46 GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



surmount and which necessitated the stoppage of the operations. 

 A large blank in the triangulation thus remained to be filled in. 

 The Madras Coast Series (under the temporary direction of Captain 

 T. T. Carter, in place of Colonel Branfill) started from Southern 

 Tanjore and worked northwards, so as eventually to effect a junction 

 with the Madras Longitudinal Series at its eastern extremity. The 

 country was unfavourable for triangulation, being flat, with innu- 

 merable groves of valuable trees ; the villages were numerous, and 

 each covered much ground, and owing to the want of roads locomotion 

 was by no means easy. The famine, too, which was raging in 

 Southern India during the season, made the question of supplies 

 a difficulty, prices being excessively high, and the villagers occa- 

 sionally disinclined to supply food at any price. The country 

 traversed by the party skirts the coast of South Tanjore for some 

 fifty miles along the north-western shore of Palk straits (the Sinus 

 Argaricus of Ptolemy), and lies between the deltas of the Vaigai 

 and the Cauvery rivers. 



In the following season the triangulation was carried by Colonel 

 Branfill across the paddy swamps of the Cauvery delta into the 

 valley of the Coleroon. The lofty tower of the Provincial College 

 at Kumba Jvonam afforded an excellent station, which greatly 

 facilitated the passage of the delta. An approximate connexion 

 with the levels of the South of India Railway was effected, and 

 seven of Colonel Lambton's old stations were identified and con- 

 An interesting note on the physiography of the Cauvery 

 delta, together with a list of the proper names of stations and places 

 with root meanings and notes on their characteristics, was compiled 

 by Colonel Branfill during the season and published by the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal. 



Next season (that of 1878-9) saw the party working across the 

 alluvial fiats of the Coleroon. Yellar, and South Pennar rivers, and 

 it was not till the hillock and rock-studded plain of the Carnatic 

 was reached that the ground became favourable for triangulation. 

 The great Siva temple of Gangaikondapuram, in the north-east 

 corner of the Trichinopoly district, was visited and described by 

 Colonel Branfill, and his paper thereon was also published in the 

 journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



The operations of this party were brought to a conclusion in the 

 year 1879-SO by the measurements of three polygons between 

 Pondicherry and Madras. Secondary chains of triangles were 

 carried from the main chain to fix the positions of the lighthouses 



