Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 29.djvu/33

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1860.]
Memorandum on the Survey of Kashmir. 21


range, termed for the present K. 2, proves to be 28,278 feet above the sea level, which is 122 higher than Kanchinginga, but 724 feet lower than Mount Everest. It is impossible to say therefore what the exploration of the interesting ground in the Northern Himalayas now under survey may bring forth. The project in hand of bringing all this diflicnlt and hitherto comparatively unknown tract of country under minute and accurate survey is a grand one. For the eastern portion already achieved, and represented by maps in the form of degree sheets on the quarter inch scale, manuscript speci- mens of which are laid on the table, together with one sheet No. 47 of the engraved Atlas of India, containing a portion of the same survey, Colonel Waugh has been rewarded by the Royal Geographical Society with their gold medal in 1857 ; and when the Whole of the Himalayas from British Gurhwal to the Indus is completed, it will form a noble memorial of the undaunted skill and energy of the oflicer who planned, and his subordinates who executed it.

This valuable map and beautiful specimen of Topographical Draw- ing now exhibited in manuscript, measuring 4 ft. 1 in. X 4 ft. 1 in. embraced between the meridians of 74° to 75° 40' East Longitude and the parallels of 33° 20' to 34° 44' North Latitude, has been compiled, on the scale of Izer cm inch to the mile, from the Field work of the Trigonometrical and Topographical parties, under the immediate super- intendence of Captain '1‘. G. Montgomerie, Bengal Engineers, lst Asst. G. T. Survey of India. It embraces eight thousand and one hundred square miles of country including the lovely valley and surrounding mountains of the romantic country of Kashmir, with no less than foul-.thousand six hundred and six villages, depending on three hun- dred and fifty-two trigonometrical points, and gives the computed positions of the principal towns, mountains, &c. with all the topo- graghical details, viz.: the villages, roads, passes, lakes, ridges, slopes of mountains, &c.

This is the original scale on which the survey has been projected, a reduction to the usual geographical scale of quarter inch to the mile is being likewise made and this will be incorporated into the Indian Atlas and engraved like the other sheets.

The compilation of the Map has been executed by Mr. IV. H. Scott, the able Chief Draftsman at the Surveyor General‘s Head Quarters,