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    THE GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY OP INDIA.*

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    words of Theocbittts in preference ; . to--these-of the editor of Bell ' s Life , or even Mr . Woo © , " a great struggle arose to them . For two hours and a quarter this struggle lasted * Sayees being felled to the earth six times during that period , Heenan receiving in return a succession of blows in the face which , at the last round , Jeft him all but blind . Six times , then , has our Tom been struck down by blows such as a butcher inflicts upon a bullock in the slaughter-house . Before many rounds are over he has lost the use of-his right hand ; and at length , when he escapes from the grasp of his giant antagonist trying to strangle him against the ropes , he skips to his feet , smiles to his friends , and walks off briskly to meet the train as if nothing had happened . .

    Next day , the world resounds with the fame of the valiant Toai Sayeks . Next day , the guardian of England ' s pugilistic honour walks down to the office of Bell ' s Life , exhibiting scarcelyany traces of " punishment , " his progress through the streets being like that of a victor of antiquity entering the Capitol laden with the spoils of conquered nations . And now the Homter of the Times , having done his three columns of prose epic , the great oracle himself speaks as an oracle should speak , m doublpleaded bourgeois , and says , relative to warlike contention m generalthat at the Battle of Farnbofough Sayees and Heenan

    , exhibited " qualities which make nations and individuals great . Then follows a supplementary epic from Homeb , correcting former Inaccuracies and giving the latest particulars . Letters , which , on ordinary occasions , would have been addressed to Bell ' s Life ,. find their way to Printing-house Square , and are decreed a prominent place in the leading journal . Distant Liverpool begins to throb with sympathetic enthusiasm , and sends Ton a present of eighty guineas . The City of London follows suit , and Toar is invited to receive the freedom of the Stock Exchange and a purse of a hundred

    sovereigns . Tpai rolls into the Gity in a brougham , is cheered all slung- his course , and no sooner does he appear on 'Change than business in stocks , bonds , shares , and per cents ., immediately comes to a standstill . . The' brokers , with Sir Eobekt Caedek the virtuous at their head , leave their desks and . counters and throng round Toil , who , standing on . a table in their midst , is so overcome by his feelings , that he can only nod his thanks . Meantime , some tons of newspapers . have been despatched to carry the news of Tom's exploits to the end of the earth . The Home Seceetaey has been asked in the Imperial House of

    Parliament to give official information of the hero ' s doings , putting to the bl ush the Statesman and poet , who is busying himself with his papers and pretending not to hear . Classical idlers in the Council Office and elsewhere are hunting through Theockitus for parallels , while the public in general are rushing to buy the SaYjeks ' handkerchief , issued by Tom himself , at a guinea apiece . The latest intelligence is that Tom ' s friends and admirers are building him a house and raising the funds to buy him an annuity . Shall we stop short here ? Wellington made his triumphal entry , was presented with the freedom of the city , with the house , and with an annuity . But he was also set up in effigy at the Royal Exchange ( ne » r where Tom Sayers was set upon the table ) , and on the top of the arch at Hyde Park Corner . We have no \ s \ i \ x . to see our champion taking

    equestrian exercise on the top of an arch , or sitting in the rain with his hat off ; but still we must ask , shall lie not have a statue ? We do not . see how this honour can be refused to him . He has fought a battle which , for the fiei'ceness of the contention , and the odds against which he had to contend , is universally acknowledged to be without parallel in history ; he has exhibited , " qualities which make notions and individuals great ; " he has received the commendations of Sir Robert Garden and the Stook Exchange ; he has been talked about in Parliament , patronised by the npbility , the press , and the pulpit , and applauded by tho voice of the nation . Again we must ask , shall Tom Sayers have a statue P There is but one reply , decidedly : that settled ; it only remains to decidein what form he shall bo represented . Stripped in a fighting attitude , or

    arrayed in that elegant surtolit with the velvet collar P The material , granite , of course . Tho site ? On that empty pedestal in Waterlooplace . Or shall he bo one of tho Horns which have been so Ion ? promised for the base of Nelson ' s colunm in Trafalgar-square ? Wo mutter — and without any wish to disparage the courage and prowess of the Bjsnioia Boy—Tom Sayeks must have a statue .

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    IT is a remarkable and melancholy proof of ouy national insensibility to the importance and value of our Indian Empire , that a geological survey of that vast country is only now in its early stages ? , and that wo have only this day tho first volume of its Memoirs in our hands , Still further , the existence and procedure of such a survey are scarcely known , and oven old Indians are , in most instances , unacquainted with them , and in some quite ignorant of them . We are presented with narratives and incidents of the mutiny ttsqite ad nauseam , as well as with pamphlets and projects for restoring and reanimating our sovereignty , foy founding " , bishoprics and building memorial churches , and establishing schools and endowing 1 the clergy , Yot one of tho most obvious scientific operations has long been practically ignored , and wo are only now beginning to ascertain whether

