438 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys, 



[April 



ing accidentally become acquainted with the circumstance, and confi- 

 dent of his own powers, made interest that these valuable instruments 

 should be rescued from the auctioneer, and turned to some national ac- 

 count. The Earl of Mornington, the governor-general, on the final re- 

 duction of Mysore in 1799, being then at Madras, concurring with his 

 brother in the advantageous opportunity thus presented for carrying 

 on an extensive survey of the Mysore dominions, further nominated 

 Captain Mackenzie to the topographical details, while the statistics 

 were assigned to Dr. Buchanan. 



Events had thus fortunately concurred to the furtherance of the de- 

 sign proposed by Lieut. Lambton, and humble as this tribute may ap- 

 pear, it is no less just than due to ascribe the first encouragement of 

 the measurement of the largest meridional arc that has ever yet been 

 undertaken throughout the world to his grace the Duke of Wellington. 

 Every one who has experienced the difficulty of maturing any useful 

 project, can better appreciate the patience and foresight which could 

 have led his Grace to recommend Lieut. Lanr.bton's novel scheme to 

 the government of India, prepossessed, as it had hitherto always been, 

 in favour of the sufficient accuracy of mere geographical and route 

 surveys. 



At his Grace's suggestion to Lord Mornington, Mr. Petrie and Lord 

 Clive, then governor of Madras, the instruments were purchased on 

 account of government, and in furtherance of this project, a large 

 theodolite similarly constructed to that used by General Roy, as also an 

 altitude and azimuth circle for secondary triangles were made in Eng- 

 land by Gary, and by the year 1801 all the requisite apparatus was at 

 Lieutenant Lambton's disposal.* 



In the year 1800 a plan of the intended operations was submitted to 

 the government of Fort St. George, and with their sanction published 

 in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches. It was here proposed 

 to join the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel by a series of triangles, 

 which might be extended on the south to the extremity of the penin- 

 sula, and to an indefinite distance on the north, on a plan similar to 

 that which had lately been adopted in France and England. In the 

 month of October of that year, a base line was measured near Banga- 

 lore, and the first experiments were made with the zenith sector at 

 Dodagoontah. In the early part of 1802 a base line was measured near 

 Madras, and in the mean time a new chain had been received from 



* Much of the excellence of these operations has been attributed to the skill of the ar- 

 tists Ramsden and Gary in the apparatus emploj-ed, and it is not out of place therefore to 

 bring such hii^h testimonj^ before the public iu the Society's Memoirs. 



