the former having to survey by means of 

 plane-tabling the whole country, including Native States and British 

 territory with the exception of the richer British revenue-payiug 

 districts, which were to be surveyed by the latter on a larger scale. 

 In course of time, however, the duties of the three departments 

 began to overlap and intermingle. The Trigonometrical Survey 

 was approaching its completion, and for many years a large propor- 

 tion of its surveyors had been employed on topographical work. 

 The Topographical Survey, though originally intended for the 

 primary general survey of India, had had to undertake in many 

 cases detailed surveys on large scales, and the Revenue Survey had 

 in addition to its own special functions been largely employed on 

 the i opography of hill districts on a trigonometrical basis. The duties 

 of the throe departments had thus become much intermixed, while 

 at the same time the transfer of an officer from one department to 

 another was a matter of such difficulty, that, from every point of 

 view, amalgamation was most desirable. This amalgamation was 

 not carried out without a good deal of difficulty and damage 

 to individual prospects, coincident as it was with extensive 

 reductions. The amalgamated cadres of officers and surveyors were 

 at last constituted as follows : — 



1 Surveyor-General and Superintendent of the Trigonometrical 

 and Topographical Branches. 



