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VI. 



GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 



There is no department of the Indian Surveys in which more 

 progress has been made during the last fifteen years than in the 

 exploration and gradual opening up of the regions adjoining the 

 periphery of British India. The admirable plan of training natives 

 for surveying -wild and unsettled countries, where a British officer 

 would have but little chance of escaping molestation, has been 

 greatly developed and crowned with the most complete success, while 

 the hostilities in which we have unfortunately been involved with 

 Afghanistan, Burma, and other powers have nevertheless been 

 accompanied with a great development in our topographical, 

 scientific, and general knowledge of these important countries. 

 Finally, our political negotiations with Russia over the question of 

 the northern frontier of Afghanistan, have resulted in a substantial 

 enlargement of our stores of information respecting that region. 

 Although a complete account of the Afghan Boundary Commission, 

 and the multifarious inquiries and researches pursued in connexion 

 therewith, has yet to be written, nevertheless, a great many 

 scattered reports, scientific papers, and other contributions to the 

 literature of the day have been published by the officers who took 

 part in it. The summary of results given in the following pages 

 will show that the information amassed by the British and Native 

 members of the Commission probably ranks as the most important 

 data ever collected respecting the Indian trans-frontier regions. 



The extension of our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan, 

 and the rectification of the hurried surveys which had been made 

 d uring the first Afghan war but had never been properly combined 

 together, had long been desiderata of great importance. So long, 

 however, as it was considered the safest and best policy to prevent 

 any attempt being made to survey beyond the British frontier, in 

 order to avoid risk of collision with the independent tribes beyond, 

 it was impossible for the survey officers to do more than fix all the 

 most prominent points on the hill ranges beyond, which were visible 

 from within the frontier, and to fill up the details of the country 

 from native information or by the secret agency of native explorers. 



