IN THE BEGINNING 5 



they form no part of the present modest story, which 

 relates to some of the things that I myself learned 

 about the seas of India in certain happy days when I 

 was an officer in the Indian Marine Survey ship 

 Investigator, But as all our knowledge, however 

 local and esoteric, and all our methods of using it and 

 increasing it, are but the outcome of the thought taken 

 and the pains endured by our countless predecessors, 

 it will not be amiss if, by way of introduction, I say 

 a few words, not so much of those predecessors in the 

 whole of this particular field, as of the local steps 

 which — begun and continued by some of them — have, 

 for the present, culminated in the local observations 

 of the Investigator, some of which are herein described. 



The Marine Survey of India began its existence 

 under Commander Dundas Taylor in the year 1874. 

 This was at the time when the discoveries of H.M.S. 

 Challenger were opening out a new world to Science, 

 and new prospects to marine surveyors. The nev/ 

 Survey Department was keenly alive to its respon- 

 sibilities ; but, unhappily, its means of meeting them 

 were at first very imperfect, and it was not until the 

 year 1881, when the Investigator was launched, that 

 the newly-created department was able, in a small 

 and restricted way, of course, to follow the signal 

 given, with such lasting effect, by the Challenger. 

 Before the advent of the Investigator, the work of the 



