222 HEADQUARTERS OF SURVEY DEPARTMENT. 



Survey Office under one Eegistrar, and form three sub-offices, the Sur- 

 veyor-General's Office, the Eeveuue Branch, and the Topographical 

 Branch Offices, each under the immediate supervision of its own 

 head clerk. The work of the Drawing Office divides itself so dis- 

 tinctly into two classes, the geographical drawing and that connected 

 with large scale revenue maps, that it was found advisable to keep 

 up two sections of the office for the two classes of work, though 

 for administrative work the clerical staff were all amalgamated into 

 one list under one Assistant Surveyor-General. The new building 

 for the accommodation of the photographic and lithographic offices 

 was not completed till 1889 and was finally taken into occupation 

 at the end of September in that year. These offices which had been 

 for many years scattered between three houses, of which one was 

 at some distance from the others, were thus concentrated under one 

 roof, and this concentration, together with the introduction of 

 steam printing machines, enables them to work with far greater 

 economy and efficiency than was possible previously. 



A large and important part of the work of the Surveyor-General's 

 Office consists in compiling urgent maps and preparing pressing 

 data for other departments. With a view to prevent interruption 

 of work and to ensure a more perfect scrutiny of the geographical 

 compilations and publications, a special examining branch was 

 organised iu 1877-78, and located in a separate part of the Surveyor- 

 General's Office. 



The engraving branch have to cope with two classes of work, 

 viz.: — (1 ) tin' sheets of the Indian Atlas on the quarter-inch scale, 

 and (2) provincial and other compilations and maps of India on 

 smaller scales than the atlas. The increasing amount of labour 

 thrown on the branch made it necessary after a time for the data 

 engraved on the copper to be confined to the results of actual 

 survey, all questionable details being left blank or drawn on the 

 plate by hair lines. The engraving branch contains a large 

 number of natives who have been trained by Mr. Coard, the late 

 superintendent, and his assistants to do the more mechanical part 

 of the work very satisfactorily. But strange to say, the natives do 

 not appear to possess the artistic skill requisite for hill etching, 

 though at first sight it was imagined that this was precisely the 

 class of work at which they might be expected to excel, and so 

 the hill engraving has had to be assigned almost entirely to 

 Europeans. 



