2l) INDIAN MARINE SURVEYS. 



defined. The party were then conveyed to Beyt harbour, in Baroda 

 State, where the fixing of the position of the new lighthouse, in 

 process of building, and a plan of the harbour and entrance 

 channels were desired. This survey was duly completed on the 

 4-inch scale. 



No. 2 Boat party, under Lieutenant "W. H. Coombs, undertook 

 surveys of the entrance to the Chittagong river, and of Akyab, the 

 latter being on the scale of 3 inches to the mile and embracing 

 an area of 60 square miles. Operations were much delayed by 

 the deplorable condition of the steam cutter, which broke down 

 continually, and which Lieutenant Coombs was obliged to work at a 

 dangerous amount of pressure to enable him to get even so moderate 

 a speed of three knots an hour. 



The total work during the season showed an exceedingly good 

 record, the " Investigator" and the two boat parties having been all 

 working at their full strength. Exclusive of the Meghna recon- 

 naissance, 320 square miles of soundings had been taken, and 32 

 square miles of topography in detail, 250 coast line iu linear 

 miles, and 60 deep-sea soundings made. The " Investigator " was 

 reported by Lieutenant Channer to. be admirably adapted for 

 the work, being very handy and light in running soundings from 

 25 to 100 fathoms. 



At the beginning of the season, 1883-84, Commander Dawson 

 resumed charge, and the first piece of work undertaken w r as 

 the survey of Cochin on the 8-inch scale, which some four years 

 previously had been postponed owing to the death of Lieutenant 

 Morris Chapman, late I.N. The Cochin river entrance, the bar, 

 and backwater were all sounded, the area amounting to 12]- square 

 miles, ami the positions of the bar buoys, as previously laid down, 

 were found to be considerably in error. The vessel then proceeded, 

 via Colombo, to the coast of Burma, and on its way took a line of 

 deep-sea soundings across the Bay of Bengal from Dondra head, 

 the southernmost point of Ceylon, to the vicinity of Cheduba island. 

 At the mouth of the Sandoway river Lieutenant Channer w r as left 

 for the purpose of surveying the approaches to Tongoup and 

 Sandoway. while Commander Dawson went on to the entrance 

 of the Rangoon river, where numerous complaints had been received 

 as to the extension of the banks, silting of channels, and general 

 alterations in the hydrography of the Rangoon river. This; survey 

 proved to be lengthy and difficult, and several new channels and 



