JULY — SEPT. 1857.] for India. 185 
the cubit is undefined, and areas of the same denomination^ are de- 
rived from different multiples of Rod or Rope. Of the more de- 
finite terms, the Beega prevails in Bengal and the North-West 
Provinces. In Bengal it is 1,600 square yards, and in the North- 
West Provinces it is 3,025 square yards. In the Bombay Presi- 
dency it is not authoritatively defined, but averages about \ of 
an acre. The term is qu'te unknown in the Madras Presidency, 
where the authorised measure is the Cav:nie of 57,600 square feet, 
or 1'3223 acre; there are also other local land measures, defined, 
but presenting great difi'erences one from the other ; as the chain 
of 3-64 acres, thh»seed-cottah of I "62 acres, the vaylie of 6*6 acres, 
and the buUah of 3 ^2 acres. 
The greater portion of the North-West Provinces of India 
has been surveyed by Government Officers. The area of each vil- 
lage (or rather parish, to use an English term) is given in Impe- 
rial acres, but the areas of the ^elds appertaining to each village, are 
given in local beegas. The introduction of the acre therefore was 
only partial. In the Surveys lately made in the Bombay Presiden- 
cy, the area of each field is recorded in acres, not only in the Eng- 
lish, but in the vernacular accounts, and the term is well known 
and understood among the people. In the Madras Presidency, the 
districts of Bellary and Cuddapah were measured field by field (as 
far as the land was cultivable) in acres, in 1803, and Kurnool in 
the same way in 1842. In Salem, the records of field measure- 
ments made about 1800, are entered both in the Native terms and 
their equivalents in acres, and the acre is by far the best known. 
Under the above circumstances, the introduction of the Im- 
perial acre seems not only most desirable, but quite feasible. 
Where lands have already been accurately measured, and contents 
recorded in Native terms, those terms might be converted into acres ; 
and in the progress of the Surveys now going on, all measurements 
might be at once in acres. This plan has already been successful- 
ly adopted in the present re-survey of the Southern districts of Ma- 
dras, and the acre is superseding the caivnie. 
With regard to the subdivisions of the acre they have hither- 
to in the Madras Presidency been in 40ths (or Goontas), and 
t 
