REVENUE SURVEYS. 115 



the Ooriyas or men of the country to act as amins. Tho operations 

 were in charge of Mr. R. B. Smart, an officer of considerable 

 experience. In 1878-79, however, the Bengal Board of Revenue, 

 on account of the high cost of the operations, advocated a new 

 system, under which a large portion of the work hitherto performed 

 by the professional party Avould be undertaken in future by the 

 Settlement Department. A meeting of civil and survey officers 

 consequently assembled at Cuttack in February 1879, and after 

 consideration a still larger transfer of duties to the Settlement 

 Department than at first contemplated was decided upon, it being 

 arranged that for the remaining villages of the Khurdah estate 

 the professional party should execute a traverse survey of the 

 village boundaries and prepare skeleton maps of villages. These 

 skeleton maps were to be made over to the Settlement Department 

 to enable them to carry out all interior measurements. But any 

 hills falling within the villages were to be surveyed by the 

 professional party on the 4-inch scale. The chief tract remaining 

 for survey in 1879-80 — the mats or forest lands of Banpur— was 

 known to be at all times unhealthy, and during that season everyone 

 who entered the jungles was sooner or later struck down with fever. 

 These mats had never before been demarcated, and the inhabitants 

 of the scattered hamlets had hitherto cultivated the open patches 

 of land without let or hindrance, escaping all taxation. It was not 

 surprising, therefore, that they looked upon the survey as an 

 innovation, and as far as possible avoided giving help, but thanks 

 to the efforts of the Collector all difficulties as to supplies, &c. were 

 surmounted. The whole of the Khurdah estate was completed during 

 the season of 1879-80, the general maps on the 4-inch scale being 

 65 in number, of which 48 were surveyed by the Department and 

 19 by the Settlement Department. 



The 8th or "Western Soane Irrigation party was engaged in 

 1876-77 on cadastral surveys in the Shahabad district. It was 

 supposed that the entire irrigable area of the district would be 

 surveyed, but during October 1877 the programme was changed, 

 and the area in Shahabad was greatly reduced. Major Sconce was 

 in charge of the party as well as of a section left to complete the 

 cadastral survey of Patna district, and under his general supervision 

 the work in both districts was completed. 



Major S. H. Cowan, who had assisted Major Sconce, was deputed 

 during the following season (1878-79) to raise a small party for 

 H 2 