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    the mineral wealth which has made our own country what it is , and elevated it to the very pinnacle of commercial prosperity , has any counterpart in India . The gems of that country glow in song and flash ia fable , the diamonds that return the . burning beams of the sun , the rubies that redden with a deeper hue and a ruddier fire , — all these things seem rather to belong to the regions of fancy than to those of fact * and hence we cherish dreamy notion * of India ' s gems , never conceiving that their localities and geological sites are fit subjects for scientific research . More than all gems to that far country are coal and iron , the useful minerals and metals , and yet of these little or

    nothing has hitherto been learnt except from the contributions of a few superior minds to such publications as the Asiatic Researches and the Greographical Journal , and one or two Indian periodicals . Some excuse for this backwardness may be found , in the peculiar difficulties of the work itself . Geological surveying , in a temperate climate like our own , is by no means an unpleasant occupation . Mountain air , hill-side tents , magnificent scenery , pleasant days , country inns , a reputation among the natives for extraordinary wisdom , an occasional invitation to a squire ' s house , delightful rambles along ridge and valley , and recreative excursions . to hunt for fossils and minerals , are all agreeable enough eyeii at one ' s own

    expense , but doubly agreeable when the nation pays all one s expenses , arid a salary to boot . We ourselves have surveyed geologically for weeks , ; and thought ourselves happy even when emptied of all coin sooner than we had expected ; but upon the Govern men t geological surveyors we have ever looked with humble admiration and pardonable eiivy , as men whom fortune had placed upon , a pinnacle of prosperity , as men who 'were ¦ hi ghly paid for imbibing fresh air , finding fresh fossils , looking daily on fresh faces , and gazing serenely every week on . fresh scenes and pastures hew .

    A very different picture must be painted of Indian geological surveying . . Burning beams are ready to greet the surveyor when he takes the field . Fatigue and extreme lassitude are his constant attendants in the hot season . Deluges of rain may pour down upon him in other seasons , and . floods and inundations ^ such as we never witness iii our quieter lands , may roll over his district and destroy landmarks * and surveyor ' s marks under a . waste of . waters . Mr . Oldham , the superintendent of the . survey , speaks feelingly of the difficulties . and serious losses which he has had to contend with from natural and climatal causes . In his brief Annual Report he

    announces the sad defections made by death in his small staflTdunng the preceding trying season . In twelve months three assistants , one of long-tried experience arid skill , and another of high promise , and partially trained , have been lost . One " attached to the . party working in Madras was struck down by sun-stroke just at the close of last year ; Mr . Child was . carried off by cholera in Calcutta in June ; and Mr . W . Iv . Loftus left for England ; in November , _ as the last chance of recovery from a very serious attack of abscess in the liver , but only survived for little more than a week . " A melancholy report this to render , and equally so is the reporter ' s retrospect and prospect , according to his ownwiew ; " For , " says he , " I need scarcely insist upon ' what must be obvious , that the loss of nearly most

    one-third of the whole staff of geological surveyors must have seriously impeded pur progress . It is seldom possible to meet with persons qualified . - to supply such vacancies immediately . After all the preliminary delay in' selection , &c ., there is still a considerable amount of training before any newly-appoiijted assistant can become really useful . In reality , in every such case , the total loss of the services of an assistant for a wholo'year may be calculated on , besides the delay to others from having to go over the same tedious process of instruction with new hands . The real delay , therefore , during the past year to our progress , caused by . the deeply regretted loss of these my colleagues , has been equivalent to the , loss qf the entire toorh of nearly one-third of the whole survey establishment for a

    year " To such discouragements as these , arising out of a small and suddenly reduced staff , we must add the natural and necessary difficulties met with in the operations of this survey . Few or no mines have been opened from which tho surveyors may judge with safety as respects the prospect Of opening others in the same country . Few or no quarries are worked , when it wpuld b

    rocks ; nor do even rouds exist , by the sides and bunks of which strata might be known . In all such districts , nnd they are tho greater number , all geological reasoning 1 must proceed upon a broad scale , and niceties of , description and distinction , either in position or structure , must not be expected . For a very larlge portion of the country no maps whatever exist , and such maps as , are available for other parts are but rude apprpxinrmtions even in the position of important points , while they are altogether wanting 1 in detail . Only lately , too , have efficient libraries of reference , and collections of specimens for comparison , boon instituted . Surveyors , therefore , ior tiua

    set down in sucn a ecnunry , migJio uimy vq oxcuseu ^ uuMu ^ undor their responsibility , and dmubting 1 whether they were not sent forth into a wilderness to feed on locusts and wild honey , rather than to survey a chief colony of our empire , It is essential to bear all these circumstances in mind when wo oast our eyes upon the Index Map to the Government Atlas , 9 f Jn # ia , wherein are seen five or six email coloured patches , wluon represent the areas already mapped , reported on , and published . A few somewhat larger patches represent iiro « s the maps and reports ox which ore now in tho press ; but , tho entire coloured portiqus seem so comparatively small that tho necessary inforence w- ^ tho geological survey of India has yet to be accomplished j arid it might bo fairly and respectfully proposed to defer all ohimerical schemes for tho ecclosiusUcal improvement of India Until wo have avnvea ft .

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    400 Thei Leader' avid Saturday ' Analyst . [ April 28 , I 860 .

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    * Momoirs of tlio Geological 8 itrvc , y of India . Vol . I , Published H ) y Order of tho Itight Hpnourablo the Governor-QoncnU of Indinin Council . Ooloutta ; Printed for tho Oovcrnmcnt of ludla . London : Williams u » d Norgute . 1800 , Anitital Report qf tho Qujporfntewlmt qf tho Qpolontml Survey qf Xndfo andJ ) iro 0 ( orofth <) Gfoh (/ U < alMi < itetti > h CuloutltU , 1858-09 .

    The Geological Subvey Op India.*

    THE GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY OP INDIA . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2345/page/12/