1830.] 
Of the late Col. Lambton. 
81 
60748, the latter differing considerably from the. former result. This series was 
afterwards continued to the southward as far as Punnae, near Cape Comorin •, a base 
of verification of 30507,5 feet, being measured near Tinevelly, in February 1809. 
The arc now extended from Punnae to Dodagontah, having an amplitude of 4° 50'. 
This arc gave the value of the meridional degree, in latitude 10° 34' as 60496 fa- 
thoms. But observations having been made also at Paugur and Bonasundrum, north 
of Dodagontah, the length seemed to be 60462 and 60469, for latitudes 1 1° 4' and 
11 ° 8'. This difference led to the suspicion of derangement of the plummet by 
some secret influence at Dodagontah, and, the meridional arc being in 1811 con- 
tinued north from Paugur to Gootee, where a new base was measured ; the length 
was now 6° 56', and the degree for the middle point or latitude, 11° 38' — 60480 
fathoms 1 . In 1815 the series was still further prolonged to Daumergidda, and a 
base of 30806,2 measured near Beder, for the check and verification of the operations, 
it had now become the largest arc ever measured in any country, having an amplitude 
of y° 53' 45" 2 . The value of the degree in latitude 13° 6' appeared to be 60480, 
and the perpendicular degree is deduced by determining the ellipticity or figure of 
the earth, which a comparison of the measurements in India, and in England, France 
and Sweden, would give. This is found to be •g-§ 4 , from which, as a datum with the 
mean dimensions of the spheroid, the lengths of the degree of latitude, ot the per- 
pendicular to the meridian, and of longitude, from 0 to 30° are calculated. These 
are given in the 13th volume of the Asiatic Researches, and with them a very full 
table of geographical positions computed from them. 
It must not be supposed that from 1802 to 1815, Major Lambton was occupied 
solely with these meridional measurements. They were in fact but a small part of 
his labours. He had covered the peninsula as high as 15°, with a net-work of 
triangles. “ The whole of the peninsula is now completed from Goa on the west, 
to Mausilapataw on the east, with all the interior country from Cape Comorin to 
the southern boundaries of the Nizam’s and Marhatta’s territories. In that great 
extent of country, every object that could be of use in geography or in facilitating 
the detailed surveys of the provinces, has been laid down with pi’ecision. All the 
great rivers sketched in in a general manner, and all the great ranges of moun- 
tains slightly depicted 3 .” In fact, it is to Colonel Lambton we owe all that we know 
of precision in the geography of the south of India, and if the northern parts or the 
Bengal presidency can furnish no map of equal accuracy, it is because we have 
had no Lambton. Or perhaps it would be more just to say, because we have had 
no patrons like those which it was Colonel Lambton’s good fortune to meet with ; 
for we have the authority of the poet to say, that 
Sint Mcecenates non deerunt Mar ones. 
The published accounts of Colonel Lambton’s operations conclude with the Beder 
base and the above arc of 9° 53'. But it is known, that in 1822 he had extended 
the arc to near Ellichpoor, a little north of the parallel of 24°, thus completing 
an arc of nearly 16°. And a base of verification of 37914, was measured near 
Takulkhera. The other particulars, however, of this section ot the arc arc not 
known. From his private letters it appears, that he looked forward to carrying 
on the work to the banks of the Jumna, which he supposed his meridian would inter- 
sect near Agra. But Col. Lambton was no longer a young man, and twenty years 
of such work as he had been engaged in could not have improved liis constitution. 
In 1810 he appears to Lave contracted an asthmatic disorder, from which he had lat- 
terly sulfered much, and which was probably aggravated by the remedies which 
he was obliged to have recourse to, to allay the distress and exhaustion occa- 
sioned by its attacks. He was not fated to complete the extensive plan lie had 
sketched-, for in January 1823, a severe attack of his disorder put an end to his la- 
bours and his life together. He died at Hingin Ghat, 26th January, on the road 
from Hydrabad to Nagpoor, whither he was proceeding at the time. His first as- 
sistant, Captain Everest, as well as the medical officer attached to the survey, (the 
1 The discrepancies found in comparing consecutive decrees in all the great surveys 
of England, France and India, has been attributed either to irregularities ot the 
earth’s figure or to disturbances of the plummet. Were this the place to dilate on the 
subject, vve are prepared to show that a very large share ot these discrepancies is due to 
unavoidable errors of observation, and to nothing else. 
2 The French arc, from Barcelona to Dunkirk, was only 9° 40 . It lias been since 
prolonged to Fornientera, making an extent of upwards °t 12°, 
3 As, Res. vol, xiii.p, 7, 
