Scientific Work of the Survey of India 1

Abstract

IF any apology were needed for the maintenance of the scientific work of the Indian survey it will be found in No. 9 of the series of professional papers of that department, which has been especially prepared for the use of the Survey Committee of 1905 by Lieut.—Colonel S. G. Burrard, R.E., F.R.S., the Superintendent of Trigonometrical Surveys in India. That committee was appointed for the purpose of examining into the existing system of the Indian Survey Department with the view of rendering it more efficient as a topographical institution, having regard to the increasing demand for more accurate military mapping in India, and the necessity for more perfect revision of those maps which are gradually falling out of date with the advance of public works developments. India is an unscientific country. The scientific members of the Anglo-Indian community would hardly fill a first-class carriage on any railway line, and they exist only as paid servants of the Government, living in constant fear of “reduction when any financial crisis occurs. They have to justify their existence from time to time, and Colonel Burrard is to be congratulated on the very, effective justification which he has given to the public for the maintenance of the scientific branches of his own department. It is all the more valuable for the reasons that the booklet which contains his opinions is written in clear and simple language, intelligible even to the most unscientific reader, and. that it appeals directly to a far wider circle of men of science than can be found in any one department. The various sections of the scientific work which Colonel Burrard superintends are principal triangulation, levelling, astronomical, pendulum, magnetic and tidal observations, and solar photography. He deals with them all in turn concisely, showing their relative interdependence and their practical utility.