of a Base Line on the Coast of Coromandel. 103 
easily. At the placing of every second rod, which was painted 
white to distinguish it from the other, I registered its number 
myself in a book, ruled purposely with columns, each column 
containing ten numbers : my writer did the same in another 
book : besides which, an attendant, who was furnished with 
ten small sticks, gave the Tindal, who also assisted in keeping 
the reckoning, one of them every time the white rod was laid 
down ; and each man made his separate report to me every 
tenth number. By these precautions, almost all possibility of 
a mis-reckoning .was prevented ; and we accordingly found 
no disagreement throughout. The whole distance was after- 
wards re-measured, and gave correctly the same number of 
rods. 
At the conclusion of each several measurement, that I might 
know exactly where to resume it, a stake, three or four 
feet long, was driven into the ground, till its head became 
even with the surface. On the top of this stake the but of the 
last rod was laid ; and a line drawn across it with a pointed 
instrument, shewed precisely where to re-commence the work. 
The heads of these stakes served likewise as fixed marks on 
which, at any time, to place the five smaller flags, or the in- 
strument for taking the requisite angles. 
The sum of the six measured lines amounted, by the first 
trial, to seven hundred double rods , twenty feet six inches and a 
half ; and by the second, to seven hundred double rods, twenty- 
two feet eleven inches and a half ; their difference being two 
feet, four inches and a half, by which the second measurement 
exceeded the first. The shortest of these measures is made 
use of, as operations of this nature have always a tendency to 
excess, rather than deficiency. 
