Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/370

328 few leisure days in examining and noting what they thus illustrate or discover. Each in this way adds his little mite to the store of knowledge already accumulated, and, without the authentic record afforded by the published proceedings of a Society, these contributions might be withheld altogether from the world, or might fall into the hands of those who would misuse them. Henceforward the publications of this useful institution will afford a certain means of tracing discoveries to their source, and of ascertaining upon what authority additions are made in successive Maps and Charts. The compiler and publisher who has set his name ostentatiously in the corner, has too often hitherto got the credit for all the improvements introduced; while the adventurous voyager who has discovered, and the surveyor whose superior skill has delineated and assigned the true position to objects, have been defrauded of the fame which is their just due. The observation holds equally whether the addition to geographical knowledge be the result of measures taken by a Government officer, with the specific object of ascertaining or verifying a point, or of individual enterprise directed by zeal, or by accident, into this line of science. For, with exception to the large general surveys undertaken by Governments for military or for fiscal purposes, the results of which are given to the world, each with the pretension of out-doing all that has gone before, but of which the great expence must make the instances rare, the improvements effected by Government officers, are, like those by individuals, of isolated locality; and when the point has been ascertained, the result is incorporated in some general chart, and the time and manner of the survey is soon forgotten, or known only to those who from curiosity or from official duty may happen to be employed in ransacking the archives of state offices. For these reasons we look upon the establishment of a Society devoted especially to geographical science to be a most useful institution; and we hope that all who are engaged in the same pursuit, and who may become possessed of materials, or be placed in circumstances to be able to contribute any thing towards the advancement of this science, will furnish their results to the new Association, that they may be there digested and compared and verified, and so be turned to account, according to their value, in leading to a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface—every advance made to this object being set down to the credit of the right owner.

The field of geographical inquiry is still a very wide one. The interior of many continents remains blank in our latest maps. The coasts of others are set down as handed from chart-maker to chart-maker without any recent verifications, and upon very doubtful original